Will Whole30 help my digestive issues in the long-run? (even through all the sugar withdrawal?)

[Abby Powell]

I am a teenager who is starting her first Whole30 alongside her mom in 2 days. I have struggled with digestive problems my whole life, but they were getting way worse about a year ago. I got an upper/lower endoscopy, I was negative for a celiac panel, negative for any bacterial infections or anything, my GI doctor didn't diagnose me with IBS and my food allergy test came back with all negatives. The only thing I got out was that I am Vitamin D and Iron defecient, and I started some appointments with a nutritionist (which I've had to stop doing due to bad insurance). I cut gluten out of my diet 5 months ago and that greatly impacted me, but my anxiety and depression has been getting worse. I started medication and that hasn't seemed to help, but I'm reluctant to up my dose because I don't want to become dependent on meds. I am on several new medicines and thought it might be affecting my health (especially the iron supplements since those can irritate stomachs, even though I take mine with meals and only once a day). My diarrhea was improving through cutting gluten out and I was in a really good place, but recently with the COVID-19 crisis and being away from my friends, my anxiety has increased even more and I can't handle it anymore. I've been staying up trying to research the benefits to try to convince myself that this will 100% be worth it, but I honestly want to know the side effects of the first couple of days. I'm probably going to have diarrhea due to me eating like crap all the time. But in the end, will the diarrhea ever stop?

Does anyone have any related experiences or advice? Sorry that I word vomited, my mom doesn't like talking to me about this stuff all the time since I never know when to stop talking and my anxiety affects her as well too. I guess I'm just looking for people with similar struggles or people that experienced the withdrawal symptoms but got through it. It seems that even when I try to make healthier choices, nothing seems to work. I just want to do this Whole30 to hopefully help me come to a realization that I should be eating to live, not living to eat. And hopefully once I physically feel better, I'll mentally learn how to love myself and my body that has been through so much crap all these years.

 

Thanks for coming to my hormonal teenage Ted talk,

 

Abby  

[cnfaworker]

Hello Abby,  

 

I don't know whether you tried to do a Whole 30 or not.  I have digestive issues.  At one time the doctor thought I had Crohns Disease .  I was treated with medication for years.  My doctor told me I would never come off these toxic medications.  I decided that I was going to try everything I could to get healthy so I visited a doctor who actually believes that food affects our health.  This doctor agreed to monitor me while I tapered off the meds and also reccommended that I give the Whole 30 a try.  I did Whole 30 for a year and was able to come off all medications.  I still suffer with IBS occasionally but no longer have the horrible symptoms of IBD.  It has been 8 years and I am still medication free.  I hope you will give this a try for your health.  I wish I had done it sooner.  I wasted lots of money on medications I didn't need, not to mentions the damage these toxic drugs were doing to my body.  Good Luck!