After a recent round of tests a various visits to specialists, they have determined that my stomach isn’t working probably as a result of the 360deg spinal fusion that I had done in the US (when they removed all of my lower stomach to reach my spine), the 11 steroidal epidural injections, the repeat fusion operation in the UK etc etc etc..
Basically, my stomach stops digesting food for a period of time, and then starts to work again, then stops again etc etc.
This is causing no end of other problems such as fatigue (and I’m not talking combat clothing here), nausea, diarrhoea, reactive arthritis and the list goes on.
For the last 2 years I have been battling against some form of illness and had two cases of food poisoning along the way. Now, it transpires that this was all down to having an unhealthy gut floor.
(See this reference to UFO’s of the Intestine)
So for the next few weeks I am having to pay really close attention to my diet, which to be honest, wasn’t that bad, as I was 90% of the way there to reaching a healthy diet. Sometime ago I switched to a Low G. I. based diet, and all I have to do now is further reduce my sugar and yeast intake (like to zero, or as close as possible to zero).
Apart from the lack of bread and sugar, it shouldn’t be too hard. (Although I am going to miss my Bovril drinks and Marmite on toast, since there is an awful lot of yeast in both).
Since I also react badly to artificial sweeteners of all types, trying to find a way to sweeten my food/drinks should be fun, since I can’t use any thing containing sugar, glucose, honey etc.
I have been drinking Green Tea of late, which I don’t take sugar with anyway, and I started drinking my coffee with no sugar whilst in the US. (Which is ok if you can find a decent coffee. Only bad coffee needs sugar in it to hide the bitterness IMHO).
I had basically stopped drinking whilst in the US for one reason or another. When I say I’ve stopped drinking, I still had the odd pint, glass of wine and an occasional whiskey, but compared to what I drank when I was in the Navy and what I drank when I was in the US initially, I don’t really drink now. (Sitting in one’s swimming pool at 3am in the morning when its still over 80-90deg air temperature with a large glass of Jack Daniels and Ice was pretty good. But the weight I was putting on due to the Beer and JD was not so good). Part of cutting out sugar and yeast severely restricts Alcohol use and now I am really only allowed Gin or Vodka… Bummer eh? Two of my old favourite tipples and I have to have them neat. (Vodka neat used to be my drink when I was in my ‘yoof’ and in the Navy. In Gibraltar, Vodka in the social club was 15p each for a double and coke. I used to decline the coke and not worry about the 5p. No wonder I have gut problems now, I probably pickled any healthy bacteria long ago).
I am afraid this blog is going to turn into a medical journal about the recovery of my gut. I have avoided posting too much in the past about my medical problems, because its something I didn’t feel comfortable with all the time they didn’t know what was wrong. But, it is surprising how many people out there suffer from the same or very similar conditions that I have been diagnosed with and yet know nothing about it. I intend to post information here, to its own category and if someone else finds it useful so be it.\
Welcome to the Beginner Nutrition Plan
Limiting sugar is critical.
Eating refined sugar weakens your immune system and promotes yeast overgrowth. All non-diet pops have 8 teaspoons in each can. Most packaged cereals have sugar as their major ingredient. Avoid most natural sweeteners (including corn syrup, fructose, honey, sucrose, maltodextrin, dextrose, molasses, rice milk, almond milk, white grape juice, fruit juice sweetened, brown rice syrup, maple syrup, date sugar, cane sugar, corn sugar, beet sugar, succanat and lactose).
When in doubt about the sugar content of a food you can always look at the list of ingredients and see how many grams of carbohydrates are listed. Unless the carbohydrates are from aboveground vegetables you should be concerned that they represent sugars that could alter your insulin levels.
