Food and M.E.

When I started this M.E.. relapse in February 2013 I was getting all sorts of symptoms I had never had before. Chronic heartburn, indigestion, and dizziness to name a few.

In June one of my friends suggested I try cutting out gluten. This was a challenge as bread and pasta have always been some of my favourite foods! But within a couple of weeks I was noticing some major changes. The chronic heartburn and indigestion had mostly gone, and after a couple of months the dizziness went away as well!

I was however still getting some stomach cramps and occasional heartburn. I went to the Drs and it was suggested I try going on the fodmap diet. This has hugely helped, but is very restrictive.

The more I have paid attention to how I feel verses what I eat the more I have had to cut out. Once a food has been removed from my diet it is very hard to reintroduce it. I think this is because I then expect to react to having eaten therefore I do react - I guess this is a negative placebo effect.

I saw a nutritionist a few months ago and underwent Vega testing - which I read up on after the testing and can see why medically it is seen as a joke. Even the lady testing me couldn't tell me how it worked. However there seems to have been a lot of truth in what this machine told me I should be avoiding. In fact I think there is only 1 food on the list which I have reintroduced with no ill effects. Though there are plenty I have problems with that weren't on the list!

Generally it seems with M.E. it is helpful to cut out caffeine, alcohol and sugar. Caffeine was easy to let go of (though I still have 1 real tea in the morning). 

Alcohol I still miss, but even half a glass of wine gives me a 2 day headache, so it's just not worth it.

Sugar on the other hand has been hard. I've tried baking with reduced amounts of sugar, different types of sugars and syrups, but the only thing which doesn't send me into a crash now is molasses syrup, specifically in flapjacks (which I now live on). Also fruit seems to be ok - of course excluding the high fodmap ones.

I do feel sad sometimes that I cannot eat the things I want to eat. Today I have a nasty cold and I would like nothing more than to have a nice bowl of soup out of a can with a stick of garlic bread, but there are so many things in that combination that I cannot have it is totally out of the question, the result would inevitably make me feel worse than I do already!

I hope one day that I will be able to eat at least some of these things again, but for now I am stuck in a land of plain meat, rice, and fruit and veg! 

So I can no longer have gluten, dairy, alcohol, caffeine, sugar or nuts - basically I'm no fun at a party, or I'm a very cheap date!