[spencerg]

Im not sure how people tell which food or drink makes their symtpoms worse. Do the symptoms get worse immediately after eating/the next day etc? If its right away, then I guess it would be easy to tell, but Im having a real nightmare trying to figure out what makes things worse.

Any info would be appreciated. Thanks. Spencer.

 

[Suzannedmb]

Hi Spencer. Well usually if I eat something that I know was a mistake, I can tell within the next half hour. However, sometimes if I eat a lot of chocolate (like if I have a chocolate bar while watching TV) late at night, I will be fine until I wake up the next morning. THEN I'll have to run to the bathroom. (the D) Foods that I avoid big time are anything dairy - no milk, no large quantities of cheese, no rich desserts, etc., and anything too greasy. I'm not a big junk food eater in the first place so I don't know what is safe to eat in that area, etc. I also find that if I eat small meals and take my time it really helps, then sometimes if I'm still hungry I'll have a small snack like a bagel later in the evening. I hope this helps!

 

[Shadowz]

With me it differs really , sometimes it will be quite soon after eating something ( bloated etc.) but normally it takes a few hours (4-5 hrs) then i get pains etc. If I eat bread or wheat in general i get the pains quite soon. It can be very hard to find out what you can and cant eat and it can take months . Maybe you should try keeping a food diary , writing what you are eating when you are eating and when the pains comes . Hope you can find some help here

 

[angelk753]

I kept a food diary for so long and couldnt mae anything out of it. I came to the conclusion that no specific type of food causes my attacks.

 

[MartyG]

I am usually fine all afternoon and evening. Eat anything, no problem, but when I wake up there is urgency and either loose bowels or diarrhea.Still trying to figure things out. Have been real good for about 3 years.Doctor prescribed Protonix to help with spasms, said a side effect helps with diarrhea even though the drug is used for GERD.

 

[Kathleen M.]

Part of keeping a good log is that it may help you figure out what your response range is. So when you have a symptom look 1-6 meals back and if something shows up consistantly like 2 meals back from the symptom time then you start to understand your reaction time.Many have fairly immediate responses. Things like a fatty meal send a larger signal to the intestines to move things along than a light meal and when that is an over-signalling you can get a fairly immediate response to the problem food.Other types of reactions may take longer, but my sense of it is the majority of the reactions are within hours of the offending food with some people reacting later and the longer you go the fewer the people. As for morning reactions. The colon has a daily rhythm. Most active around the time you get up in the morning and then getting more active after each meal (the response I talked about above). Some people seem to over-react to that "it's morning wake up" signal and that IMO may be less food dependant than after meal responses.Some people are very food triggered, others are not, so food may not be the whole story. You may want to also log things like stressful events, phsycial stressors (like other illnesses, working too hard, not sleeping well), menses, etc to see if you can notice non-food triggers as well.K.

 

[alongtin]

Hopefully I can help. When I was first diagnosed, I felt the same way. Like, how long till the food's in the colon? Well, according to experts, here's what actually happens in true IBS. This is of course null and void if you have wheat/gluten intolerance:The problem with your body if you have IBS is not in your stomach or in your colon, it's in your brain. The connection between your brain and gut is faulty and often overreacts. Let's say that bananas trigger an attack. By the time the banana actually makes it to your colon, it's far too late. The problem starts when the banana hits your stomach. Your brain senses the banana in the tummy and goes into red alert mode. It signals the colon to contract wildly, causing an attack. So, essentially, the food you are pooping is different than the food that caused it!The problem with finding food triggers is that oftentimes,you won't have the same reaction twice. A banana may cause D this time, and it may not do anything the next time. Let me be the first to say, finding your food triggers is tricky!!I'll point you in the direction I went in when I wanted to find my triggers. Either check out or buy Heather Van Vorous' book Eating for IBS or start out on her website www.eatingforibs.com. She sets out some great advice and discusses the most common food triggers. Her diet doesn't really work for me, but she really helped me figure out the foods that were bothering me (some of them at least). For instance, beef is public enemy number one for me.If not, MikeNoLomitol recommends a book on Food Intolerance. I can't remember what it's called, but he'll probably help me out. (It's in the other room, and I'm too drained with D to get up and look!)

Anyway, good luck! It's not an easy thing!Amy

 

[GailSusan]

Well, I have a funny story to relate about how I found out that onions and I do not get along. I had gone on a diet using a cookbook in which onions played a key role in every recipe. The food was delicious and I kept making the recipes and getting sicker and sicker. It finally dawned on me that the huge quantities of onions that I was buying at the grocery store just might have something to do with my worsening IBS!Some people have such difficulty pinpointing problem foods that they go on an elimination diet. This means starting with a few bland foods that you know won't cause problems and gradually adding in another food one at a time. When you do this AND keep a food diary you can pretty much pinpoint what foods are causing the problems. It takes a lot of effort to do this, but if you are really desperate, I thought I'd mention it.

 

[kiwiLyn]

Hi guysthe foods and things I find irriate my IBS are Coffee lots of it, dairy products likes of ice cream yoghurt etc. sometimes its really hard to not have these things as I crave the caffeine from the coffee and we do alot of walking, I try and limit it to 2 cups a day, you will find as you go along what things irritate you, I have had IBS for 6 years now and hope one day there will be a miraculous cure for it, but I have nothing but praise for this BB as you can come here and sound off and burble just like I am..lol Tomorrow is a new day and hopefully a pain free day..