Discovering I’m lactose intolerant transformed my body
GEMMA CALVERT hears how the X Factor singer is coping with the agony of debilitating digestive problems
THERE’S no denying that in recent months former X Factor star Lucy Spraggan has been through a dramatic transformation.The Last Night songstress, 28, who found fame on the 2012 series of ITV’s hit pop talent show, has honed her body after achieving sobriety last summer and also developing a passion for running and weightlifting.
Yet there has been another physical improvement, which is not visible to the eye but is perhaps the most life-changing of all. Lucy has finally conquered the debilitating digestive problems that have plagued her for years.
“During my adult life I’ve had an unpredictable stomach and had pain that would come and go but I long blamed it on wheat and gluten because my family, including my mum and elder sister, has a history of wheat intolerance.
“I also suffer from endometriosis so for years I was able to explain away the suffering, bloating and nausea,” says Sheffield-born Lucy.
“It always starts as an ache underneath my waistband, the next symptom is bloating, which begins just underneath my boobs then eventually blows up my whole tummy to such an extent I can almost hear my skin stretching.
“The pain is so intense I’m reduced to tears. It feels an alien is inside me wanting to break out and all I can do is lie down, writhe around and wait for the agony to subside. Often it can take hours.”
Last October, ahead of a gig in Carlisle, Lucy enjoyed a pizza for dinner then noticed the beginning of discomfort. By the end of the show she was doubled-up in pain, vomiting and contemplating calling an ambulance.
“By midnight, I was lying there panicking that my appendix had ruptured and I was so poorly the next day I was unable to travel on with my band to Ireland.
“It wasn’t my time of the month, so I couldn’t blame endometriosis and I don’t have the time or the energy to be in that much pain. I knew I had to get the problem under control.”
LUCY BEGAN threading together occasions when excruciating stomach cramps and sickness had blighted her and pinpointed a significant episode a couple of months earlier during a trip to Cologne, Germany.
“I’d eaten a cheese-heavy continental breakfast in the morning and noticed discomfort during the day, then by my show in the evening I was in a right state,” she recalls.
“The pain hit me just before I went on stage and when I came off
I immediately threw up. That was the precursor to an entire night of suffering the same overwhelming pain.”
Realising that before both incidents she had eaten large quantities of cheese, over a period of three months Lucy eliminated then reintroduced various dairy products to test her body’s reaction.
“I realised that whenever I ate cheese, cream or milk I’d have the same reaction, sometimes less intense but sometimes more, so I quit dairy altogether,” she says.
Giving up her food favourites, especially ice cream, hasn’t been easy but with so many tasty vegan foods now available she does not feel deprived.
She also notes that her skin is a “million times better than it was”, she has “buckets more energy” and excruciating episodes of gut pain are a distant memory – almost.
“During lockdown I accidentally drank a non-vegan protein shake that I grabbed from a shop and realised my mistake within seconds,” says Lucy, who normally sticks to lactose-free protein powders.
“That evening, I was completely incapacitated and ended up crying on the bathroom floor for eight hours. I ended up taking a painkiller I had left over from treating a broken ankle.
“The bout wrote me off for three days. It was all the confirmation I needed that my body is incapable of tolerating dairy products. It’s nuts that one type of food can have such an effect on the human body.”
Although Lucy has not been medically diagnosed, she is confident from her own research that her problem is rooted in an inability to digest lactose – a type of natural sugar in milk and other dairy products – plus processed meats and prepared foods such as soups, sauces, and breakfast cereals.
When the body produces insufficient lactase, the enzyme that breaks down lactose in dairy, lactose remains in the digestive system and becomes fermented by bacteria. Within a few hours of consuming food or drink containing lactose, gases are produced, triggering symptoms including pains, flatulence, diarrhoea, bloating, cramps and sickness.
THE DISORDER can develop at any age, although the majority of cases first start in people aged 20 to 40. Crucially, there is a difference between lactose intolerance and a dairy allergy, which involves the immune system and can be life-threatening if the suffer experiences anaphylaxis – a narrowing of the airways. Other symptoms of a dairy allergy include itchy skin, rashes and sickness.
“Some people assume that my intolerance is a fad, as if not eating dairy is a lifestyle choice, not a requirement,” Lucy adds.
Cutting out dairy can lead to a dip in bone-bolstering calcium and vitamin D levels in your diet, a problem Lucy believes she may be experiencing. “My nails are so weak to the point where the nail on my middle finger bent in half so I’ve ordered calcium, magnesium and vitamin D supplements,” she says.
At her heaviest in 2015, 5ft 3ins Lucy weighed 12st 3lbs and was a size 14/16 but she is now nine stone and a size 6/8.
As well as running four times a week and doing regular weight-lifting sessions, she now sticks to a well-balanced 1,900-calorie-a-day diet.
“It’s nice, for the first time in my life, to feel like I’ve got my physical self sussed,” she admits. “I’m the fittest I’ve ever been in my life. My resting heart rate and body fat are the levels of an athlete. I’m also 11 months sober, which I needed to do for mental clarity.
“Now I’m no longer eating dairy, I’m doing something else right for my body and it feels good. You have to treat your body with respect.”
●●Lucy’s new album is out later this year and tickets for her November tour are available from myticket.co.uk/artists/lucy-spraggan