Hey there bumblebees,
if you follow my social media, you probably have seeen, that I suffer from fructose malabsorbtion and sometimes I cut it out, sometimes I don´t. After suffering from depression and constant tiredness I started to collect reasonst for this. Hashimoto? Leaky gut? Iron? Vitamin D? I couldn´t find it all out by now, but I found a medical article about fructose intolerance and what happens , if you ignore it and don´t go on a diet. Well and there it was:
- Depression
- Constant tredness
- Vitamin D deficiency
My face must have been really funny at that moment, but I was shocked! I never thought of this! I got the dagnose of fructose intlerance in 2009. This is more than 5 years ago. And during those 5 years I constantly ate fruit and sugar and everything that makes me feel bad, but I could not stop. Yu must know, I grew up with fruit instead of sweets, with honey instead of sugars. My mother was always concerned, that we had to much sugar and so she raised me very healthy. This is awesome of course, but now I eat as my mum told my and I always was fine with it. I barely had sweets in my home, needed 1 month for a package of chocolate. I eat a lot of healthy stuff cause I like it, it´s a habit.
So now, as I read, hwta the constant eating of something, that you can´t digest can cause you and decided in a second, that I had to avoid it from now on. This was last sunday. So I started monday.
Day 1 – No sugar, no food!
Was haaaaard. I barely had anything at home I could eat, so I had oatmeal with maple syrup (which is ooookay, but not good). I was okay with it, I had no symptoms (bloating and other disgusting stuff). The I had a lunch date and this is where my monday drama started. We met at a coffee place. Okay a latte was fine, I bought stevia before. But I could not eat anything they had. So at 4p.m. I came home starving and hangry like hell. I read through the list of food, I could eat (really short list) and decided on eggs with potatos and paresam. I even had some broccoli. I was fine, but I thought: “Okay, if this is how it is, I will go crazy and will be an icon of #thinspiration soon, which is not my goal at all!” So I researched some more and made a list, what I need to buy next day.
Day 2 – Are carrots fine?
So I started day 2 easly and had some oatmeal with maplesyrup and almonds, was fine. And again I had a lunch date. The weather was so nice, that we decided to get something on the go and sit in the sunshine – fill up the vitamin D tank! But f*** industry! It took my 30 minutes and three shops to get something kinda okay. I had some baby carrots. Since then I realized: Carrotts are not so good, my body wasn´t happy, neither was I. I went shopping that day, bought muesli without honey or sugar, bread without wheat or rye or syrup (f**** yu indusry putting syrup into everything). Also I bought Rice syrup and rice sugar. At home I had the other half of my omelett and I was alright.
Day 3 – Wow, this was fast
Next morning I thought, I´ll check my weight and was surprised! I lost 2 kilogramms in two days. Fair enought, I did not eat anything really, but my belly started to relax more and got flat completely. To be hones, my belly was never reeeeally chubby or something, but it completely deflated, as if someone poked it like a baloon. Funny – but I have o be careful to eat enought! I started my day with spelt puffs with some rce syrup and lactosefree milk (we have only this at home, cause my man does not digest lactose to good). I was fine! Had rice crackers and brie and a few slices cucumber for lunch, was fine. Then I had to take a really hard test. My colleagues birthday was celebrated with cake. I loooove cake! 🙁 But I resited and I felt good with it! At home we had steak, potatoes and some salad. I realized I really can eat nice stuff, I just have to find it out slowly. Nice evening, nice meat, I was fine, tough my body was a bit bloated, can´t find out why.
Day 4 – We are getting there
Still losing weight, I started to eat more of what I am able t eat, had the same breakfast as on day 3. For lunch I had spelt bread (organic, without syrup or anything) with brie and a coffee with lactosefree milk. And I feel good. I do start to feel the difference in energy, mood and just feel fitter. Crazy, I can´t believe it! But I start to miss chocolate right now I like a little piece once in a while…well sometimes even more! 😀 This evening I have a meeting, and I will make me a sandwitch on the go and will stick to water. I start to like this, food is more expensive, BUT as I can´t eat out so easily, I don´t spend money in cafés and restaurants anymore – nice side effect! 🙂
Update after 4 weeks:
sorry I havent written down my experiences every day, but there were no extreme changes anymore after that week. But after 4 weeks of sticking to my diet I can say: It is worth every effort you take!
- My stomache ache just disappeared
- My tummy got as flat as it never was (Not my intention, but nice side effect huh?)
- I lost every pound I gained through x-mas-time (Another nice side-effect)
- I am happier, than I was in the last 2 years
- I am fit and have no ploblems getting out of bed anymore in the morningtime
- I am very concentrated
Just to name some benfits I experienced in those 4 weeks. If you are not sure, whether you suffer from Fructose malabsorbtion, ask your doctor! They can test you!
One Weekend – and it is back:
This weekend I hosted my birthday party and of course had a bunch of food for all of my guests. I made hummus, baba ganouche, bought bread and rosted mushrooms and fennel. I needed to try it all. The mean thing was, that baba ganouche and hummus both contain loads of garlic, which is so mean. I can´t eat it! At least I made my birthday cake Fructose free. After this Weekend full of wheat, garlic, tomatosauce and strawberries my stomach felt as bad as it never did before. I suppose not consuming any Fructose anymore finally gave me such a great feeling, that the moment I did not feel fine anymore felt even worst!
What I ate
What I still feel, is eating rice crackers with cheese won´t really fill me up, but at least I have some “safe food” I can eat anytime! So I started to have rice crackers everywhere (Office, home, bag). For lunch I normally eat salad with cucumber and some mozzarella. For dinner I had a lot of potatoes and meat with some salad. Also I found some spelt crisp bread at the super market that contains no syrup. I love that one as a snack. I had avocados, avocados and more avocados throughout this month. I ate about 3 or four of them each week. And for breakfast oatmeal with lactosefree milk, berries (raspberries), cinnamon, maple syrup (yes 100% maple syrup is okay in a certain amount) is fine too. Otherwise I bought puffed spelt, puffed rice, buckwheat flakes, puffed quinoa and some “Krunchy” cereal sweetened with rice syrup. And I mixed my own muesli. Also I found an online shop for Germany delivering Fructose free Food, called frusano. It is more expensive, but I could eat chocolate! Should I post some Fructose free recipes on my blog? Maybe I´ll do that!
To sum it up: I can really recommend averybody to cut down on sugar and normal wheat. This is not only for FM-patients but for everyone. For those of you suffering from FM, I recommend to get as informed as possible! I helped myself with communities and apps. All the effort is so much worth it! I now can eat so much more, without gaining any weight, because my Digestion calmed down. I started taking some extra vitamins and minerals to compensate on missing out on veggies and fruit. also I started taking bantonite capsules and certain bacteria to nourish my intestine. I do not feel the big difference, but I think it is somewhere in the package!
Stay tuned bumblebees and have a great day, Anna Valeria