HiI am 24 years old and I was diagnosed with IBS a couple of months ago. My problem is this.. I love to eat and it seems like doctors and the web only tell you what you should avoid( which is basically everything). I suffer from severe constipation, excess gas and bloating. I am so stressed about this that I am down to two meals a day and 2 snacks in between.I try to drink a lot of water but if I have food siting in my stomach for days, water only seems to make it worse. i am currently taking medication that helps me digest food and makes me hungry. Since I dont know what foods are good for me, I always end up caving in and eating things that are not so healthy and in the end give me pain at night when I sleep. I am tired and frustrated of waking up early in the morning with the need to go to the bathroom and trying after an hour with no luck! please please.. I need help. does anyone know any good websites or books that actually give you ideas on what to eat instead of telling you what not to eat? ThanksJojo
Diet Suggestions?/
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To begin with, try eating foods that are easily digested such as oatmeal, cooked fruits, avocado vegetable soup, quinoa, Ensure Plus drinks.
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Does more fiber help, or make things worse. You might need an osmotic laxative with the fiber to keep things moving, or if you are really severely constipated (go a couple of times a month rather than a couple of times a week) then you may need less fiber with a lot of osmotics to keep things wet. 2 weeks worth of residue (aka fiber) is uncomfortable no matter who it is, and so people with extreme constipation often need a lower fiber diet.Here is an example of a high and low fiber diet. If osmotics work you can try natural ones like fruits with sorbitol, but they make some people too gassy. If wheat makes you gassy substitute rice (brown for more fiber, white for less) for any bread in the menus.http://www.endowsec.com/pated/edtgs01.htm for high fiberhttp://www.endowsec.com/pated/edtgs02.htm for low fiber
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Jojo!I am so sorry to hear about your struggles. I can tell you...I definitely relate! I suffer from IBS-C and it can be so awful. The one thing that caught my attention though is that you love to eat....so do I! You may find my blog SUPER helpful b/c I have IBS and I blog about what I eat every single day. Who knows? It may give you some new, positive ideas (rather than telling you what you can't eat, showing you what you can!).You can check it out at www.eatandbe.com.cheers,Kim
Greetings Jojo,I have spent the past decade refining my recipes so that my husband can eat dinner with the family. I'm too lazy to prepare a seperate meal for him and I don't enjoy eating a diet consisting of only chicken and rice.
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Everyone is different and the triggers for one person may not be the triggers for another. I will share what has worked to almost completely elimate his IBS-A symptoms (and it has been a long, hard road to this point!)* He stopped drinking sodas... the bubbly sodas and mineral waters seem to give him gas and exacerbate the IBS-D.* We don't use any processed foods (mostly meats) that have nitrates or nitrites as a preservative... keeping in mind that this will pretty much eliminate all lunch meat, hot dogs, bacon, etc.
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Fortunately, Food companies have started to respond to customer demand and you can buy Oscar Meyer hot dogs that are preservative free. Yay! * He cannot have pork in any way shape or form... even organic. Dunno why, it just appears to be that way.* Eliminated all "cow" dairy products... he doesn't seem to have an issue with goat milk or goat cheese. That discovery opened up a whole new avenue of food enjoyment for him. Tofutti makes the MOST wonderful "ice cream"... I eat it rather than regular ice cream. Yummmmm. They also make a tofu based sour cream and cream cheese that are pretty decent... especially if you can't have dairy. (Their vegan cheesecake is the bomb!)* He limits the amount of fried foods he eats, as well as raw onions and tomatoes... an occasional serving of these is tolerable, but not often.* He also started breaking up his meals into several "mini-meals" throughout the day.* Alcohol is iffy... sometimes he is fine with a couple of beers; other times he will be doubled over in pain for half the day. He got tired of the roulette wheel so he abstains most of the time now.Keeping a food journal and closely monitoring your episodes for the triggers goes a long way to reducing their frequency. Hopefully, some of these will be of benefit to you. It took us more than 10yrs to get to this point, but we have finally gotten a handle on his "treatment plan". Eliminating STRESS is a huge, huge ... cannot stress enough how HUGE it is... factor. I can tell when he is having a lot of problems at work because he will start to get crampy... since I cannot go kill everyone that is causing problems at his place of employment... I make sure that the dinners I cook during that time are fairly bland and I don't use any of the "occasional" foods as ingredients. This seems to help. A lot of folks have had great success by using yoga for relaxation... we haven't tried it but you may want to give it a go.
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These books don't always specifically address IBS, but I found the more I educated myself about food and nutrition in general, the more my IBS healed. Here are some of my books that helped me:The Whole-Food Guide to Strong Bones by Annemarie Colbin, PH.D.Heal Your Headache by David Buchholz, M.D. The food triggers that are described in this book are also food triggers for my IBS, I believe. This was extremely helpful book, especially the section about food triggers.Digestive Tune-Up By Dr. John A McDougall, MDBreaking the Food Seduction by Neal Barnard, M.D.You Are What You Eat by Dr Gillian McKeith
JoJo. I just went to the health food store, bought some Acacia fiber, came back and was looking up information about it when I ran across this: "Most IBS sufferers use the acacia fiber supplement called Tummy Fiber, which is produced by Heather Van Vorous, the author of the best-selling IBS books Eating for IBS and The First Year - IBS. Heather is an IBS sufferer herself and an expert on the condition." More books! Oh, goody! I guess you pushed my buttons when you asked for suggestions of books. Good luck again!
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