Taking the easy targets first:
1. Yes, bread. And shredded wheat. Somewhere between 1% and 30% of people
have a bad reaction to wheat (depends who you ask) but it's not very digestible
to any human being.
2. Oil. A lot of people just can't handle fats well. My husband is one of them.
Some of the frying oils have been chemically altered too, so they are even
harder to deal with. The commercial frying oils are scary.
3. Not much protein. If you take apart a fish stick, there is hardly any fish!
Protein satiates, and regulates the blood sugar some.
4. Not much vegie. Salads SOUND like a lot of vegies, but the amount
in a side salad, if cooked, would be maybe 1/2 cup.
5. Fast food. In some countries, like, say, Thailand, you can get a nice
fried shrimp on a stick that is actually good food. What is sold in
fast food places here though, is really problematic though. I buy food a lot at wholesale
places, and the pre-prepared stuff (what they use) is just scary. My
family can taste the difference and won't eat it.
Now, my husband had IBS for years and years, and we finally fixed it together.
His approach was to go back to basics for 2 weeks, then add foods one by
one. Took a little discipline, but it worked. It was something like:
1. Starch: Steamed non-enriched rice. Homai is good, and at most grocery
stores. If you don't have a rice cooker, they are pretty cheap and a good
investment. Avoid "baked goods" of any kind during this phase. Baking
anything with ground starch in an oven creates a product that feeds
yeast easily and may contain stuff like acrylamides, but "steamed white
rice" has been the "good for sick people" basic for ages. It works. Keep
in mind that maybe half the world ONLY eats white rice as their basic
food, and they survive just fine if they also get some greens and a bit
of protein.
2. Protein. Rotate between, say, fish, shrimp, beef, lamb, chicken, pork, eggs.
Just keep in mind how they affect you. Use really simple cooking methods ...
baking, broiling, convection ovens. Protein STOPS HUNGER, in
general. Low protein meals will make you hungrier the next day.
Egg white and fish have been the "body builder" proteins since forever.
They tamp down appetite and build muscle, keep the metabolism up.
Whey protein works really well too, if you can handle dairy. Dairy is
iffy for a lot of people. It gives me migraines, so I don't use it.
You can vary the ratios between rice and protein. Some people do way
better on one or the other.
(*** Note: I think egg YOLK is great stuff too, for other reasons. So
unlike body builders, I don't toss the yolk!)
3. Vegies. LOTS! I mean a big pile of baked carrots, or a big stir-fry. Or
a stew. You can vary which vegies. Try organic vs. not too ... some
people react to pesticides.
4. Oils. Oils can be problematic, for a lot of reasons. Coconut oil is
pretty safe ... it doesn't take a lot of bile acid to break down. Olive oil
is pretty good too, in small amounts. Some people can eat a LOT of fat
and be just fine, but at this point, you don't know which camp you
are in. Fast food oils can be really bad ... they are extracted using
chemicals, have chemicals added, are re-used for months, and usually
are fairly rancid. Saturated fats ... like rib eye fat ... can taste really good,
but requires a robust digestive system to handle it.
If you REALLY don't digest oils well, try using MCT for a month or two.
MCT is used for babies, and it's in mother's milk, and it doesn't require
bile. 1T per meal is enough, to say, fry a couple of eggs. I use 1 T for 2
eggs, and another for a batch of hashbrowns, in one favorite meal. MCT
is expensive though, and start out with just a little of it. MCT is 20% or
something of coconut oil though.
5. Acids. For some strange chemical reasons, both acetic acid (vinegar)
and citric acid (lemon juice) work magic. A little vinegar in water, or
lemon juice, can quell appetite. I think because they compete with uric
acid. Anyway, uric acid affects cortisol affects appetite and a feeling of
"well being", glossing over the details. Vitamin C (Ascorbic acid) fits in
there too. The chemists in the audience can give more details.
Now, that's fairly restrictive. But if, after a week, you feel better, then you
learned something, and you have a baseline. Start adding foods back ... fruits
for one. Nuts. My husband, turns out, just has an issue with peanuts and walnuts ...
but the others are ok. He doesn't do Fast-5, but mainly he's only ever eaten one
main meal a day, so ... it does work for him, he's a good weight and looks
about 15 years younger than he is.
After about 12 years, our meals are pretty varied, though I have to say they
look either Asian or Mexican. It turns out wheat and dairy are pretty big problems
for me and him, but dairy is fine for my kids. A bigger problem is that everyone
turned into "Food Snobs" and now no one will eat, say, commercial eggs or
hamburger. I did have to learn how to cook, and when we eat out, it is
expensive and my kids mostly say "but Mom, your food is better!".
(Sweet to a Mom's ears!). They are healthy happy kids though, have avoided
acne and neuroses and ADD, so I think it works.
Sorry if this is TMI. My geek flag flies high! I love experimenting, so this
is mostly fun for me.
My WAG is that your dizziness is mainly due to high cortisol, which
happens a lot when people get "hungry". Cortisol makes you feel lousy.
That is it's job: to get you to feel bad enough to go out and get some
food. Does weird things to blood pressure too. Vinegar/water often cuts
that off quickly ... again, I'm not sure of all the chemistry, but it's been
used since Roman times. (When you are on a long march and can't
stop to eat, swig some vinegar water! Adding honey makes it taste better,
but not required).
