[elliew1905]

HiI have been diagnosed with IBS for about a year so have been testing and ruling out different foods and have generally found that bread, onion, tinned soup for example are particular ones to avoid, which I'm sure are common with most people. I am confused by pizza! I don't seem to have a problem with pizza, which is good for me! but a lot of other people list it as a problem food and I would have thought the base was similar to bread?Why would bread be a problem? What does bread have that pizza bases don't? Is it because bread has more wheat etc in it and pizza bases tend to be less nutritious? Or is it that my problem is some kind of intolerance rather than IBS? I see other people mention ice cream and dairy as a problem which I also don't find, luckily for me!Any advice from more experienced IBSers would be appreciated!

 

[Kathleen M.]

There are a few things with bread vs pizza1. Gluten. If you are sensitive to gluten (have celiac) you can't have any wheat in any amount of any kind. The protien in the wheat (gluten) sets off an immune response.2. Starch. Wheat has a lot of resistant starch. How much may vary between types of flour (which kind of wheat is used, like some people are better with the type of wheat used in pasta compared to bread) and often there is a threshold effect. Until you get a certain amount of wheat starch you don't react (more starch equals more gas and it takes more than a couple of molecules of gas to change the overall volume by much). It may be for some people pizza may have a different kind of flour (at least in some places) which may mean more or less resistant starch and it may be a thin crust of pizza isn't as much total wheat as a couple of slices of bread.3. Other stuff in the bread. A lot of commercial bread has high fructose corn syrup, and other wheat products may not (either french bread which doesn't have much sugar or things or pasta which is made differently)4. The other stuff. Some people are OK with bread and not pasta because all the fat on the pizza bothers them, not the wheat. Also foods in combination sometimes digest faster or slower than with foods in other combinations and that may effect how much of a reaction one has.With IBS it really depends on what sets you off. Some people have to eat a very low fat diet, some a very low starch diet, some people have the exact same symptoms no matter what they eat.

 

[problemgirl]

hey kayleen when you have time would you reply to my last response thanks.