Background
As long as I can remember, I've had issues with digestion. I would bloat easily, I would be constipated for about two weeks, then have diarrhea for a week, all accompanied by painful stomach cramps and occasionally nausea. The thing is, I didn't realise these symptoms weren't normal, because it was all I knew. About 5 years ago, I was talking with a friend and said something about my constant bloating every time I ate and she commented that it wasn't normal to experience that degree of bloating.
So I went off to the doctor, and was told I had IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), which basically isn't a real diagnosis or problem, but a name for the symptoms I was experiencing. I took a blood test, which revealed that I was low in a lot of vitamins (and hence my food was probably not digesting properly), so I was told to take a certain enzyme and that should solve my problems. The doctor told me that IBS is really common, there's no known cure, and I basically had to just deal with it.
I was pretty young at this point, (like 17 or 18 years old) so I didn't think to get a second medical opinion, and just put up with my symptoms that now had a name. There was also a certain element of guilt that surrounded me at the time - I had struggled with an eating disorder throughout my teenage years, which was still sort of hanging around, so I honestly believed I had probably caused these digestive problems, and I believed that I deserved to go through the pain that I was experiencing.
The Elimination Diet
About a year ago, I found a different local doctor, who is honestly, just wonderful. She listens to anything I say, she actually tests for things, and tries to find out what the problem is before just filling out a script and sending me on my way. In one of my appointments, I mentioned to her that I had been diagnosed with IBS. She took a medical history from me, and then started testing me for what could be causing it.
I tried so many different things, and eventually she referred me to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Allergy Unit. Part of the referral was due to my never-ending hayfever/allergy sinus symptoms that have also been giving me hell, my entire life.
At the Allergy Unit, I was paired with a doctor and a dietitian. I was pin-prick tested, and apart from some minor allergies, nothing that would be giving me the symptoms I was having showed up.
So I was put on the RPAH Elimination Diet. Explained briefly, this diet cut out anything that could be giving me problems for 5 weeks (gluten, soy, dairy, artifical colours, flavours, preservatives, and a whole bunch of naturally occurring chemicals). I basically lived on a diet of potatoes and pears for that time. Then, the potential triggers were slowly introduced to see what I reacted to.
I kept a food diary, recording everything I was eating and what reactions (if any) I was experiencing.
I was supposed to test gluten for a week by gradually introducing it into my diet. Days 1-3 would start with a cup of pasta, then I would add extra gluten sources for days 4-7. The thing with the elimination diet is you need to have a lot of the potential trigger, to ensure that any reaction is a result of the introduced food.
By day 2 of the gluten test I was really sick. I had the most painful stabbing pains in my stomach that I had ever experienced - I was actually out at a work event and the pain was taking my breath away it was that bad; very embarrassing. My eczema also flared up after weeks of being absent, my sinuses were completely inflamed and I could hardly breathe. I wasn't digesting any of my food - my symptoms were almost like I had gastro, they were that bad. So I immediately took the gluten back out of my diet, went back on the basic elimination diet until symptoms cleared and then carried on with the testing. Within two days my symptoms had cleared up, and it was pretty damn apparent that I had reacted to the wheat/gluten test.
I did react to some other food additives, but nowhere near as badly as I did with the gluten - for instance, sulphites make me wheezy, and sorbates (a type of preservative) gave me really bad headaches, along with a "foggy" feeling and inability to concentrate.
The Aftermath
Since coming off the elimination diet, I've been strictly gluten free. The few times I've slipped up have been painful enough to convince me to stick with it, regardless of how difficult or how expensive it is.
Here's a list of some things I've learnt in the past few months:
- People are jerks when it comes to your diet. Even if it doesn't affect them in the slightest, they will make snide comments and remarks, and you kind of just have to ignore them and carry on with your business. As much as you try and explain it, these people don't really care, they don't really get it and there's no point wasting your breath with them.
- Gluten free stuff is getting better, as far as taste goes. I always go in expecting it to taste like cardboard, so then I'm pleasantly surprised when it doesn't.
- Gluten free baking is hard, and doesn't give you the same results as glutinous baking. For instance, gluten free self-raising flour doesn't actually self-raise.
- Gluten free options are always more expensive.
- Most restaurants and cafes are wonderfully accommodating when you tell them of your dietary requirement.
- It's easier to tell people you're celiac because generally, people do not believe that gluten intolerance is real, (despite other intolerances, such as lactose intolerance being well-accepted).
- You need to read labels very carefully - gluten is in the strangest items as it's cheap for bulking, or a cheap binding agent. For instance, mayonnaise, soy sauce, most junk food (chips, ice cream, chocolate), almost all sauces.
- The biggest thing I've learned is to make sure I have my own food prepared, and always inquire in advance if I'm going to an event or function. Overall, it's not too bad, and like anything in life, you do learn to just adapt with what you've got.
I feel so much better these days - I honestly can't believe how unwell I felt before, for so many years and just accepted it as "normal". My digestion is totally normal now, I don't get stabbing stomach pains, I can breathe (The sinus thing probably surprised me the most).
Do you have any food allergies or dietary requirements that make life difficult? Share your experiences in the comments below.
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