IBS diet

Hi guys, I struggle with IBS-D daily. I'm trying to rearrange my lifestyle to wear I will feel better internally and lose weight the correct way. I'm extremely limited to what I can eat and would love to know if anyone else deals with this as well as what their fav go to meals are!

Replies

  • mutantspicy
    mutantspicy Posts: 624 Member
    I struggle with IBS-D as well, but mine is a symptom of fat malabsorption. Things that have helped me. Increased fiber intake a lot , reduced my intake of animal and milk fat, switched from beer to red wine as a normal drink, reduced amount of oils used in cooking and salad dressings. I Pretty much only use olive oil, coconut, and sesame seed oil for high heat, but even then very little if at all. Pretty aimed to get as much of my fat as I can from real food, eggs, avocados, nuts, beans, lentils, etc. And I take a raw fiber supplement. All of that has really helped me greatly. I'm essentially eating a pescatarian diet with occasional exceptions. Before I made those changes, I couldn't eat spicy food, or acidic food like peppers or tomatoes. Now I can. There is still some things like fatty meat, spicy sausage and cheese that mess me up. But honestly IBS-D is more of symptom of some larger problem. My advice is to keep a diligent food diary, so you can truly know your triggers.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    Keep in mind your intolerances are highly individual and what works for others may not work for you. Take the next couple months running through the FODMAP protocol and come up with your personalized forbidden list. It may be shorter than you think.
  • MikePfirrman
    MikePfirrman Posts: 3,307 Member
    edited July 2018
    Out of curiosity, has anyone tried Colostrum? I'm reading some pretty impressive things about it related to diarrhea in poorer countries as a very promising treatment. I know one company has some very promising clinical trials going on right now (and they have hired some pharma big hitters). It is supposed to help tremendously with IBS as well.

    My wife suffered from it for years. We cleaned up our diets and went away for her after around 3 years of suffering with it regularly. Then she developed fibromyalgia. We now eat gluten/dairy free and her (and my) digestive health have gotten much better. Her Fibro also went into remission from being nearly bedridden. I think IBS is a sign that something is off with your microbiome. Unfortunately, fixing that is an inexact science still. They are figuring out more and more quickly.

    Fiber used to bother her but now it doesn't at all. She definitely reacted to dairy and gluten (and now oddly she's recently developed allergies to tree nuts). So even with all her improvements, we're still trying to figure things out. Traditional docs completely let us down.

    Edit - found this article. Interestingly enough, it touches on all the points mentioned (FODMAP as well as Colostrum, though it calls it something else in the article). Also mentions prebiotics and probiotics and how typically IBS is a sign of not enough Bifidobacterium and diversity in the microbiome.

    https://www.nature.com/articles/ctg20182

  • tpspiege
    tpspiege Posts: 32 Member
    I struggle with IBS-D as well, but mine is a symptom of fat malabsorption. Things that have helped me. Increased fiber intake a lot , reduced my intake of animal and milk fat, switched from beer to red wine as a normal drink, reduced amount of oils used in cooking and salad dressings. I Pretty much only use olive oil, coconut, and sesame seed oil for high heat, but even then very little if at all. Pretty aimed to get as much of my fat as I can from real food, eggs, avocados, nuts, beans, lentils, etc. And I take a raw fiber supplement. All of that has really helped me greatly. I'm essentially eating a pescatarian diet with occasional exceptions. Before I made those changes, I couldn't eat spicy food, or acidic food like peppers or tomatoes. Now I can. There is still some things like fatty meat, spicy sausage and cheese that mess me up. But honestly IBS-D is more of symptom of some larger problem. My advice is to keep a diligent food diary, so you can truly know your triggers.

    Tell me more about this "raw fiber" that you speak of :)

    I'm not in the IBS-D camp, but diagnosed with (with CT scan to validate) mild diverticulitis and have had to increase my daily fiber to ~35g per day to keep things moving along and feel much better (the feelings of "bloat" come back for a day or two when I don't meet 35g the preceding day)

    When my daily log shows that I'm still short of 35g even after whatever apples, lettuce, avocado, etc I consume that day I usually end up mixing up a couple scoops of Metamucil Free (no artificial sweeteners or dyes) to get me where to be ... if there is some other "raw" form that I can tolerate that will avoid the "cane sugar" they add to the Metamucil Free stuff I'll give it a go.

    Thanks in advance
  • Goober1142
    Goober1142 Posts: 219 Member
    Maybe try Organic India Whole Husk Psyllium. Amazon has it.
  • nvmomketo
    nvmomketo Posts: 12,019 Member
    edited July 2018
    I do not have IBS as a diagnosis, and my problem was C and not D - I'm a celiac who tends to still have a sensitive gut, so I'm not sure if my experience is relevant.

    I find that avoiding fibre helps a lot. Raw vegetables are harder on me too, and I do not do well with lactose. That leaves meat, seafood, full fat dairy line cheese, veggies, fruit, seeds and nuts.
  • FL_Hiker
    FL_Hiker Posts: 919 Member
    edited July 2018
    I had developed IBS D from multiple rounds of antibiotics (had a open water swim in a lake and got sick after, sent to ER room they thought bacteria in my brain) , after the antibiotics I wasn't the same. I couldn't tolerate any dairy products at all for years, Dr. told me I was lactose intolerant even though I had had dairy my entire life prior to that incident without a problem. I just ended up avoiding what hurt and gave it time. I remember going on vacation with my family and going out to eat pizza at the Lazy Moon, I seriously thought I was going to die after eating that pizza. It was the most painful thing in my life, I wanted to just kill myself. I guess it took about 5 years of that... still suffered from IBS D the entire time despite avoiding those things to the best of my ability (fatty foods upset me too).. and finally here I am now totally normal again. Occasionally I will still have upsets, but its so rare compared to before now I don't let it bother me. I assume my gut biome had adequate time to heal, I never tried taking probiotics but I feel like that would have been a great place to start recovery. The only "diet" that helped me was avoiding trigger foods and eating as little as possible more frequently... I'm curious to know if your episode was also triggered by a course of antibiotics?


    Funny enough I just adopted a dog with IBS... now dealing with this all over again with him. He also had multiple rounds of antibiotics. I'm giving him probiotics, super enzymes and minimally processed foods and it seems to be working.
  • mutantspicy
    mutantspicy Posts: 624 Member
    tpspiege wrote: »
    I struggle with IBS-D as well, but mine is a symptom of fat malabsorption. Things that have helped me. Increased fiber intake a lot , reduced my intake of animal and milk fat, switched from beer to red wine as a normal drink, reduced amount of oils used in cooking and salad dressings. I Pretty much only use olive oil, coconut, and sesame seed oil for high heat, but even then very little if at all. Pretty aimed to get as much of my fat as I can from real food, eggs, avocados, nuts, beans, lentils, etc. And I take a raw fiber supplement. All of that has really helped me greatly. I'm essentially eating a pescatarian diet with occasional exceptions. Before I made those changes, I couldn't eat spicy food, or acidic food like peppers or tomatoes. Now I can. There is still some things like fatty meat, spicy sausage and cheese that mess me up. But honestly IBS-D is more of symptom of some larger problem. My advice is to keep a diligent food diary, so you can truly know your triggers.

    Tell me more about this "raw fiber" that you speak of :)

    I'm not in the IBS-D camp, but diagnosed with (with CT scan to validate) mild diverticulitis and have had to increase my daily fiber to ~35g per day to keep things moving along and feel much better (the feelings of "bloat" come back for a day or two when I don't meet 35g the preceding day)

    When my daily log shows that I'm still short of 35g even after whatever apples, lettuce, avocado, etc I consume that day I usually end up mixing up a couple scoops of Metamucil Free (no artificial sweeteners or dyes) to get me where to be ... if there is some other "raw" form that I can tolerate that will avoid the "cane sugar" they add to the Metamucil Free stuff I'll give it a go.

    Thanks in advance

    This is the one I use. I haven't tried a bunch of different kinds, but I have experimented a little. Some fiber supplements made my problem worse. Meaning they were more of a colon cleanse and caused me to have even more diarrhea, this one makes me poop solid logs. So I've stuck with it. Psylium husk fiber might be good as well, and some may even have more fiber per serving. But this one helped me. If you have issues with constipation, which some IBS sufferers experience, I would not recommend this.

    https://www.gardenoflife.com/content/product/raw-fiber-organic-powder/
  • mutantspicy
    mutantspicy Posts: 624 Member
    FL_Hiker wrote: »
    I had developed IBS D from multiple rounds of antibiotics (had a open water swim in a lake and got sick after, sent to ER room they thought bacteria in my brain) , after the antibiotics I wasn't the same. I couldn't tolerate any dairy products at all for years, Dr. told me I was lactose intolerant even though I had had dairy my entire life prior to that incident without a problem. I just ended up avoiding what hurt and gave it time. I remember going on vacation with my family and going out to eat pizza at the Lazy Moon, I seriously thought I was going to die after eating that pizza. It was the most painful thing in my life, I wanted to just kill myself. I guess it took about 5 years of that... still suffered from IBS D the entire time despite avoiding those things to the best of my ability (fatty foods upset me too).. and finally here I am now totally normal again. Occasionally I will still have upsets, but its so rare compared to before now I don't let it bother me. I assume my gut biome had adequate time to heal, I never tried taking probiotics but I feel like that would have been a great place to start recovery. The only "diet" that helped me was avoiding trigger foods and eating as little as possible more frequently... I'm curious to know if your episode was also triggered by a course of antibiotics?


    Funny enough I just adopted a dog with IBS... now dealing with this all over again with him. He also had multiple rounds of antibiotics. I'm giving him probiotics, super enzymes and minimally processed foods and it seems to be working.

    OMG! Tell me about it. Not be able to eat pizza is the biggest load of BS in the world. It kills me every time.
  • mutantspicy
    mutantspicy Posts: 624 Member
    nvmomketo wrote: »
    I do not have IBS as a diagnosis, and my problem was C and not D - I'm a celiac who tends to still have a sensitive gut, so I'm not sure if my experience is relevant.

    I find that avoiding fibre helps a lot. Raw vegetables are harder on me too, and I do not do well with lactose. That leaves meat, seafood, full fat dairy line cheese, veggies, fruit, seeds and nuts.

    Sometimes I feel like IBS diagnosis is a catch all for unexplained problems on the back end. But IBS - C and D are completely different problems. People with C experience inflamation in the colon and constipation, so fiber is going to be really painful make things worse. So a fatty diet may help keep things flowing. On the other hand people with D maybe experiencing, severe diarrhea, where we need to thicken things up, thus fibre. But in my case I have to also reduce my fat intake, because I end up with severe bile acid build up which burns like lava. So for instance, I don't have a problem with lactose, but I have a problem with milk fat. Thus the importance of the food diary and taking your doctors advice with a grain of salt.
  • nvmomketo
    nvmomketo Posts: 12,019 Member
    nvmomketo wrote: »
    I do not have IBS as a diagnosis, and my problem was C and not D - I'm a celiac who tends to still have a sensitive gut, so I'm not sure if my experience is relevant.

    I find that avoiding fibre helps a lot. Raw vegetables are harder on me too, and I do not do well with lactose. That leaves meat, seafood, full fat dairy line cheese, veggies, fruit, seeds and nuts.

    Sometimes I feel like IBS diagnosis is a catch all for unexplained problems on the back end. But IBS - C and D are completely different problems. People with C experience inflamation in the colon and constipation, so fiber is going to be really painful make things worse. So a fatty diet may help keep things flowing. On the other hand people with D maybe experiencing, severe diarrhea, where we need to thicken things up, thus fibre. But in my case I have to also reduce my fat intake, because I end up with severe bile acid build up which burns like lava. So for instance, I don't have a problem with lactose, but I have a problem with milk fat. Thus the importance of the food diary and taking your doctors advice with a grain of salt.

    Lava! Ouch.. :(
  • singingflutelady
    singingflutelady Posts: 8,736 Member
    Be careful with fibre. I have IBD which I know is a different beast but fiber kills me and definitely DOES NOT thicken my output :(
  • mutantspicy
    mutantspicy Posts: 624 Member
    Be careful with fibre. I have IBD which I know is a different beast but fiber kills me and definitely DOES NOT thicken my output :(

    Agreed! Some fibre supplements are designed as a cleanse. Not what you want if already have loose stool.
  • tpspiege
    tpspiege Posts: 32 Member
    tpspiege wrote: »
    I struggle with IBS-D as well, but mine is a symptom of fat malabsorption. Things that have helped me. Increased fiber intake a lot , reduced my intake of animal and milk fat, switched from beer to red wine as a normal drink, reduced amount of oils used in cooking and salad dressings. I Pretty much only use olive oil, coconut, and sesame seed oil for high heat, but even then very little if at all. Pretty aimed to get as much of my fat as I can from real food, eggs, avocados, nuts, beans, lentils, etc. And I take a raw fiber supplement. All of that has really helped me greatly. I'm essentially eating a pescatarian diet with occasional exceptions. Before I made those changes, I couldn't eat spicy food, or acidic food like peppers or tomatoes. Now I can. There is still some things like fatty meat, spicy sausage and cheese that mess me up. But honestly IBS-D is more of symptom of some larger problem. My advice is to keep a diligent food diary, so you can truly know your triggers.

    Tell me more about this "raw fiber" that you speak of :)

    I'm not in the IBS-D camp, but diagnosed with (with CT scan to validate) mild diverticulitis and have had to increase my daily fiber to ~35g per day to keep things moving along and feel much better (the feelings of "bloat" come back for a day or two when I don't meet 35g the preceding day)

    When my daily log shows that I'm still short of 35g even after whatever apples, lettuce, avocado, etc I consume that day I usually end up mixing up a couple scoops of Metamucil Free (no artificial sweeteners or dyes) to get me where to be ... if there is some other "raw" form that I can tolerate that will avoid the "cane sugar" they add to the Metamucil Free stuff I'll give it a go.

    Thanks in advance

    This is the one I use. I haven't tried a bunch of different kinds, but I have experimented a little. Some fiber supplements made my problem worse. Meaning they were more of a colon cleanse and caused me to have even more diarrhea, this one makes me poop solid logs. So I've stuck with it. Psylium husk fiber might be good as well, and some may even have more fiber per serving. But this one helped me. If you have issues with constipation, which some IBS sufferers experience, I would not recommend this.

    https://www.gardenoflife.com/content/product/raw-fiber-organic-powder/

    The amazing powers of the internet ... talking about poop (literally) with internet "strangers", what a world we live in these days :blush:

    But seriously, Thank You for the reply, my issues are in the "constipation" end of the spectrum, so per your "would not recommend this" statement relative to that condition, I'll stay with my current products/approach that seem to be working.

    Have a good day, and cheers to us all in our quest for normal bowel movements!
  • ravenc1aw
    ravenc1aw Posts: 1 Member
    I suffer from IBS-D and have been pretty much stuck at home due to severity. I also have fat malabsorption as a result of not having my gallbladder. I’ve been prescribed things to “help” with it but they made me feel worse. I’m lactose intolerant and have a scope next month to check for celiacs as well do my gut just basically hates food. lol At the moment I am Vegan which has helped considerably but some problems (especially bloating and pain) remain. My Dr. said not to cut out glutens until after my scope though because it could affect results.
  • mutantspicy
    mutantspicy Posts: 624 Member
    ravenc1aw wrote: »
    I suffer from IBS-D and have been pretty much stuck at home due to severity. I also have fat malabsorption as a result of not having my gallbladder. I’ve been prescribed things to “help” with it but they made me feel worse. I’m lactose intolerant and have a scope next month to check for celiacs as well do my gut just basically hates food. lol At the moment I am Vegan which has helped considerably but some problems (especially bloating and pain) remain. My Dr. said not to cut out glutens until after my scope though because it could affect results.

    Sounds very similar to my issues, only much worse. Eating mostly vegetarian has helped me a lot. On the issue of celiacs, I don't have that but there are certain breads that give me issues. White bread, rolls, buns, tortillas, pizza crust all are a no go. But some Multi grain breads seem to fine, rye and pumpernickel seem to be fine. If you have fat malabsorption, one thing I deal with is hair breakage, weak nails, hazy eyes, and light headedness. So I do have to make an effort to get nutrient heavy fat into my diet. Avocados, almonds, eggs, salmon, very small amounts of coconut oil, olive oil I can tolerate certain amounts and they have a lot of nutrients. But they are calorie heavy so I get don't enough, So I supplement with vitamin E, D, Fish oil.
  • kelcinik
    kelcinik Posts: 3 Member
    I also recommend looking into the low FODMAP diet. I have IBS-D and while the diet didn't eliminate the D, it just about totally relieved the bloating, gas, pain, etc. I found that I can only tolerate minimal amounts of gluten.