Thailand Floating Food Market, Photo tommykwok630
Before even getting into what to eat and what not to eat to manage your IBS, let’s first understand why food plays such an important part in controlling your IBS.
All food that we eat, has to get broken down in our digestive tracts, its nutrients extracted for absorption by the body, and then the waste secreted out via bowel movements.
But not all food needs to be broken down to the same extent. Some foods are easier to digest than others, while some don’t need any digestion and can be directly absorbed by our intestines.
E.g. certain kinds of sugars such as honey, glucose etc. can be directly absorbed and used by body. This is why it’s possible to give glucose via intravenous veins directly to blood and bypass the digestive tract entirely. They don’t need any further digestion.
Now here’s what happens to folks with IBS. Let’s say your digestive system is weak due to some reason (either from birth due to inherited genetics, or later on in life by some other causes such as over use of antibiotics, anti inflammatory pills or other factors).
It just so happens that carbohydrates are the most difficult to break down for your body, compared to proteins and fats.
Here’s how carbs can mess up your already fragile digestive tract.
* Microvilli exist on intestinal surface. They contain enzymes which break down food. If they get damaged, then digestion is severely impaired.
Carbohydrates Worsen IBS
As you see in the diagram, it all begins with a vulnerable digestive tract. Then as you eat carbs, you enter the vicious cycle of – more you eat, the worse you get. The less nutrition you are able to absorb, you feel even more sluggish and eat even more carbs, which further worsens the situation.
Gradually due to lack of your body absorbing important vitamins and minerals, you will get other secondary diseases, and even mental depression/anxiety. Partly because of energy deficiency and partly because of inability to do any work requiring physical effort or thinking…
Hopefully this gives you a fair understanding of what carbs are doing to you and why removing them from your diet is an important part of the solution.
With that in mind, here’s what you should eliminate from your diet:
- All grains including – wheat, rice, corn etc.
- All starchy foods including potatoes, yam, tapioca, etc. All starchy vegetables including peas, chick peas etc.
- All sugars – Replace sugar with honey. Honey is a sweetener which has a particular molecular structure (monosaccharide) which allows it to be directly absorbed by intestines without need for further digestion.
- All dairy products containing lactose- which means no milk, ice cream, cream, sour cream etc. Butter, aged cheeses which have 0% carb are ok. E.g. Cheddar, Monterrey Jack, Gouda, etc.
A note on sweeteners: Even though honey doesn’t require further digestion, it does directly feed the bacteria in the stomach, which can indirectly further damage the intestinal lining. Ditto for fruits.
During your healing phase you should also try to avoid rough or fibrous foods such as vegetable and fruits. This is purely because they are literally rough and can damage the fragile intestinal lining during their passage.
Once your symptoms have subsided it’s usually ok to slowly reintroduce vegetables and fruits. Be cautious with really sweet fruits like grapes and mangos etc. and control how much sugary fruits you eat even after you have stabilized.
So what can you eat?
- You can eat all meat, fish, poultry, eggs etc. Try to minimize eating processed meats such as ham unless you know for sure that they didn’t add any sugar during manufacturing.
- You can eat all vegetables and fruits (in reasonable quantities) once your symptoms have subsided
- You can eat most beans and legumes, as long as you prepare them from dry, after soaking them overnight. This removes most of the starch and minimizes their carb content.
- You can consume most distilled liquor which doesn’t have any added sugar
- You can eat all lactose free dairy, including butter and aged hard cheeses (Look for ones which say 0% carb on the label).
This is hard. It’s definitely not easy giving up on our favorite foods like ice-cream, fried rice (my favorite), pizza, and my beloved French dish tarte d’alsace.
But all is not lost. Here’s what has worked for me. Cheating.
How to Cheat and get away with it
Once your symptoms have subsided and you have been free of all problems for a month or so, you can try experimenting in the following way.
Allow yourself a cheat meal once every 7 days. Cheat meal means you can eat whatever you want, as much as you want. If that works, go up to allowing yourself one cheat day every 7 days.
We’re all different. Depending on so many factors, and how severe your IBS is, this cheat day may not be possible for you at all, or maybe you can tolerate one cheat meal every 2 weeks. I don’t know. Experiment and see what works for you.
Personally, now that IBS symptoms are only a long ago bad memory for me, I have been able to go “cheating” every Saturday lunch and dinner, every week. And it doesn’t bother me at all.
The theory is that prolonged exposure to carbs will damage most of us, but in moderation is acceptable. That moderation limit is different for all of us. For me it makes no difference to me if I stick to the diet for 6 days and then go crazy every Saturday. Your mileage may vary.
Now sound off below, and tell me what you think. What has worked for you in treating your IBS? Have you tried diet, other treatments? What do you think of the “cheat meal” concept?
