About YFGB

Where did it all start...?

Like you (and many other similar sites), this all started with a journey.

My journey was probably no different to the others...I suffered with stomach issues for a number of years and never really got to the bottom of what was causing them or why I was getting them. Eventually, after piling on some unexplained weight and generally just getting miserable with how life was turning out I took the plunge to get some answers.

My journey begins many moons ago...

For years, I had always seemed to suffer from some unexplained stomach issues, you know the usual: bloating, constipation, "croaking" (I can't burp! I make a croaking sound instead!) even up to more severe stomach cramping followed by an upset stomach. Conversations with my mother turned up that I had also had issues as a child resulting in me having to go on a 'goat milk diet' which didn't seem to help. Eventually, I seemed to just grow out of it and carried on with life. As the years passed, the symptoms came and went. I went to the doctor: 'try gluten free!' - worked for a few weeks but it started again, had a test - negative. 'Try lactose free' - same results. My doctor explained how the human body wasn't built for eating the foods we have available now before proceeding to tell me about how he doesn't eat potatoes anymore as he experiences the same symptoms. As you can imagine, I gave up and just accepted I had an odd stomach. It matched the 'odd' personality I seemed to have.

Fast forward a few years, I was working as a class teacher having just passed my QTS and was settled in a nice little school. Lunchtime conversations would inevitably discuss what we were eating and what ingredients were in the food etc. One particular day, a colleague told us how their partner had just done an intolerance test and was basically intolerant to EVERYTHING! Out of curiousty, my colleague also took the test and found out they had some issues with some foods as well and on reflection it made sense when they realised these foods actually caused similar symptoms: bloating and generally uncomfortable in the stomach area. So, as you can imagine, I was intrigued...and skeptical.

I had read about these 'intolerance tests', read the discussions on how they were inaccurate, as well as the blogs that sang their praises. Some take blood samples (what happens to the blood? Will I be cloned?!), some take hair samples (how does hair show a stomach issue?). Nevertheless, I took the name of the company that my colleague had used and did some research of my own. I didn't order a test straightaway, I 'ummed' and 'ahhed', chatted with family and my partner (who is even more skeptical than I am!). I looked into the foods they tested for, the price and how they worked. I eventually decided to take the plunge and ordered a test with York Test as they seemed to test for a lot more foods and the price at the time was pretty decent.

So, then what happened?

I received the test a few days later and followed the instructions, simple enough. Got the sample they needed and sent it off in the prepaid packet it came with. Waited a few more days and then received an email telling me my results were ready. I was nervous and still skeptical but there we go.... This turned more to shock when I read the results. Turns out I had an 'intolerance' to about 10 different food items and when I read down the list each item made more sense. But right at the top with quite a high intolerance score compared to the other nine items was: yeast.

It actually made sense. I bloated when I overindulged in bready products but I had no gluten intolerance or sensitivity. I bloated severely after wine and beer but not brandy or cava or champagne (turns out cava and champagne have yeast removed in their second fermentation process). The more I thought about what I ate and when I bloated out the more I began to notice there may be some truth to it. So, I decided to follow a yeast free diet and monitor the impact it had on me. I sat with my mother and formulated a list of foods I ate, crossed off the offending items and set about finding alternatives.

It was during this mass research project we found out that there were not that many 'helpful' sites. The more I read, the more confusing it became. I read one thing, my mother read the opposite. There seemed to be a huge pit of conflicting information as well as very few UK sites discussing UK products. That's where this site comes into play.

I created this site to share my experiences of my journey with people like you who may be going through similar things or know of someone in a similar position. Hopefully, this site can provide some answers or at least point you in some sort of right direction to get some concrete and helpful advice in order to deal with living yeast free.

I've been on a yeast free diet now for over a year and I am definitely noticing some differences so, hopefully, you will too.

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