My dearest friend, you know you can earn 50 cents or whatever from me on this ... I am absolutely sugar free - but I also limit other refined carbs and eat very few processed foods. We ate out last nite and I had Osso Buco of which I could consume only 1/3 (still have 1 meal left and I had some for breakfast with 2 eggs and also gave a bowl to our tiny son, Gambit. For me, it's the processed foods. I did make bread over Christmas and ate a few pieces (dark European bread). I truly think it's the processed foods. Even if processed in Holland - they just cannot pack the preservatives, additives, or do the totally insane processes used to make foods here - most of it isn't allowed in Europe. I saw somebody mentioned the microbiome - I have IBS, and have had it FOREVER - probably since I was a little kid. If I eliminate sugar AND processed foods (including bread, etc) my IBS is a lot less. I might even be able to eat cauliflower now ... but I've been doing this since Nov 2021. So it takes longer than one month! And I was mostly processed food free prior to giving up sugar, not the other way around. It's microbiome-related, too. I would venture to guess that your hubs has retained most of his Euro microbiome.