You finally figure out what’s been going on with your digestion, and then your doctor tells you there’s even a medicine you can take to help. You’re excited, but also nervous. You ask yourself the big question: will you be able to live normally again?
To be honest, the answer is no. I think we all wish that wasn’t the case, but hoping that things will return to the way they were simply isn’t a realistic outcome. So, this article is going to explain the expectations vs. reality of starting on a Sucraid prescription.
Let us first define and then redefine what “normal” means to most people. To most people, it means you eat what you want, when you want, with minimal symptoms. The issue with applying this version of normal to yourself is that this diagnosis makes you unlike most people. Your new version of normal now looks and feels completely different and will continuously evolve for a while as you navigate this condition. When first diagnosed, people mistake the feeling of normalcy as trying to revert back to “the way things were.” If you are currently struggling with this mindset, I challenge you to think of your daily routine 5 years ago. If you tried to reinstate that routine for the rest of the day, it’d feel weird and wrong. Normal isn’t some golden rule or some set of standards - it’s a feeling of security and stability in your own habits and behavior. That said, instead of looking back and hoping to regain something, your mindset should be focused on moving forward and establishing whatever new version of normalcy you may be starting to envision for yourself.
So, why do I say Sucraid can’t make things go back to the way they were? Because it only fixes one issue contained within a complex problem. Getting a Sucraid prescription is certainly a step in the right direction, but regaining a sense of normalcy takes a bit of time and patience. The issue many of us run into is assuming that this one solution will bring a consistent fix to every problem at the same time. Unfortunately, you can only get to the point of feeling normal after a lot of trial and error, time, patience, and consistency. And by the time you do navigate this process, you can’t imagine going back to the way things were. You really do feel like a different person with different perspectives. My reality has been this: I know what I can eat, I’m content with the variability in my diet and my eating habits, and if I do decide to take a risk, I’m aware of what the consequences could be. It took me almost a year of hard work and consistency to get here, though.
This battle of feeling normal is just as much mental as it is physical. If you tell yourself that you can’t eat “normally” and you’re missing out, you’ll believe it. I also dealt with this mindset for a while. Physically, I was stable - I had minimal symptoms, I had a lot of different foods in my diet, I was maintaining weight, exercising, and doing everything right, but I also believed that I hadn’t fully “recovered” because I felt like there were aspects of my old life still missing - like eating a piece of cake at a birthday party. At this time, I still hadn’t been able to accept the idea that my diet now looked different. However, with time, this became normal to me. In psychology, this process is known as hedonic adaptation (ScienceDirect) - it refers to our tendency as humans to adapt to new circumstances and eventually reframe them as normal. At first, the diagnosis and its implications are scary and chaotic. As time passes, you come to build a new sense of normalcy and routine around the circumstances. This newfound feeling becomes your “normal”, and it will look different a year later, and another year after that.
I don’t want to leave you all hanging without talking a bit about how Sucraid can help you immediately. The answer to this question completely depends on your own personal tolerance for sucrose, starch, and other foods in general. Here, I will list off some general statements that broadly apply to most people.
Overall, the degree to which Sucraid changes your diet depends on how much of your restriction was coming from sucrose versus starch. If sucrose is the main issue and starch is well tolerated, Sucraid can open up a lot of flexibility. But if starch is also a major trigger, the practical benefit will likely feel much smaller because many foods that contain sucrose also contain starch (think snack foods, desserts, cereal, etc.) In that case, Sucraid may still be working exactly as intended, but it only solves one part of the carbohydrate problem. Sucraid can be a major tool, but it works best when expectations are realistic. It does help with sucrose, but not every food-related problem. Normal may not mean eating exactly the way you used to, but it can still mean feeling stable, confident, and in control of your diet.
ScienceDirect – Hedonic Adaptation
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/hedonic-adaptation