treowe-treow asked: Hi! I'm following your progress with Pitchford's method with interest -- my doctor told me I have IBS and said "drink more water and eat prunes," haha, not helpful. :x I too have tried cutting dairy (no change) and gluten (which has been terrible -- I miss the insoluble fiber and I'm not convinced grains are to blame, either) and your entry on being a "cold"-type person was really interesting. I am, too -- and cold-type foods are the ones I love to eat! :) The combining rules are fascinating.
Hi there,
Thanks for your email! In all honesty, I can say that this isn’t really an issue that (most) doctors seem to know much about. It wasn’t until mine was ready to give me medication I’d have to take my whole life that I realised it was up to me to find a natural solution instead. I’d previously tried cutting out dairy while not changing any other things in my diet, and it didn’t help. I then realised it wasn’t just dairy, but a lot of things. So until they were all gone, I still had the same symptoms. That’s why I initially did a hypoallergenic diet to ‘flush the system’ so to speak. It meant having no alcohol, stimulants such as caffiene, sugars, processed foods, known allergy provokers etc. for between 4-8 weeks. I still had some symptoms after that, which is why I’m now trying food combining.
Gluten isn’t a problem for me, but I don’t have it every day. As you mentioned you’re a cold person, maybe it’s best to try spelt bread instead. Pitchford says spelt is a warming grain while wheat is cooling. Not the best for us cold types!
Timing is also important. I used to eat almost continuously throughout the day as a series of smaller meals, but Pitchford says this doesn’t give our bodies time to digest what’s already in there before loading more stuff on top. This made complete sense to me. We also shouldn’t drink water with our meals (wait at least half an hour before and one hour after).
Breakfast should be between 7-9 a.m., and at least an hour after rising. In-between meals I drink herbal teas. Lunch comes between 12-1 and should be the biggest meal of the day, with the most variety. Dinner is between 6-7 p.m. and should be smaller. Root vegetables or protein is emphasized.
I’ve learnt that everyone is different and must figure out what works for him/her. For me it felt natural to move back towards a simpler way of eating — the way we used to eat. I really recommend the book!
