"Should I cut bread out of my diet?'
Now, it depends (I'm sorry for this incredibly "vanilla" answer but I'll go on to explain).
You see, sometimes you may have an allergy or an intolerance to a food that can make you bloated, give you irritable bowels, make you feel tired, give you bad skin, and headaches for example.
But sometimes, we just didn't get a good night's sleep, ate too much, we're stressed with work / home life, too busy, and just feeling a bit overwhelmed with life!
How do we know?
Well, I "sometimes" do elimination style diets with my clients where we withdraw certain suspect foods and monitor how you respond before bringing them back in.
^^^These diets do come with flaws by the way.
A simple one I use is to write down how you feel a few hours after a meal.
Tired, irritable bowels, headaches?
^^ Write this meal / food at the bottom of a piece of paper.
Full of energy, bowel movements feel "normal", ready to take on the day?
^^ Write this meal / food down at the top of the piece of paper.
Now, you obviously need to consider sleep and life stressors as these can all interfere.
But if you start to see a pattern then you could be on to something.
Like I was a few years back.
Long story short...
Me and my now wife had a great meal until....
The room was spinning like I'd had a few too many vinos...
My stomach was growling...
And my face was as grey as the last Bank Holiday Weekend.
It turned out that I had a wheat allergy.
I got blood tests done (actually 2 years after this) to confirm it.
Alll this time (23 years of my life) spent eating pasta, pizza and bread (I'm from an Italian family)...
And little did I know I was putting something that I was allergic to into my body.
Now, not many people actually have an allergy to the common culprits... wheat and dairy.
But recent research is showing that it's not as simple as having an allergy or not having an allergy.
Because you could have an intolerance to a food.
And it's why building a nutrition plan from the bottom up can enable you to identify foods that could be causing symptoms such as nausea, tiredness, bad skin, headaches, and irritable bowel syndrome, just like wheat did for me.
Now, a quick word of caution.
Sometimes we "think" we have an intolerance, but it's just a case of overeating.
For example, a client of mine used to restrict bread, pizza, cereal and pasta and then have a massive blow out.
She would then eat her weight equivalent in pasta, pizza, cakes etc. and feel horrendous.
Does this mean she had a allergy or an intolerance?
Probably not.
She simply just overate to the extent that her stomach couldn't handle it.
Just remember how sleepy you feel after Christmas lunch!
And it's why learning not only what to eat, but how much to eat is such a key part of a nutritional strategy
Speak soon,
Matt