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I Can't Pinpoint What's Triggering My GI Issues


CatMos

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Backstory: I've had issues with food for over 15 years. I would feel a general nausea after I ate, and I would suffer from wild swings of constipation and diarrhea (weeks of constipation followed by days of diarrhea). My doctors did all sorts of tests and -oscopies on me and couldn't figure out what was causing the problem. About 6 years ago one of the doctors finally suggested that I attempt a gluten free diet and many of my symptoms initially got better. I felt better, but the intestinal issues never fully resolved. After a few years, they seemed to be back to what they originally were, and as a result my gluten-free diet wavered.

I was spurred into Whole30 after thinking about it for a while because I found myself sick in the bathroom a few days in a row despite the fact that I was eating foods that supposedly shouldn't have affected me. My goal with the program was to pinpoint what other foods were causing my GI issues so that I could navigate foods more easily in the future.

Whole30: I had a day or two at the beginning of the program that caused some flare-ups of my system, which I was expecting. One trigger I found seemed to be bananas. I also had a problem when I ate the spaghetti sauce from the Whole30 book with spaghetti squash, but not when eating it on a potato. During the middle of the program everything seemed to be back on track and functioning more normally than it ever has. I saw a number of flare-ups in the last week. My system was fine when I went into Reintroduction. Legumes were fine. On gluten-free grains day I had some issues. With breakfast I had some gluten-free oats and felt fine. I had some corn tortilla chips with lunch and my stomach was what I would call "grumbling" about an hour after but no other problems. With dinner I had some gluten free pasta (a blend of corn and rice flour) with the spaghetti sauce that I had made before in the program and had the same experience. I went to bed fine, but spent the entirety of the next day in the bathroom. And the morning after that. Again had left overs on the potatoes and didn't notice any adverse reaction. Dairy day was fine. The day before Gluten day I had severe diarrhea again, but everything seemed fine Gluten day morning, so I went ahead with the reintroduction. About a half an hour after each meal I had the "grumbling" stomach but nothing more than that. The following day (today) I had a stomach cramp off and on, but no other GI issues so far.

Conclusion: I know that I want to do a retest with corn and with rice (on separate days) to see how those affect me. My concern is that the diarrhea that happened after Gluten Free Day is so similar to what happened the day before Wheat Day, and that my stomach regressed so much the last week of the 30. We considered that I was reacting to something in my lunch, but I've been eating the same item for lunch every day for the second half of the program, and my bouts of diarrhea seem to come and go. I'm also shocked that I haven't had a stronger reaction to wheat so far, which I was expecting after my initial results with going Gluten-Free. My husband suggested stress as a trigger citing that I have fewer or easier flare ups on vacation typically than at home. I'd agree that I have less post-meal nausea when traveling, but I believe the sudden onset diarrhea is the same or greater depending on the location of our trip.

Question: I'm really just hoping someone can either provide some clarity in this by seeing something that I'm not seeing, or point me in a new direction to look to solve my GI issues. Thank you for your time!

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I'm sorry you're going through this, it sounds miserable. 

I'm not really sure why you'd be having this experience, but I'm going to link some articles here for you to read, and just see if anything that you read makes you go "yes, that makes sense!" -- it may not, but maybe something will. Or maybe someone else will notice something I'm just not seeing.

https://www.thepaleomom.com/modifying-Paleo-for-fodmap-intolerance/

https://www.thepaleomom.com/what-are-nightshades/

https://www.thepaleomom.com/start-here/the-autoimmune-protocol/

 

 

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I'm sorry that I've taken so long to respond. Thank you so much for the links! I've looked at FODMAP before as a possible trigger. I haven't spent a lot of time, however, on the AIP or nightshades. I suppose I'll spend a few days comparing my food journal notes to those lists and see if I can figure out what path to follow next. I'll keep my fingers crossed!

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