Hi
Can anyone point me to a comprehensive list of what one can eat in the reduce and repair cycle. For example sweetcorn isn’t mentioned, so it thought it was ok, then it thought well it’s kind of fibrous and sweet, so is it ok.

To a greater or lesser extent which wholefoods you eat at a given point in the ‘Clever Guts’ process is personal/ unique to you.

The ongoing analysis of your detailed food and symptom diary (p.187), if you are working in the recommended stages (p.190), local food availability, season, household budget, moral/ religious/ cultural restrictions … all may play a role.

Maize products – inc. sweetcorn – are eaten very frequently by some but rarely by others, much as wheat or rice may be (often due to culture/ ethnicity). If you need to cut back on serving size or frequency or take a complete break from all forms of maize do so.

If you simply need to chew regular sweetcorn thoroughly (p.189) so it doesn’t reappear in the toilet semi intact do so. Eating some sweetcorn might be a good monitoring strategy for those who eat too quickly!

Thanks for this but, this kind of translates to experiment with all your whole foods until you find which ones you should and shouldn’t have in the R&R phase. Which would mean it wouldn’t be just a 2 to 4 weeks, but months. And it kind of undermines the idea of going to the experts to find out what to do. I could have gone through the process of selectively leaving out foods from my diet until I some kind of improvement, with some “symptoms”, but I am all interested in the reset idea by itself which is not going to be possible with constant experimentation. In addition to this there is not practical way of knowing how the biome is reacting to each change individual change.

So I need a little more precision, can you /anyone help?

Your country’s official healthy eating/ lifestyle guidelines and any quality diet/ lifestyle ‘self help’ book are written for communities and populations not for individuals. Sounds cheesy but the real expert on your diet and lifestyle is *you*.

Resetting diet and lifestyle begins with analysing where you are now, including a detailed food and symptom diary (p.187) with weighed and measured quantities. Use this to consider the balance and variety of your diet from food group to food group and within groups, as well as identify any problem foods or food types.

If you prefer targeted, personalised professional guidance take your detailed food and symptom diary to a registered dietician or clinical nutritionist.

For many food allergies and food intolerances a full blown elimination and reintroduction diet is the ‘gold standard’. Unfortunately this can be an unpleasant process, and often needs to be medically supervised for safety. The Clever Guts Diet is an easier, safer and more palatable DIY version of this.

It takes years for poor lifestyle and diet choices to accumulate to the point of meeting the diagnostic criteria for one or more lifestyle-related diseases. Long before full symptoms appear there is often a period with minor, seemingly unrelated symptoms and an array of ‘signs’ (only show up with medical tests).

Similarly it takes months and years to prevent or self treat such diseases with appropriate diet and lifestyle modification.

Having studied and worked in lifestyle healthcare (physical activity/ diet modification/ smoking cessation) for many years, the most effective shortcut to success is planning and preparation. With Clever Guts a big part of that is keeping and analysing the detailed diary, not blindly following the example meal planners.