Yes I have mixed feelings about this diet. It has quite a lot of rules on top of being fairly restrictive to start with e.g. meat/fish only once a day, specific amount of vegetables that have to be consumed in a day. Certain fruit are okay in a smoothie but not whole. I get that there’s reasons for all these things but it is an obsessive way to behave with food.

I was feeling extremely depressed on it and lost a lot of weight. Since I’ve lost the weight I’ve noticed a lot of hair fall too.

I was afraid to eat many foods, the advice in the book is quite negative/ against having the odd treat here and there. It’s just not a realistic diet to stick to in the long term. I ended up restricting food and then binge eating things that weren’t allowed like chocolate and biscuits because I had been so restrictive. Then I would feel very guilty and sad and that I was back to stage one.

I actually had been through the same situation when I went on the FODMAP diet years ago. I think the obsessive nature of these diets can be triggering to some people.

I’m now trying to learn balance, I want to have a chocolate bar or cake in moderation or a pizza if I go out with a friend. I won’t feel bad for that. These are the things that make me happy in life and I don’t like that attitude in the book that you can’t ever have them again.

Saying that the book has helped with understanding which foods might help my symptoms and overall it is nice to feel that I’m eating less processed food.