Diets to Consider With Digestive Issues

There are a number of diets out there that could partially alleviate your symptoms. Who knows, you may even be lucky enough to find a diet that will alleviate all of your symptoms!

When one specific diet does not work though, you just may need to tweak one of these diets:

1. The Low-FODMAP Diet
– FODMAP stands for Fermentable Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, Monosaccharides, and Polyols, which are short chain carbohydrates and sugar alcohols that are poorly absorbed by the body, resulting in abdominal pain and bloating.
– FODMAP’S occur in some foods naturally or as additives
– More info here: https://www.dietvsdisease.org/low-fodmaps-food-list/

You can also check out this book: The Complete Low-FODMAP Diet: A Revolutionary Plan for Managing IBS and Other Digestive Disorders   (not an affiliate link)

2. The Specific Carbohydrate Diet
– The Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) is a restrictive diet made for individuals with Crohn’s Disease, Celiac Disease, Ulcerative Colitis, Cystic Fibrosis, Chronic Diarrhea, or Diverticulitis.
– To find out more information about SCD, check out the web site ‘Breaking The Vicious Cycle’ at: http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/home/

3. The GAPS Protocol
– The gut and psychology syndrome protocol comes from the idea that an unhealthy gut may lead to mental health issues.
– The GAPS Diet removes foods that can be difficult to digest and damaging to gut flora by replacing them with nutrient-dense foods to give the intestinal lining a chance to heal.
– To find out more information about the Gaps Diet, check out this web site. http://www.gapsdiet.com/

4. The Gluten-free Diet
– If you have celiac disease or gluten intolerance, this diet is the best place to start.
– To find out more information, check out The Celiac Disease Foundation. https://celiac.org/

5. The Grain-free Diet
– When the gluten-free diet isn’t enough the next step may just be grain-free.
– For more information see this article: https://draxe.com/grain-free-diet/

6. The Paleo Diet
– The Paleo diet includes foods a cavemen would of ate, such as grass-fed meat, seafood, fruits, and vegetables.
– For more information see this article: https://draxe.com/paleo-diet-plan/

7. The Autoimmune Paleo Protocol
– The autoimmune paleo diet is similar to the paleo diet but more restrictive by removing eggs, nuts, seeds, nightshades, alcohol, and artificial sweeteners.
– This diet may be for you if your gut symptoms come from an autoimmune disease like Crohn’s, Celiac’s, or Ulcerative Colitis.
– To find out more information about the autoimmune protocol and diet check out Autoimmune Wellness at: https://autoimmunewellness.com/

Everyone’s journey to better health needs to start somewhere, and any of the above philosophies are a good starting point and will open a wealth of information to you. Try not to get overwhelmed and take one day at a time. Put your ideas to pen and paper so you can keep track of your progress. If you slip up and eat something that you shouldn’t have, whether it be accidentally or intentionally, do not beat yourself up or dwell on it. Just commit to doing your best each day. Make sure you are patient with your body and the process, and understand that this process can take some time. Keep a detailed food diary of what you eat and how it makes you feel (physically and emotionally as well) Once you have identified foods/additives that affect you negatively, do your very best to avoid them, at least in the short term.

Good luck!

Advertisement

Foods That May Cause Problems With Digestion

If you have digestive issues when you eat certain foods, what should you do? Should you cut them out of your diet completely?

Perhaps it may serve you better to embark on an elimination diet. This is done by removing all of the foods that you believe are the cause of your problems, then adding them back in a few weeks later, slowly and one at a time, to monitor your reaction to them.

The foods that I eliminated were nuts, seeds, corn, green peas, coconut, legumes, grains, and diary.

I found that I could tolerate some forms of these foods. Instead of eating the food unprocessed or whole, which can cause digestive issues in some people, I found that I could tolerate nut butter, seed butter, coconut milk, lactose free milk, tofu, and hummus. I also seemed able to tolerate a small amounts of gluten-free oats and white rice. However, I could not tolerate whole nuts, whole seeds, corn, green peas, shredded coconut, coconut flour, whole beans, whole lentils, whole grains, and regular milk.

Someone else may have some of the same issues as I do, but they may find that they are not able to tolerate one or more of these following foods as well: Soy, nightshades (a type of vegetable group including tomatoes and potatoes among others), eggs, beef, pork, lamb, fish, and shellfish.

No two people are alike in their ability to tolerate different kinds of foods, so talk to your health care provider to find out how best to proceed in your case. They may recommend certain medications to help with your symptoms, may want to perform diagnostic tests, etc. They may suggest keeping a food diary (what you eat and how you react to it) and may even suggest looking into elimination diets such as low FODMAP diet.