So, about a year ago, I started a diet to lower my cholesterol. It totally worked. In two months, my cholesterol went down by 40 points. The biggest change was that I stopped eating desserts and added sugars. Here was my usual daily diet for the last year:
Cheerios and Fiber One with Lactaid skim milk
1 banana
1 red pepper
sandwich with natural peanut butter and whole wheat bread
1/2 Chicken breast
Brown rice
Broccoli
Snack: Organic graham crackers
That was it. I also lost about 20 pounds. I can't seem to keep much weight on without dessert.
Anyway, after my GI symptoms really flared up in January, I went to the gastroenterologist. I found out nothing, of course. So, I managing my symptoms with a new diet. It's based on the Eating for IBS diet and the FODMAP diet, in case you're interested.
Now, I'm eating this every day:
Cheerios with unsweetened almond milk
2 brown rice cakes with natural peanut butter
1 banana
1/2 chicken breast
Brown rice
cooked carrot shreds
Snack: organic oat cereal
So, this diet has relieved my severe symptoms for the most part (bloating, abdominal pain, and partial obstructions). But I'm not sure how it will affect my cholesterol. I also don't feel like I'm getting a lot of really nutritious foods. The hardest things to cut out nutritionally are wheat and various FODMAP fruits and vegetables. I can experiment with other foods to see if I can tolerate any of them, but so far, it hasn't worked. And I want to avoid GI symptoms, if possible.
