This is funny because I was JUST going to post the same question today. I have IBS, and right now it is horrible and combined with another condition -- and it essentially means I am going to be forced to eat way fewer calories than I want, and all sorts of problems. Guess we can discuss privately.

I am so damn jealous of people with normal guts.

I have IBS-D... it's part of my life and I do what I can to work around it and not cause flare-ups.

My husband had ulcerative colitis, so no I'm no stranger to the problems these issues can cause! Not fun! I say "had" ulcerative colitis because he had surgery about 5 years ago to remove his colon, and a second surgery to create a j-pouch out of his small intestine (so he doesn't have a bag - google j-pouch if you're curious or you can message me. ).

Anyway - one thing we learned through his years of dealing with flares is that everyone seems to be different - what causes one person to flare up may or may not trigger someone else. Stress was definitely a trigger, even though some doctors say there's no proof of that. Hubs had issues with dairy, especially frozen dairy and cottage cheese, cruciferous veggies,citrus, a lot of seeds and roughage.

In the early years he could often get a flare under control by backing away from any of those types of foods, and drinking those Ensure drinks - they were easy on his gut. Rice, cream of wheat cereal, scrambled eggs - bland, non-greasy stuff were good too. Oddly, metamucil was helpful too. Always seemed counter-intuitive, but since it's a bulking agent, it helped balance him out sometimes. He liked the unflavored, coarse ground stuff better than the orange stuff.

I hope you get some good answers and some relief soon! My heart goes out to all of you who suffer from these things! :flowerforyou:

I have Crohns. Currently in remission though, as I have not had a bad flare now for some time. I'm also coeliac.

I do primal/paleo and it seems to work pretty well for me, though it can be a process of trial and error. I was laxative dependent (sorry TMI!) for a couple of years due to a colon stricture caused by scarring from ulcers, but since quitting grains and legumes, and eating more or less according to the primal blueprint guidelines (google Mark's Daily Apple if you're interested) I am coming off the laxatives gradually, and am just down to half a tablet. The main thing that has helped, weirdly, I think has been the increase in fats, particularly Omega 3. It seems to just calm everything down. I had started with some mouth ulcers a couple of weeks back (the first sign that I'm about to flare up) but they went after a few days once I went strictly back on the diet.

Best of luck with all the tests.

From my research, there are two diets to follow; one for maintenance and one during a flare. The maintenance diet is high fibre, the diet during a flare is low fibre/low residue. Searching "low residue diet" will give you more details.

The most common triggers of a flare are dairy, caffeine, alcohol, and sorbitol. If you are on a flare, you should also avoid whole grains, raw fruits, dried fruits, and sugar as much as possible.

Other foods that may be problematic are meat, gas producing foods (beans, crucifers, mushrooms, etc.), fatty foods, soy, gluten, and nuts/seeds. You really do need to figure out your own individual triggers, but these are common ones. During a flare you should be especially aware of crucifers, beans/legumes, and spicy food.

Good foods on the maintenance diet are fruits (peeled or cooked if you are sensitive), cooked/steamed veggies, tubers, beans/legumes if tolerated, and gluten-free grains.

During a flare, good foods would be cooked fruits/juices, bananas, well-cooked vegetables/juices, peeled tubers, and refined gluten-free grains.

I hope some of that works for you.