Jun 13

 Massive downturn in wellness. Symptoms have flared, feet swollen, pains everywhere, feel awful.

Ok.

Perhaps this is just the usual symptom shift, screw turning, yada.

However.

Suspicious.

Yesterday I had a change of diet.

After 4 or so days of eating by and large the same thing - chicken, rice, vegetables, apple, banana, I changed what I was eating.

Cereals, bread rolls, chicken burgers.

Perhaps it's just a coincidence.

On the other hand. A little light bulb has gone on. Most of my current symptoms could well be a massive inflammation spike. It's not beyond reason it might be a systemic allergic reaction. Everything swells up, pains, feel like shit.

This is not exactly the first time this connection has been made - before I got seriously ill I said that I had chased away all over pains and feeling like an old man by adopting a low carb diet, of which the major upshot of that was eliminating bread. From that point on I have had a suspicion around bread, stopped eating mass produced bread, only eat bakery bread, yada blah, and things have been better than they were back then - but it has not stopped it returning at times.

So. Now I'm wondering. It just so happens by fluke my diet this week has been revealing.

The exact list of what I've been eating and then flipped too :

Felt better :
White Rice. Chicken thighs skin on. Onions. Mushrooms. Red and Green Peppers. Brocolli. Carrots. Sweetcorn. Tinned chopped tomatoes. Vine tomatoes. Cucumber. Garlic. Paprika. Salt. Chicken Stock. Worcestershire sauce. Mayonnaise. Tortilla. Parmesan. Apple. Banana. Black tea. Water. Fruit yoghurt

Felt way worse :
Honey nut cheerios. Chicken burgers. Mayonnaise. Vine tomatoes. Cucumber. White bread rolls. Skin on chips. Two wheat digestive biscuits. Black tea. Water.

Of that then, your potential "bad" differences are : Honey nut cheerios. Chicken burgers. White bread rolls. Skin on chips. I find it difficult to believe it could be the chicken burgers as I was having chicken thighs previously. But possible. Because they will also put extra ultra processed shit in there.

Another way of saying this is that my ultra processed diet went from very low, to very high. I was cooking from scratch the rice and vegetables. I was relying on packets for the chips et al.

A few things pop up from this. One. Carbs don't seem to be an issue. Rice is carby. I felt better with rice. Worse on bread. Two, it doesn't - again - seem to be something obvious like a wheat intolerance, as I had wheat tortillas and was ok. Admittedly the amount of wheat you're eating one to the other is very different. Potentially it could be a how much you eat rather than a whether you've eaten it at all kind of thing. This would certainly track with feeling better cutting a lot, but not all, bread out of my diet. Three, the cereals have honey in them. Which is a complex mix of nonsense. But generally. The cereals are suspect. A tiny thought ran through my head before having them that oh, I wonder if this will make me feel ill, before I discarded it and moved on. 24 hours later. I feel ill.

Perhaps this is all a massive coincidence and nothing to do with it whatsoever.

It does bear a little poking at however I think. Potentially I have a "clear control" diet to go back to - chicken and rice. And then perhaps I can experiment with adding one thing at a time and seeing if it alters anything.

If some - but definitely not all - of my issues turn out to be an allergic reaction, I am going to be pissed. But also relieved that I found something.

We shall see.

Hazel is due over today, so I am not about to jump into any strict diet shenanigans whilst she is here. But I will bear it in mind. And perhaps as a starter, drop bread out entirely again. As the rice - carby - seemed to be fine ( ie it doesnt seem like a carb issue ).

On the upside. The chicken and rice and vegetables I was having were tasty, easy to make ( with the ninja ) and a good pillar of a pretty well balanced diet. So. I have something to work with here which isn't a massive pain in the ass.