Food intolerance - physical symptoms

I ate a cheesey pizza and a glass of cider last night.  After I'd eaten it, my stomach was bloated, I was so stuffed, definitely overfull.  Burping and passing wind, which is not usual after I've eaten!!  Which reminded me of the challenging old days of food intolerances.

The physical symptoms that are experienced when you have CFS/ME or fibromyalgia are real.  They are areas where the body has broken down due to the continued overload effects of the stress response.  Initially the body is strong enough to clear the hormonal effects of adrenaline and cortisol etc.  Eventually a viscious cycle ensues as the two hormones together stimulate the amygdala to keep thinking more and more events are dangerous.   And more and more hormones cause more and more damage to areas of the body and mind. 

The stress response gives energy to the main muscles in the arms and legs so we can either fight or flee from the perceived danger.  As the stress response is being  activated by a myriad of non-dangerous events (what the amygdala thinks are dangerous) we don't fight or flee and the hormones are left in the body causing damage. 

One of the main effects of stress is on the digestive system.  The digestion system shuts down as this is not needed when fleeing or fighting!  As a result of this over time I developed such a weak digestive system that I was not converting calcium and my nails which as a child had been strong, were now soft and splitting.  I had diahorrea and bloating.  And if I ate certain foods such as wheat or dairy I felt much worse the day after.  I also had candida symptoms (most unpleasant) and these were worsened when I ate refined sugar or yeast like mushrooms.  My recourse at the time was to go on to the caveman diet and I ate only meat and vegetables.  The first time I went on it was fairly easy, I felt so much better on the restricted diet and I wanted to get back to work.  This was 14 years ago so there was hardly any wheat-free, etc foods though I was living in Bristol and they had a couple of great health-food shops with some products - how times have changed now the big supermarkets stock these alternative products.

I felt better after a few months off work resting and eating the restricted diet but when I started back at work and the events that stressed me returned, I crumbled.  I couldn't stop myself from eating comfort foods and I was back at square one.  At this time I didn't know all the connections or understand my condition and so I was on and off with the food intolerance restrictive diets constantly.  I thought this was the problem - that the food/digestion/candida was what I needed to cure.  It became such a stress to add to my already overloaded  mind and body! 

Over the years as I learned more and more about the condition, I was meditating and resting, and at times I was able to eat a variety of food.  At other times I chose the 'bad' foods and took the worsened symptoms the days after.  I learned over this time to listen to my body, I was working with body hunger and fullness signals.  I was working with what did my body want to eat not my mouth.  I learned what effects certain foods had on my body and I chose what worked for me and let go of needing to eat what my mind wanted.

The most important thing I learned was that these physical symptoms were that - just symptoms.  They were not what was causing my lack of energy.   The cause was my amygdala was overworking and I was in constant stress response.  The side effect was all the physical and mental symptoms.   I did need to support my body at this time by not giving it food it couldn't handle but the root cause was what I really needed to focus on.  And that didn't come until many years later when I finally understood and accepted that my CFS was caused by what I perceived to be stressful and how my body responded to those stresses.  I needed to relax my mind and body and retrain my amygdala.

Nowadays I could eat most foods.  However, I choose to eat what my body wants.  And my body still doesn't like high refined sugar foods, too much alcohol, too much wheat and it doesn't like dairy (sinusitis right away!).   My mind and body hate caffeine too, so unless I deliberately want to stay awake like on a long drive I don't drink any.  I can reenergise myself now with breathing and relaxation so I don't need to choose caffeine.  Any foods that stimulate the body are not good for people who are highly sensitive and have quick stress responses.  I eat a balanced healthy diet in moderation with some treats because it works for me and I choose to have energy and maintain my natural body weight.
The physical and mental symptoms are real - but the are not the cause - it's the cause that I work on and by doing that the physical and mental symptoms cleared up pretty quickly.