Digestive Relief. Fasting, Extra Chewing or Small Portion Eating?

[MontgomeryJ]

Hello there,

It has come to my attention that either opting to 'fast' for periods of the day, or perhaps eating 5 'small' meals across a day, can be quite useful at minimising GI implications of having EDS/HSD. Has anyone tried this to help their own symptoms or anything similar. I would love to hear your thoughts. I realise it is a delicate topic and I wouldn't wish anyone to immediately try a fasting/small portion meal plan without consultant a doctor/dietitian first!

I personally often find that when I am fasting for longer periods between meals, my GI symptoms are lessened, as well as other shooting pains across my body and my brain feels much clearer. Eating more than a snack really does consume my entire body, not just my appetite, but physically and mentally taxing.

Perhaps this also has something to do with the fact that EDS/HSD sufferers never truly know when they have eaten 'enough' (due to extendibility of the gut) and therefore regularly overfill their gut in order to feel 'full' - I am definitely a victim of doing this on a regular basis! I also am trying to chew my food a lot more than I used to, which is great for my gut, but very fatiguing for my jaw, as is the case with these conditions!

So I am asking two questions really. Has any one tried a fasting/interval/small portions diet? And also, how do you know when you are full without 'overdoing' it?

Stay strong as always, my fellow HSD/EDSers!

xx

[Saassii]

Wow that's incredibly inciteful. I didn't associate that as a possible reason that I can eat extreme portions at times. Thank you.

Incidentally yes I do better not eating all the time. I find little regular is good. I find maximum vegetables is how I'm most successful at staying in a perfect weight range. No grain at all or tummy upset. No nuts, seeds. Selective fruits, low histamine is essential for me currently in both vegetables and fruits. Meats are to appetite but I'm careful not to eat too much now as I did find if I ate too fast and too much I puked lol.

So order of portion with best success:

Vegetables

Fruits

Meats to complete appetite

Result superb. All weight goals on target and clearly nutrition met.

Grains contain nothing essential, yet plenty of molds, and chemicals from processing.

I like your thinking! Thanks for improving mine.

[aliD47]

Interesting, explains A lot about my stomach issues. I'm currently healthy eating as I'm doing slimming world to shift some weight. I have also chosen to recently do like a 5 to 2 diet where I do eat less for 2 days and I have noticed by doing that it really helps my digestive system. I don't fast I just have 800 calories as opposed to 1500 recommended. Eating fruit to aid my digestive system to flush out.

It has made a difference. So yes, I can see what you are saying. I find after 2 days I feel so much better. Thanks for that interesting stuff

[gillianTS]

For me what helped was cutting out refined carbohydrates, potatoes, pasta, rice, anything made with flour, sweets cakes, all those nice things that used to fill me up, I changed to a more plant based diet eating lots of fruit and vegetables.

This has made a significant difference to my body and the way it feels and now when I do eat these kind of foods I definitely suffer the consequences.

At first I found it challenging filling up a plate but I soon learnt to do things that made my plate of food look not only great but appetizing too. Spiralizing foods, bulking out by chopping food up more rather than having a piece of chicken breast or fish on my plate along side the obligatory vegetables. Chopping up food makes a huge difference too it gives the appearance of more food.

I use quinoa on the occasions I would normally use rice, introduced more seeds and nuts and eat porridge and fruit most days for breakfast. I don't eat sugar so that was never an issue so if I need sweets then I eat fruit.

[Steenygirl1]

Hi, eating little and often is how I have to live. I cannot do heavy foods like grains or too many starches or a lot of fats, even good fats, it just sits in my stomach and makes it bloat which is why I developed the sliding hiatus hernia I suppose. I have used digestive enzymes in the past but don't need them now that I have worked out what agrees and what doesn't, dairy is a no go for me too. I can't do fasting, my blood sugar and blood pressure drops and I start to sweat - autonomic nervous system involvement, the sympathetic nervous system is in overdrive. I can't really do much in the way of starchy carbs but keep more for late evening otherwise I wake hungry in the night. I manage better with carrots, parsnips, sweet potatoes and celeriac. I realise I may get scoffed at but I use homeopathic remedies, especially ones related to liver symptoms and Chinese liver remedies too, it's what I did over the last 20 years to help with my symptoms before I got diagnosed at 54. Oh and magnesium to help with cramps also keeps my bowels going. The GI specialist thought the digestive Enzymes, small frequent meals and magnesium were a good idea. She didn't know about the other remedies but they help with my liver and gall bladder pain. I trained and worked as both a registered nurse and a homeopath so I don't go into blindly.