Hello,

I suffer from extreme bloating and flatulence, as well as stomach cramps. In June 2017 I had an intolerance test done by York Test and it showed am intolerant to wheat, gluten, eggs, dairy, almonds and cranberries. They suggested I cut these foods out of my diet for 12 weeks and follow FODMAP too, but I have found this incredibly difficult as it’s left me wondering what I can eat! Over the course of the past 6 months since my results I’ve buried my head in the sand, gained over a stone in weight and suffered daily from my IBS. It’s making me incredibly miserable.

I’ve been down the NHS route too; I’ve tried taking Amitriptyline to reduce symptoms and this did work, but I stopped it as I didn’t want to me on medication. In the past two months I’ve had stool samples for Coeliac and underlying digestive issues which can be picked up through traveling in South & Central America and Asia, as I spent over a year in those countries back in 2013. I’ve had hydrogen glucose and lactose breath tests too, both have come back negative. Along with this I’ve had a CAT scan and nothing was untoward in my gut. I feel like any serious allergy or illness has been ruled out, which leaves me with diet.

I started the Clever Guts Diet 7 days ago in the hope it will help with my IBS. I have followed the Remove and Repair phase rigorously for 7 days and not eaten any dairy, gluten or wheat. I’ve always had a good diet but have increased the range of vegetables I am eating. I’ve also started taking 2 x tsp of Organic Apple Cider Vinegar with the mother before each meal and have increased the amount of exercise I am doing. Despite this, I have still suffered from bloating three of the four days.

Looking at the days this has occurred it’s when I have eaten eggs and / or the Breakfast Bread which contains almonds. Both are foods I was told I am intolerant too in the York Test. I am wondering if I should also be avoiding the foods I was told I am intolerant to in the York Test – or if I should be ‘starting a fresh’ with the Clever Guts Diet and leaving old information behind me? I am also confused as to which foods I should be ruling out, other than those the diet makes clear.

I am also wondering whether the Apple Cider Vinegar will be helping my IBS, or if the acidity of it may make symptoms worse?

I got weighed this morning after the first week and have not lost any weight. This is not the focus of my reason for doing the diet, but it is something I would welcome! I feel overweight and bloated how I am now. I wonder if anyone had a time frame for weight loss, if it is slow to begin with as your body adjusts?

Sorry for such a long message. I appreciate any advice which can be given! Thank you in advance,

Katie_KLT

What have you been diagnosed with after the NHS tests? Have you been referred to the registered dieticians at your local hospital?

Have you completed the detailed food and symptom diary – p.187 – during a ‘normal’ week or fortnight (not Xmas or New Year for most of us)? Are you still recording and analysing everything?

To me the weekly meal planners are examples, not to be followed religiously. Much more important are the guidelines on pages 189 to 196. Particularly note the comments of removing and reintroducing foods in stages or individually.

If you have been on a restrictive or poorly balanced or othwrwise unhealthy diet for some time it may well take weeks to months for any micronutrient (vitamin, mineral, essential fat) deficiencies to be restored, chronic inflammation to calm, gut flora to rebalance, excess fat to be shed.

Formal exercise puts the body into a state of stress, as do restrictive or weight loss diets. It would be better to focus on increasing physical activity (10,000 steps a day or equivalent).

Thanks for your reply, Firefox7275.

I did complete the food symptoms diary; I’ve followed the book rigorously since I got it.

I haven’t ever had a poor diet. We make all food from scratch and eat a lot of fruit, veg and pulses. All that’s changed for me with the Clever Guts Diet is removing wheat and gluten, and cutting down on dairy. Hence I expected to feel better, as I knew gluten bothered me. Today is day 8 for me and I’ve had the worst bloating and stomach cramps all day, despite not having any food which I know my body reacts badly to.

I also already do 10,000 steps or more a day due to an exercise demanding Labrador :–) I’ve just added going to the gym to try and aid my weight loss.

Hopefully this will help explain why I am struggling to understand why I am reacting so badly to the diet? My wind and bloating are no different eating this combination of foods to how they were before I began… I’m not sure what to do?

Sorry, realised I didn’t answer your question re. NHS. I’ve been referred to a dietitian but to be honest he’s not been much help. He recommended a low fibre diet which I tried for two weeks but it made no difference, if anything the bloating was worse as it pushed me to eat more starch carbs.

Your detailed food and symptom diary is one of the best tools you could have, so it’s great you have been completing it.

Consider the balance and variety in your ‘before’ diet. Fruit, vegetables and pulses are nutrient dense and healthy, BUT you may have been having too much (wind-producing) soluble fibre/ fructose/ polyols *for you*.

Were you eating a really wide variety of wholegrains, seeds and nuts before? Which type of fruits (eg. berries, tropical, tree, stone)?

Were you eating mostly cows dairy or mostly sheep and goats, milk (lactose) and flavoured yoghurt or only traditional cheeses and live yoghurt/ kefir?

Were your complete proteins more land animal muscle meat/ dairy, or mainly oily fish/ other seafood/ organic or free range eggs? Were the servings as per official guidelines?

Once you have analysed your food and symptom diary in this way, you should be better able to identify food types or groups you may be intolerant to, food types or groups you need to eat much more or much less of.

Ideally make changes one at a time: Dropping all gluten grains and all dairy products at the same time can massively alter the balance of the diet. This is because we tend to eat these foods in specific combinations/ recipes (eg. wheat as bread, milk in hot drinks) and obviously need to replace them with other foods.

HTH!.

Hi there
I hope that your symptoms are getting better I am sure that it can take a while to re-start our guts. I did wonder if you are still eating legumes? I didn’t really know what they were so I looked it up. On another site (Paleo diet) there was a very long article about the danger of legumes to our gut health. I was surprised to find it was lentils, chickpeas, etc. and now I look back I do think that my gut reacts to legumes.
Hang on in there as another has said it may take months to repair.
good luck

Hi Firefox7275,

I think I am getting more and more confused with this! I’ve looked at my ‘before’ diet and my reactions were mainly when I had gluten, wheat or dairy. I wasn’t eating much of this anyway as I knew it upset my gut and had already placed cow’s milk with soya milk and a lot of bread & pasta with GF alternatives. I ate a lot of fruit; 1 x kiwi, 2 x tangerines, 1 x apple and 1 x banana a day and had quite a lot of beans and pulses and I often suffered bad wind after these.

I’m confused by how the ‘before’ diet works with the Remove & Repair phase? I am following the advised one week food plan on pages 262 – 263 in the book. It specifically says that the plan is low in dairy, gluten, wheat, pulses & grains (except hummus), so this is ideal for me as it cuts out things I know bother me. So I’m unsure why you say not to remove all of these things at once? I thought the meal plan was to be followed exactly?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Hi J-J,

I’ve cut out legumes as per the Phase One diet plan in the book, all apart from the chickpeas used in the Rainbow Humus. Did you not have the humus at all?

Thanks!

Katie_KLT: Buried in one of my earlier posts “Much more important are the guidelines on pages 189 to 196. Particularly note the comments of removing and reintroducing foods in stages or individually.” These comments are on pages 190 and 192 of the CG Diet book.

To me the meal planners are examples only, since readers will have very different starting diets, possible allergies/ intolerances, health problems and goals and so on. Unfortunately the book is far from clear about not slavishly following the planners, and how best to use your food diary.

Working slowly in stages is the only scientific/ logical way to use an elimination diet to identify food allergies or food intolerances. If you were following a very strict version *supervised by a dietician or allergist or other medical professional* foods would be removed or reintroduced one a time.

Katie_KLT: the best news is that you are very much on the right track with analysing your food diary!

From your last post I noted that you were eating mainly higher sugar tropical fruits, but don’t mention low sugar ones (eg. red + blackcurrants, various berries, rhubarb). Also serving sizes may be off: a regular banana or apple is often two (UK serving 80g).

You may have been replacing dairy and grains with processed/ lower nutrient/ microbiome unfriendly alternatives. Over the long term aim to use a really wide variety of nutrient dense wholefoods where possible (seeds, nuts, gluten free grains, sheep and goat dairy products, minimally processed coconut).

This should mean you are not eating too many pulses for your gut to handle. You may find that, as the months progress, you can handle more and more pulses.

From your food diary do also consider your past intake of foods rich in vitamin D, long chain omega-3s and magnesium (oily fish, more oily fish, organic eggs, certain seeds, cocoa).

I mention this because vitamin D and magnesium balance and aid absorption of calcium (less well utilised if not from dairy), omega-3s are anti inflammatory and magnesium is key in muscle relaxation (inc.gut). So potentially important in successfully self treating IBS etc.

HTH!

Hi Katie

1) Have you had your microbiome analysed? If not we are all steering blind to an extent, trying different and maybe conflicting things and second guessing
2) Take a look at the 5:2 diet. It is profoundly anti-inflammatory, will help you lose weight and its entirely compatible with Clever Guts
3) Post you food diary here. We might have some suggestions

Good luck !

Graham