Thursday, March 22, 2007

eating problems

My wife has had eating problems her whole life. She grew up with eating disorders (balimia and anorexia). Now she believes she has IBS (irritable Bowel Syndrome). For the past few years she has had problems digesting foods causing her stomach to swell up. Her only relief has been when she was pregnant with Nibbles. Last December, she really started having problems.
She insists that there is really nothing the doctors can do. She has tried a few prescriptions, but none of them seem to work for too long. Now, on the advice of her boss, she is trying to cut out milk and wheat out of her diet. The bad news is that it seems to be working, meaning she can't eat those products. I couldn't imagine cutting out all wheat and milk products. No pastas, no cakes, no ice cream, etc.
Wah-Wah is understandably cranky with her new diet. She will make a pizza for the family and then have to eat a salad. That's got to suck! She has resorted to shopping at "Trader Joe's" (Oregon's all organic grocery store) but is struggling to find enough foods that will last the week. She's going to try goat's milk, but is afraid that it will be disgusting. We also have to eat at a lot of Chinese restaurants since they don't use hardly any wheat or dairy products. Luckily, Portland is full of Chinese restaurants , but I miss going to pizza parlors.
I wonder how much of this was brought on by years of having a eating disorder. I've heard they can do real damage to your system. Interesting enough, no one else in her family has this problem.

8 comments:

SaturnJune said...

Maybe she always had these eating problems because of food intolerance/allergies... I've had these kind of problems eversince I was born and there is unfortunatly nothing you can do about except for following a diet for the rest of your life...

shakedust said...

That's sad that Wah Wah has been having that trouble. Has she had it checked out? Do they think it's an allergy or lactose intolerence or something else? I hope you guys can figure some way to work around this.

windarkwingod said...

An eating disorder is a potentially fatal disease. Over here the European models on the catwalk are size zero. There have been laws passed in Spain and Italy to bar women that are too thin from the catwalk because a number of models have died form eating disorders. I am glad she has progressed past that - even though the new problems are still a hassle.

GoldenSunrise said...

I thought Wah-Wah was diagnosed with IBS while here in KS. Can she have soy milk? That's gotta be better than goat's milk.

godwinsinmedia said...

Yeah, I've heard Soy Milk isn't bad, there's also rice milk. There's also rice flour, which you can use to make "bread" and probably - pizza crust. It is a huge adjustment. Trader Joes (cool store I've been to one) and Whole Foods will be regular parts of your life. Hope she finds a way to cope with it all.

T said...

It's bad enough that my kids can't have milk. To have a wheat allergy too...yuk. Cman when he was little couldn't tollerate whole wheat. He could eat white bread and other products with wheat but not whole wheat or grain products. He luckily out grew that problem, but I still buy him white bread out of habit and because I'm afraid he'll react to it if he has too much exposure to it. (I was told he was too little when I started him on wheat bread?)

Allergies are a pain. I think Dash would prefer me not being able to eat milk and wheat--he hates us not being able to do chineese because of my allergy to sesame. He grumbled a lot at first but since my reactions got worse when I tried to eat it he actually is very kind about it now.

My kids really like soy milk. Dash does too. I am not a fan. Rice milk is sweeter then soy and my parents say goats milk and cheese is GREAT! So maybe she will like that? I've never tried it.

I hope that she starts feeling better soon.

Dash said...

I've found that after a while, you can get used to rather strange diet. Don't get me wrong - it's not really all that much fun. But it's livable ... I guess that the's point - living is good.

Keeping T around is certainly worth never going to a Chinese Resturant .... Maybe you all are eating all the great General Tso's that I've been missing.

Portland wawa said...

You don't quite have it right you know. We can't eat at chinese restaurants because of the soy sauce, full of wheat.