Hi all, has anyone got any helpful suggestions please as regards foods to prevent bloating? Can't eat bread, potatoes, wheat, pasta, cauliflower, bananas, seems like almost everything I eat does it ! Any help appreciated, thanks in advance.
Hi, look up the fodmap diet, Well worth looking into. It's hard but for me helped a lot.
Hi Lou, Fodmap and low GI are both good ways to go, homemade liquidised veg soups (using low gi/fodmap veg), homemade chicken broth/soup, omlettes/fritatta's are usually good.
If we are having a meat dish we flavour the veg (usually brocolli, cabbage or other greens) with butter, or a make shift cheese sauce made with buttermilk, a bit of cream and grated cheese and seasoning, it may not thicken as well as usual but still tastes good.
If we make homemade curries instead of rice we serve with greens or fried courgette, garlic, chilli & fresh mint.
I get that all of these don't sound like quick go to meals, but if you make enough they can be good for left overs for an easy day the next day or some could be frozen of course.
If you tolerate lettuce, salads with tuna olives, peppers & feta with an olive oil, balsamic and lemon juice dressing. If you don't tolerate lettuce try similar but without the salad leaves and just mix all up with the tuna instead
Usually for breakfast (if we dont feel like cooking eggs etc) we have natural/greek yoghurt with a handful of almonds
hope some of this helps
Thank you Janet, I will definitely look into it - thank you very much for help.
HI KIrsty, thank you very much for such useful information. I have been making soups and trying to get away with a little potato but it doesn't work ! So will leave that out, also will take note of salad suggestions, I do have the yoghurt but will add the almonds now also, I have actually heard of using almonds before so I will defiantly do that. Your advice is much appreciatediated and thank you for taking the time and effort to reply, x 😃
That's a bit vague Lou. Have you been diagnosed with anything? Where/when does the bloating occur? Are there any other symptoms?
Low Fodmap diet is for IBS, but Potatoes are on the 'good list', so maybe that diet would produce no benefit. OTOH Kirsty's suggestions would give me all sorts of trouble, Garlic and Cream are two of the very worst things for me.
Hi, no not diagnosed with anything but am in surgical menopause - not sure if it's related some articles say it is and some say it isn't so I am completely in the dark. Had hysterectomy 20 yrs ago and oophorectomy 18 mnths ago and havnt been right since really. Up until last month I was having 6 monthly ultrasounds and tranvaginal due to large ovarian cyst, had a letter from hospital couple weeks ago to say I've now been discharged as the results along with healing have been very good with no further follow ups needed. I'm not on HRT as I get bad migraines. No bowel or bladder probs really to speak of, constipated sometimes - seems like tum isn't too bad in the mornings but gradually by the evening it's quite bad, I have put a fair amount of weight on around abdo area I think that's menopause related maybe ? More upper abdo than lower and it's horrible, when I saw Consultant surgeon for post op check I mentioned tummy weight gain and bloating he just smiled ! so sorry to go on a bit just trying to explain as best as I can, cyst was 20 cMs x 20cms so very large and long slow recovery.
Just to add that I get very anxious and have occasional panic attacks when I have too much to deal with, also father died last May which was depressing, I spent nearly 30 years trying to find him and when I did he was dead within a year, let's just say he wasn't the man I hoped he would be, he used me until he died and I wasn't very well either but he didn't care, just took what he could from me, watched him die in a hospice and it was awful - left a bad mental scar but don't think it could be related, just don't know anymore. 😢
Just as well you stepped in here p3t3r, potatoe's on the fodmap good list? i'm pretty sure they werent when i was recommended to follow it, so if they are i will stop recommending it to people, I was under the impression limited sweet potato/yam was ok but not white potato? perhaps i am out of date. regards to cream and garlic, i guess we are all different, i tolerate spices very well too but i know other people that don't. I generally tend to suggest fodmap as most people find the kind of diet i follow a step too far (apart from the dairy of course which some cannot tolerate, i seem to tolerate most except actually milk itself).
Potatoes accepted on my list of suitable foods on the fodmap diet. I have been on It 2 years now, and been of great help. But everyone is different, it trys to eliminate what is a possible upset
To the digestive system. Slowly introducing foods your body is
Able to accept. We will all find what we can or can not eat. Anyone trying it should really read up on it. May not be for all.
very true, i found fodmap quite useful at first although worked out quite quickly that white potato is not for me. I have just had to get stricter over the last couple of years, but the results have been worth it. If im very strict throughout the week i can have a day or two of carbs without too much problem but only tend to do it if i'm out and about and can't get the kind of food i want, but its usually not too much of a problem these days, its just what you get used to i suppose
Sweet Potato is "medium"; limited quantities only. That seems to be right, because I was using a whole one in my vegetable soup and got some problems.The one thing in that diet that is completely off for me is cornflour, which is supposed to be best of all the flour alternatives, but absolutely kills me. OTOH luckily I'm not so intolerant of wheat as most, so I can have limited bread or pasta every other day without too much problem.
I'm no doctor, but it seems likely that your problems are due to your various surgeries. If you had a lot of antibiotics then they can cause issues I understand. I have no idea how you can get help for that either.
oh lou, sorry, i must have posted around the same time as you, i didnt see your post about your dad, looks great eh, you say all that and I bang on about potatoes!! That must have been seriously tough on you, especially with everything else you've been through. Some people in life are takers and users, I know it won't change what you've been through but keep remembering you're the better person, I know it sounds like a total cliche but its true. You did a good thing by being there and at least you can (maybe with time) allow yourself to be at peace with staying true to yourself at such a time and being a good person, no matter how he was to you. I can't know how that must have felt for you, not trying to be a know it all, I know i don't know you from adam, but you sound like a good person. I hope you manage to find the help you need with diet on here, its all a bit of stumbling our way through for all of us to try and find the right things to eat, we seem to get there eventually tho so don't lose heart. Your dr just smiled, awesome! that just reminds me of my doctor when I had a rash on my arms she said "we all get these things as we get older, you just have to deal with it" - so wrong, i no longer have the rash. I can only imagine your doctor was thinking something similar, if only we were taken more seriously
p3t3r, i can maybe tolerate carbs once or twice a week, but after that its a no go. Its weird how all these different foods to different things to different people. I can tolerate small amounts of cornflour for thickening (although most try to do without anyway) but corn on the cob is a nightmare, it took me a while to figure that one out too as most people i know believe it to be an extremely good food, you start to think maybe its just you! If Lou has had lots of antibiotics it may be worth looking into that as im pretty sure thats what my problem is causedd by (at least partially). I've finally figure out the high fat low carb way works for me and adding probiotics into the mix is going to be my next step. I've tried them on plenty of occasions before sometimes they help and sometimes they don't but its never a lasting effect. Oddly enough one of the treatments for the problem can be more antibiotics, but again sometimes they worked and sometimes they didnt, but i guess the trick is about getting everything right all at the same time, which unfortunately just takes time to figure out, but i guess it keeps me busy and out of trouble
Hi Kirsty thank you for reply, I did think my fathers death played a part in all this and it haunts me but I'm not sure. Am definitely looking into this diet as suggested it's definatley worth looking at. Potatoes are a definite no no that's for sure, I bloat up like mad just looking at them, so have to eliminate things one by one and see how things go, I did read that also it can go along with menopause particularly surgical as its so rapid and the body is screaming what on earths happening to me, all such a shock really to have organs taken out and the body's just meant to accept it and not react, so the more I think about it the more it makes sense. In actual fact I have never had antibiotics for any surgery! The last op ( 20cm cyst) I was thrown out the next day with not even a painkiller as they needed the beds ! so I will research more and get my act together, hard when you just want to be in bed feeling sorry for oneself !! I hope you are feeling well and great big hugs for all the support x
hi thank you for reply, have never had antibiotics for any surgery I have had, just think this poor old wreck of a body of mine has had a great big whack and needs to recover and adjust to no hormones, hard but what do you do - just get on with it I suppose like everyone e else. It's so helpful to have friends on here to talk to, keeps you on track. Thanks.
i know what you mean, healthy people in particular have a bad habit of saying things like oh well just read up about it (like we don't already when we have the energy), if only it was that easy, good luck
Agree, also health anxiety is horrible when you've had a lot to deal with, I've googled everything with obsession at times and got myself in a real pickle convincing myself I have every horrible illness there is, that's hard in the early hours and everything's so much worse at night, sometimes I think health anxiety can come from trauma in our lives, particularly if you are a worrier anyway, Uugghh vicious circle.