Single Ingredient Diet

Novice Shave

Novice Shave

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146
Location
Pontefract West Yorkshire
SWIMBO has suffered with various gastro issues for about 15 years now, pretty much since puberty if she's honest.
After much reading she wants to try a detox where you only eat foods with one single ingredient so roll on the next few weeks of plain meat and plain veg with only a small amount of salt allowd to enhance the flavour of the food and only water to drink.
Day 1, Wow it's not easy,
Plain porridge mmmm
Turkey Salad no dressings
Roast Chicken Broccoli and Cauliflower
2.5 L of water
So tired without my usual coffee and energy drinks but sure it's doing my system some good.

Anyone else done a diet/detox like this??
The plan is to do it strictly for 4 weeks then slowly introduce other things stating with dressings and sauces to see if anything starts to agrivate her again
 
In order to lower my blood sugar (type 2 diabetes), lose weight and generally try to stay alive for a few more years, I've pretty much restricted my diet to chicken, fish, and veg. It can be done. I use hot sauce or teriyaki in order to put some flavour in the bird, but that's it. It works. If I eat anything other than bird or fish, my digestion plays hell. It's not pretty. I sympathize with your wife, but it is a healthy diet and she will see the benefits in just a couple of weeks. I drink nothing but iced tea, no diet, fizzy, or sugary drinks.
 
Save her the agony - and yourself by the sound of it! There exists a system wherein your intolerances are measured electronically against hundreds of foods. The print-out lists no-nos, high, medium and low intolerances and foods perfectly safe for you. Yeah - that's what I thought, too - until I tried it. The couple of months following the test were something of a nightmare but then I got into the swing of things and at three months felt better than I could remember - mentally, physically and emotionally. All my favourite foods were on my no-no list, of course, counting alcohol as a food.

I can't remember what it's called but a bit of Googling should quickly discover it. Pricey, mind.
 
My father was in excellent shape till age 87(lived to 94). The only restrictions that he made was that he ate 1. No White Sugar and 2. No White Bread.


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Straight-up no frills paleo ought to do it ...

Meat, fish, proper fat, eggs and vegetables.

No grains, beans, pulses, nightshades or dairy. Bring one at a time back in gently and observe the effect. Come back to a "new normal" with an understanding of what works and what doesn't. So many folks are dairy intolerant, yet find yogurt and A2 type dairy is fine; gluten intolerance is more widespread that you'd think, but not all forms are too bad and there are forms of bread which are properly made and perfectly good to eat.

Best of luck to the Mrs. It really is about the gut and good gut health. Everything else "just works" once the gut is back! Feed the gut, don't fibre it to death!

... just meat and vegetables does sound good, but if she's going that far (to reiterate my first point), drop out bread, beans and dairy, too. Fermented dairy ain't too bad so yogurt is okay.

DO NOT skimp on the fat. Inevitably, these diets lead to lower carb intake and so the low-carb "high" but you soon find lack of energy, so fat intake is crucial! Fat, not sugar. She can read about metabolic flexibility online, but suffice to say, humans can process both sugar and fat for energy, but we're better if we switch between the two. Fat, it should be proper fat - from animals, coconut oil as a second best, but very good second best.

For illustration, for fencing competitions, I'll have an avocado before driving to the competition. I will drink water through the morning (because competitive sports dig do make you sweat), not energy drinks. Lunchtime, I'll eat Jerk Chicken and have a couple of bananas. In the afternoon, I'll drink water with some salt in. I can go all day on fat and just fat. I don't suffer sugar highs and associated crashes. Those bananas really help with muscle fatigue and potential cramps; yes, they're carby, but my body won't be using that energy 'til way after the competition. Once home, it'll be steak & mushrooms with a cream sauce for dinner.

Point of illustration I: humans are fat burners. Protein is the building block, fat the energy source.

Point of illustration II: we don't actually need a lot of intake, even through periods of high, frenetic and prolonged activity.
 
Thank you for all your input she's had a read through all the advice and is sticking to an almost Palio diet for 4 weeks but very bland to see if her gut can "repair" then slowly introduce more items.
Until today our diet was highly spiced and rather unhealthy tbh with lots of bread and easy food
Dinners covered in salty gravy and more meat and stuffing than veg

Day 1 has been OK but let's see how we progress
 
www.chriskresser.com has written a lot about gut health. He recommends a paleo-like regimen to put down a baseline and then bring in the rest of normality gently. His articles on gut health contain all sorts of really sound ideas about how to kick-start the return to good health. Cider vinegar is something she'll read about again and again ... far more palatable than his present recommendation for fecal transplants. Guh! Only in America?
 
Nowt a good fish supper and pint of Guinness won't sort out! Seriously though, that sounds really painful and bloody hard to live with. I mean being a recovering alcoholic is hard but I just have to cut one thing out. Aye, it's a biggie when addiction and dependence take their toll but it's still just one thing. We need to eat to live and having to sort through what you can't and cannot eat like must be so hard. I wish you both all the very best despite my opening comment.
 
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