Chapter One
The Self-Help Nutritional Program: A Healing Diet
The science of nutrition is a changing field, and different concepts become fashionable almost weekly. New reports seem to contradict what has gone before and, invariably, new fads based on incomplete data emerge.
Amid the confusion, American eating habits have undergone profound changes. Today, one-third of our meals are consumed outside the home; when we do eat at home, we often resort to prepared convenience foods. All of us have to struggle harder to maintain nutritional balance, and the struggle is more difficult for people with GI disorders who are subject to severe and debilitating symptoms.
Many become fixated on their next meal, worrying in advance about their reactions. They know instinctively that some foods make their problems worse, but don't know how to establish a nutritional routine they can depend on. In frustration, some people end up eating almos
Chapter One
The Self-Help Nutritional Program: A Healing Diet
The science of nutrition is a changing field, and different concepts become fashionable almost weekly. New reports seem to contradict what has gone before and, invariably, new fads based on incomplete data emerge.
Amid the confusion, American eating habits have undergone profound changes. Today, one-third of our meals are consumed outside the home; when we do eat at home, we often resort to prepared convenience foods. All of us have to struggle harder to maintain nutritional balance, and the struggle is more difficult for people with GI disorders who are subject to severe and debilitating symptoms.
Many become fixated on their next meal, worrying in advance about their reactions. They know instinctively that some foods make their problems worse, but don't know how to establish a nutritional routine they can depend on. In frustration, some people end up eating almost nothing. Existing on too little food, smoking too much for oral gratification, which makes the GI disorder worse, they are often irritable and frustrated.
Double Trouble
One patient of ours was a twenty-eight-year-old ballet dancer who constantly yo-yoed on and off weight-loss diets to maintain a perfectly slim body. At the same time, she was under high performance stress. While still in her teens Margo began to have severe and sudden stomach cramps, followed by diarrhea; she had her first ulcer attack on her twenty-first birthday. She had suffered on and off from both problems ever since. Although Margo had taken many different drugs in an effort to control the various symptoms, she was still vulnerable to sudden, painful attacks that sometimes lasted weeks at a time. And as so commonly happens with GI patients, the foods recommended for one condition were problems for the other.
Margo came to us after a long bout of cramps and diarrhea that had left her frustrated and weak. We diagnosed her symptoms as irritable bowel syndrome, and recommended that she follow the Two-Week Master Program. We also suggested that she join a stop-smoking group because we felt certain that cigarettes were aggravating her symptoms.
Even though Margo had voluntarily sought our help, she seemed ambivalent about taking our advice. I wondered if there was something about her illness that she was keeping from me. After talking with her about her profession it became obvious that Margo liked one of the side effects of her GI disorder-it helped keep her weight down. Margo's symptoms were often so severe that she couldn't eat anything at all. She would go to parties and dinners and smoke cigarettes-but never touch a morsel of food. The cigarettes, which raised her already high rate of metabolism even further, supplied the oral gratification she missed from food.
There was another element working against any program to treat her disorder-she had a high tolerance for pain. Her profession sometimes required that she endure extreme muscle pain, and dance through periods of exhaustion. Physical suffering seemed fairly normal to her.
The magic words that finally convinced Margo to get serious about the Self-Help Nutritional Program were "You can eat three meals a day on the Two-Week Program and you will not gain weight."
Margo was a hard case. Interestingly enough, however, once she "got" it -- once she accepted the fact that she could eat real food and be free from pain without gaining weight-it was a snap for her to start the program and stick to it. She was so naturally disciplined that she thought nothing of following the regimen.
One element of the program especially appealed to her. Even though the Two-Week Master Program is recommended for most common digestive disorders, each problem has its own set of "triggers "-foods or other factors that make the disorder flare-because specific foods irritate specific parts of the GI system, We call these triggers Flag Foods. When we developed the Self-Help Nutritional Program we identified Flag Foods for each GI disorder. (Lists of Flag Foods for each disorder are given in chapter 25.)
Knowing which Flag Foods affect your particular problem(s) lets you fine-tune the Self-Help Nutritional Program to your individual needs. Some people have to be wary of only one or two Flag Foods, while others have to avoid a whole list of Flag Foods to keep their symptoms under control. Flag Foods give you an easy way to loosen or tighten the reins on the SelfHelp Nutritional Program.
Margo quickly learned all of her Flag Foods. When faced with a rushed lunch hour or late-night snack after the theater she could pick out her Flag Foods and avoid them. She selected the lowest-calorie recipes from recipes low in calories to begin with, and she ate them regularly.
Margo's abdominal cramps subsided almost immediately, and she had no counterresponse from the ulcers. No one was more surprised than we were when she came in for a routine follow-up visit and told us she had stopped smoking-cold turkey. That was Margo's nature. Once she made I up her mind, it was done. Ultimately, Margo became one of our greatest success stories. To date, she has gone a full year without an attack from either of her GI disorders.
For some people who lead hectic lives, switching to new eating habits can seem impossible. Not everyone is as self-disciplined as Margo.
I remember George, a young trial attorney who popped antacid tablets throughout the day to try to cope with overwhelming heartburn. If he had an attack while in court he would suffer through it without the antacid because he didn't want the opposing lawyer or the jury to know he had a problem. Often his attacks occurred at night when he went to bed, especially after grabbing a late-night snack on his way home from the office...
Continues...
Excerpted from Gastrointestinal Health, Rev Ed by Peikin, Steven R. Copyright © 2004 by Steven Peikin. Excerpted by permission.
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