Intolerances

I get severe pain, my skin feels itchy and I have a rash, mainly on my thighs, and trunk of body. My legs and arms throb. Pain on the isn't side which goes eventually to lower part of abdomen. I feel fatiq

gue, clumsy and have a lot of headaches and sinus problems. I had a really bad attack a month ago which lasted over 2 weeks. This reaction happened after eating dairy free ice cream wg

hich contained 16g sugar. I have eat this in the past without any reaction.

my gastroenterologist suggested I try the Fodmap diet and I have an appointment this week with a dietitian.  I am really fed up now and my quality of life is non existent.

It is thought that food intolerences can be related to the gut flora being out of balance with yeast or some less desirable bacteria being overgrown and causing the bowel to be permeable. There are a lot of diets out there for restoring the gut and health and reducing food sensitivities, such as the autoimmune diet. Most of the healing diets have in common reducing sugar, processed foods, and grains, and eating whole veggies, some fruit, and some healthy meat/fish and good fats like coconut oil, olive oil, and avocado. It can feel daunting at first, but a lot of my food reactions that were like yours have now subsided. I've been eating this way for almost four years, and have been able to add back a few things, but mostly still eat healthy because I don't feel quite as awful. 

Thank you for your advice. What diet do you follow. I already follow a gluten wheat and dairy free diet, and have now cut out sugar. Have you tried the Fodmap diet. Have you heard of Ella Woodward and her book 'deliciously emma'. She follows a vegan diet. What foods do you eat?

I just read an autoimmune blog post yesterday comparing all of the diets and the various issues they may address and what each may leave out. I think that the post concluded that the autoimmune paleo diet (which is the one that I have stuck with, after trying a number of them, may address the most issues. I have concerns about the long-term use of a vegan diet which may help in the short-term, but may not be heathly after 5-10 years and the depleting of various needed nutrients available in animal sources (or so say a number of authors who have recounted their journey out of ill health after initially thriving on it). I think that a vegetarian diet can be sustained long-term though with careful attention to nutrients. I try to eat small amounts of animal protein from animals raised in healthy and humane ways, as well as some organ meats now (ugh! for health reasons only). I know that the issue of diets and the best ones is controversial and emotional one, but this is what I have thought through after almost obsessive search around the issue of diet and health.