Symptoms

If you're stuck with any of the following moans and groans or symptoms, this health blog may be a place to check in every once and a while: 

• regurgitation (not sick or acid reflux)
• having to eat little and often
• ensuring there are enough vitamins and nutrients in your diet
• motility conditions - in which you absorb foods at weird rates and can't take meals which have a large variety of ingredients in them, particularly if liquids are combined with solids.
• prepandrial bradygastria (my condition) or rhythmic disorders of the gut/stomach 

IBS and other bowl conditions may also share some - but not all - symptoms. 

My theory is that for those of us with these conditions/symptoms, there is no single cure, and thus no single theory of how to deal with it. Along with my own experimenting, I will be referring to some theories and books - the paleo diet, the hay diet and general food combining, and others - but I will be taking out bits from each one, and finding something which works for people who need the easily digestible foods on the paleo diet, but who also need easily accessible foods (i.e. from a supermarket) which are also affordable and do not fill up a fridge or a cupboard. 

The aim is always to find the ultimate 'perfect' diet which doesn't budge no matter how hard it's nudged. In reality though, this 'perfect' diet may need to change, or be redrawn, year on year due to a change in routine, activity level, the notorious 'H' for hormone, or even the weather which influences Vitamin D levels and, y'know, whether you want a hot drink or a cold one. The real aim then, most only be to find the most easily adaptable diet, or to understand your body/stomach well enough to know what you need and what you simply can't take. 

I tell my Doctor I'm sick. He tells me to eat healthily. I already do eat healthily. What do I do now?

Finding health advice just doesn't relate to you?
 Follow me as I find my own way. 

Health blogs, recipe books, and advice from so-called "experts" all have one thing in common: they mean absolutely nothing when I relate them to the intricate workings and demands of my stomach. 

Health blogs and experts advise me to stop eating unhealthy foods in order to feel better - but I don't eat unhealthy foods. And no, that isn't a lie. My definition of unhealthy is over-eating on dried fruit or consuming too much yoghurt. Recipe books, meanwhile, show me how to make meals out of a hundred different ingredients. That's great, but I'm a student: I have a cupboard, half a shelf in a fridge, half a shelf in a freezer, and a budget which does not afford buying flavourings simply because they make the dish look better on a plate (not to mention the fact that my stomach cannot take unnecessary ingredients). The recipe books also show me how to cook from a fantastic list of choices. Unfortunately though, the large majority of recipes have at least one food which I can't eat. Why can't I eat them? Well, because I have a stomach which likes to be spoon-fed simple portions and gets a little confused by multi-coloured plates, a little frightened by a massive bowl of food sliding down my throat, and a little moody at just about anything which doesn't adhere to the two rules above.

The intricate details of my stomach are hardly private news: I announce them at every dinner table, every trip away, and in just about every conversation which involves food. The next logical step in this openness must only be to shout out on the platform of Blogger: 'Howdie! I have the weirdest stomach condition ever! Wanna see me regurgitate?'


In 2010, having tried two medications complete with their side-effects, I was advised to 'experiment' with my stomach to find out what worked. Medical Science can diagnose it, attempt to cure it, but other than that it hasn't got a clue. Since 2010 I have been doing exactly this: trying out different routines, experimenting with foods, drawing charts, and recording my symptoms. For a while I had it almost perfect. Now I'm experimenting again, except that this time you get to share the fun.