Eating for IBS - How to Stabilize the Touchiest Tummy

STRATEGY

Question: What is the single most important principle to eating for IBS?
Answer: Organize every meal along the lines of easily tolerated, high soluble fiber staples.

French or Sourdough bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, fat-free flour tortillas, baked com chips (Tostitos), pita bread, oatmeal, soy foods, polenta, and so on, must form the foundation of very meal and snack. Think of vegetables, fruit, seafood, beans, lentils, nuts, egg whites, and chicken breasts as secondary ingredients to be used in smaller quantities for flavor.

TIPS , TRICKS. AND HELPFUL HINTS FOR EATING AND COOKING

• Eat soluble fiber fuse whenever your stomach is empty.
• Chew thoroughly. This will help pre em you from eating too fast and swallowing air, which can cause problems.
• Eat at a leisurely pace--if you must eat in a hurry, serve yourself half portions. Remember that the first stage of digestion occurs in your mouth, as saliva begins to break down food. The less you rush this process the better.
• Eat small portions of food, and eat frequently-the emptier your stomach is, the more sensitive you will be.
• Avoid earing large amounts of food in one sitting as this can trigger an attack.
• Avoid ice-cold foods and drinks on an empty tomach. Cold makes muscles contract, and your goal is to keep your stomach and the rest of your GI tract as calm as possible.
• Avoid chewing gum, as it causes you to swallow excess air. which can trigger problems.
• Drink fresh water constantly throughout the day (not ice cold). Limit the amount of water or other fluids you drink with your meals, as this can inhibit digestion.
• Eat green salads - tiny portions, with nonfat dressing - at the end of the meal, not the beginning (tell people you're French).
• Peel, skin, chop, and cook fruits and vegetables; lightly mash beans, lentils, corn, peas, and berries. Finely chop nuts, raisins and other dried fruits, and fresh herbs. Nuts in particular can be quite tolerable when finely ground. To keep dried fruit from sticking to your knife when chopping, spray the blade with cooking oil first.
• Use only egg whites (two whites can substitute for one whole egg), and try to buy organic.
• You can almost always reduce the amount of oil called for in recipes by at least 1/3.
• Use non-stick pans and cooking spray, as this will dramatically lessen the amount of oil you cook with. Remember, with IBS the less at the better, period.

THINK SUBSTITUTION, NOT DEPRIVATION

• Substitute soy, rice, almoud, or oat milk for all dairy milk (check the ingredients to be sure there is no added oil). Try a wide variety of brand and flavors as the difference in taste can be dramatic. Some brands are truly wretched and some are delicious. My favorite is VicaSoy lit vanilla. It's helpful to keep two types of soy/rice milk on hand: unsweetened for cooking and vanilla for drinking.
• Use soy or rice substitutes for cream cheese, sour cream, ice cream, and other dairy produces (check the ingredients to be sure the items are low-fat).
• Many meat-based recip such as tacos, Sloppy Joes, chili, and so on, can be easily adapted to IBS guidelines by substituting textured vegetable protein (TVP, a soy food available in health food stores) for the ground beef. Simply eliminate the cooking oil and season the TVP as you would the meat. When well prepared most people honestly can't taste the difference. 

A NEW WAY TO EAT

   To incorporate raw fruits and veggies into your diet, peel and eat them in small quantities (just two or three bites) finely chopped as additions to high soluble fiber foods such as French breads, pastas, rice, and so on. It should also help to eat them toward the end of a meal. This is especially important when it comes to green salads. Eating them, as is customary in America, on an empty stomach at the beginning of lunch or dinner is likely to trigger an attack. Eating them at the end of a high soluble fiber meal is typically quite safe.
   For fruit salads follow the same guidelines. At breakfast have a bowl of oatmeal or toasted French bread first, then the fruit, and at lunch or dinner have the fruit for dessert.
   Remember that color is a good way to tell what types of nutrition fruits and vegetables offer; if you are completely intolerant of one try a same-color substitution. For example, if you can't eat cantaloupes, try mangoes. In my case. I can tolerate cabbage much more easily than lettuce though I don't know why.
   Whole wheat and wheat bran are extremely high in insoluble fiber, and foods such as whole-wheat breads and cereals need to be eaten with great care. For a daily staple, French and sourdough breads are safe, but whole-wheat breads are not. Whole wheat breads are more nutritious, because the outer coating of bran on the grain has not been removed as is the case in white breads. However, this bran is also very high in insoluble fiber, and can thus trigger attacks. For this same reason wheat bran cereals are not as safe a choice as rice. com, or oat varieties are. Does this mean you should never eat whole-wheat bread or wheat bran cereal? It most emphatically does not. As with fruits and vegetables. the more whole grains you can eat the better. It cannot be stressed enough that overall good health is dependent on insoluble fiber.
   However, whole wheat and wheat bran need to be eaten just as carefully as green salads. Do not eat them on an empty stomach, in large quantities. or without soluble fiber foods.
   Whole nuts can be high in insoluble fiber, and they are always high in fat. Although this fat is monounsaturated and lowers your risk of heart disease. it is still an IBS trigger. Like other insoluble fiber foods. nuts are crucial for good health, but must be eaten carefully. Finely grinding nuts and incorporating them into recipes with soluble fiber is a very safe way to eat them. Small amounts of nut butters on toasted French or sourdough bread are usually very tolerable as well.
   Popcorn is full of hard kernels that are pure insoluble fiber. There is no great nutritional value to popcorn so it can simply be eliminated from your diet. I realize this may make movies a lot less fun, but having to bolt from a theater for the bathroom half way through a film is a worse alternative. Sneak some pretzels or baked potato chips into the theater instead. and console yourself with the thought that you'll actually get to see the end of the movie if you bypass the popcorn concession stand.
   Fresh fruit juices, especially apple, prune, and grape, can trigger cramps and diarrhea. Fruit juice in general should be avoided on an empty stomach. Cranberry juice is usually a safe choice.
   Rhuburb, prunes, figs, licorice are all natural laxatives. As with fresh fruits in general, you may be able to incorporate these foods safely into recipe with soluble fiber. Just beware that they pose additional risks.

SPICE: UP YOUR LIFE

   You do not have to forego flavor and live on bland foods to avoid IBS attacks. Many people with IBS have been given this impression, but it is completely untrue. In fact, many typical bland foods - custards, puddings, warm milk, and so on - are major triggers due to their high fat and dairy content. On a related note, the real problem with spicy foods is that they are usually very greasy (chili, tacos, Sloppy Joes) and often meat-based. It is their high fat content that causes problems, not their seasoning. Hot chili peppers such as cayenne, jalapeno, halabanero, and so on, can cause GI distress in some people, but herbs and spices as a whole are not triggers for IBS. In fact, many herbs and spices, including ginger, mint, caraway, fennel, and chamomile, actually aid digestion. There is no limit on flavor when it comes to safe foods for IBS, so feel free to season your recipes any way you like.

ON A SWEET NOTE

   One of the best things about the IBS diet is that it requires no restriction of sugar, which means that lots of luscious desserts are yours for the baking. This does not mean that sugar should become a main component of your diet, of course. Sugar has zero nutritional value and is nothing more than a simple carbohydrate with lots of empty calories. It should be used in moderation for general good health, and desserts should be limited to small portions following nutritious meals.
   However, the fantastic thing about sugar is that it is most definitely not a trigger. It contains no insoluble fiber, no fat, no caffeine, no alcohol, and has no stimulant or irritant effect on the GI tract whatsoever. This is important to note, because some people with IBS find that they feel better when they eliminate sweets from their diet, and they then mistakenly assume that sugar must have been the underlying culprit. This isn't true - the real trigger in most desserts is far, butter, cream, egg yolks, shortening, solid chocolate, and whole milk form the basis of most traditional desserts, from cakes to cookies to ice cream. None of those foods are safe for IBS. So how can you enjoy traditional sweets? Easily and deliciously!

excerpt from Eating For IBS, by Heather Van Vorous