Quoted from Aviva

Hi Brett, no I think the culprit has something to go with sugar rather than grains or wheat. When I was vegan I was eating a lot of biscuits, (ie: cookies), not so much for the wheat but for the sugar. I'm trying to eat sugar free now, basing my diet on the Gatherer one but not quite because I'm still using a little sucralose as a sweetner, and that's a forbidden. I can't eat any fruit or fructose because it upsets my digestion, so I can't use anything fruit derived as a sweetener. As a Gatherer, it would seem sugar, in all its guises, is the thing I crave. Maybe I felt I enjoyed veganism because it's a sugar/carb fest - you revel in huge amounts of carbs and minimal amounts of everything else.

I'm sorry you had such a rough time with the fibroids, and aren't able to have children. (((HUGS)))

Personally, I've found that I do best on a low-carb diet. I can handle the carbs from veggies without problems, and I also do OK with the carbs from beans and (in small quantities) whole compliant grains. My SWAMI only gives me 1/2 cup of fruit daily, and I don't even have it every day. It's hard to find a time of day when it doens't upset my blood sugar.

I mostly just avoid sweets. I don't use any sweeteners in my green tea, although I do use a little bit of lemon, lime, or grapefruit juice. I'm not sure if you could handle that right now with your GI issues. I can taste the sweetness in lemon juice now- a food that I used to think was only "sour" when I was younger.

I have to wonder how much the sucralose may be affecting your digestion. You won't know until you stop using it altogether. But if you need to take things slow, and make changes in baby steps, that's OK too.

I've found my digestion is fine if I avoid all fruits, including lemon juice and am careful with raw vegetables, limiting them to a tiny amount and eating most veggies cooked.

The sucralose doesn't seem to affect me, although I don't know it's doing long term; I don't like the idea of eating something 'unnatural'. But the problem with ordinary sugar is that I find it addictive. If I taste it, I want more and the fake sugars don't seem to do that to me. I wish I could live a life free of sweetness, which is what the Gatherer diet seems to advocate but it's very hard!

Stevia might be a healthier choice than the sucralose. The best thing, of course, is to enjoy the natural sweetness of things without adding any kind of sweetener at all.

Even if you're not ready to totally give up on the sucralose yet, you should work on cutting down. You shouldn't need a sweetener in every single cup of tea you drink.

Quoted from ruthiegirl

I have to wonder how much the sucralose may be affecting your digestion. You won't know until you stop using it altogether. But if you need to take things slow, and make changes in baby steps, that's OK too.

In the handout we got on FODMAPS and fructose malabsorption from Seattle Children's, upon my son's diagnosis, was sucralose, aspartame and the sugar alcohols are all bad from a FODMAP perspective. Stevia is okay, though, as long as it's not mixed with something else like inulin, chicory, etc.

Aviva,
My swami gives me honey as a superfood.  For some reason, I find just a touch of it does the trick.  And I did do vegetable glycerin in hot drinks and like the flavor of it also.   I can't remember if you did a swami?