In my previous update at the end of June, I told you that I have switched dieticians and now follow a different diet to reduce my SIBO complaints.

My complaints were not going so well and I hoped that this approach would make a difference.

Today I can give you a positive update because I really notice improvement already!

I am very happy with the approach of my dietitian Jacqueline Gerrits and in this update, I will tell you more about how things have gone over the past 1.5 months.

A different approach

Jacqueline’s approach is very positive. My body has become deficient in different nutrients due to the many years of eating restrictively and being “stuck” in the elimination phase of the low FODMAP diet.

Because of this my intestines can’t handle as much and my complaints have gotten worse in the past 2 years. In the treatment I’m following now, we focus on strengthening my body by providing it with the right “building materials”.

The building materials help to repair my intestines so that my body will soon be able to handle more different types of food without complaints.

Jacqueline has prepared a personal food list for me and from this I choose the things I eat. She categorized the foods in this list.

Some products contain many good building materials for my body. So it’s extra good when I eat them. Other products contain a normal amount of building materials, it is also good that I eat them regularly.

In addition, there are products that contain fewer building materials, but that are just delicious to add to my meals. I can take those too, but rather less often.

Finally, there are products on the list that I should avoid for now. They put me a step back in my recovery process.

Again, I think this is a positive approach. In principle, nothing is forbidden, but I do get a very good idea of which products are extra good for my body and which add less to my healing process.

The advice is also to alternate between foods so that my body gets nutrients from as many different foods as possible.

In addition, we help my body in this process with a number of supplements, including vitamins and minerals. To supplement the deficiencies my body currently has.

Testing new foods

My dietician also challenges me to test products that are not low FODMAP. I still find this a little scary, because after so many years of strict low FODMAP eating I am not used to that.

But what’s the worst that could happen? That I get some more complaints for a while. My body needs time to get used to those foods again.

I still often take a supplement that helps my body to break down the FODMAPs, when I test these types of products. For example, quatrase forte from Intoleran.

Recently I have eaten plums, blackberries, hummus, wheat bread, wheat pasta, and some onion in small quantities.

In small amounts and in combination with supplements that went very well. An improvement for me, because when I used to try these foods before they always gave me complaints. Even when I used supplements.

It makes me super excited. I thoroughly enjoyed a simple hummus sandwich, as I haven’t been able to eat that in years.

I’m discovering all kinds of food that are new to me after all these years and that’s actually a lot of fun.

How is it going now?

It feels a bit like “too much information” to share my complaints in detail here on the blog, but maybe that information will help you so I’ll just do it.

My main complaints over the past few years have been that my stools were not normal. You’ve probably seen a bristol stool chart before.

Types 3 and 4 are considered normal stools. I’ve had almost all variants, except for types 3 and 4.

My biggest issue was that I had to go to the toilet very often during the day and since about 2 years I also suffered from floating stools.

Which may indicate that the digestion is not good or that there is too much fat in the stool.

I also had a lot of bloating and flatulence. After every meal, I blew up and got complaints. Basically just all day long.

With my dietitian, the focus is now on ensuring that my stools move toward type 4. Then the stools are normal and that shows that my body is recovering.

I was super happy to notice that things have really improved in the last 2 weeks. The bloating is greatly reduced.

Normally I had complaints after everything I ate. Right now, I still occasionally have a bloated feeling. But it became so much less that I almost feel normal.

Recently when I was at work, I had a flat stomach after lunch for the entire afternoon. For people without IBS this is probably quite normal.

But for me, this was something I haven’t felt for over 10 years and that felt fantastic!

No tight pants and an uncomfortable feeling in my stomach after eating.

There is also an improvement in the stool. It’s really not where it needs to be yet, but it’s improving.

For example, it is very special if I only go to the toilet once a day. And that has happened several times in the last few weeks. So that’s a huge improvement.

So much for talking about poop 😉

I am really very happy that I already notice so much improvement due to, in my opinion, no radical adjustments at all. And I am very curious how this will continue in the coming weeks.

What’s next?

For the next weeks, the plan is that I continue eating how I do now. I continue taking my vitamins, minerals, and other supplements.

Next to that, I will slowly add more food to my diet to see how my body reacts to that.

I will keep you updated on how this is going!