The IBS Dieter

Water Soluble or Water In-Soluble Fiber?  That’s the question.

Everybody knows that fiber is an IBS sufferer’s best friend.  But there are different types of fiber.  Choosing which type, water soluble or water insoluble fiber, can be tricky.

Depends on your type of IBS.

There are two main categories of IBS: constipation predominate, and diarrhea-predominate.  Although IBS sufferers experience both from time to time, it is often more one or the other.  This recipe will concentrate more on the Diarrhea Predominate type of IBS.

Diarrhea Predominate IBS: Water Soluble

For those with diarrhea predominate IBS, the best choice is the water soluble type.  These include foods like oat bran, beans, apples, psyllium seed, and flaxseed; all delicious foods for people with the diarrhea-predominate IBS.

You’re probably asking yourself, how are you going to find the occasions to get some of these things in your diet?  Unless you already happen to be quite health conscious, you probably aren’t eating a ton of oat bran, or psyllium seed, or flaxseed.  Apples are common, but how often are you willing to eat one when being completely honest with yourself?  After about 3-4 apples, I’m pretty much done for the next several months when I’m being totally honest with myself.

Tip of the Day: Use Your Blender!

One tip is to use your blender.  With some of your favorite fruits, you’ll be able to make delicious shakes packed full of all the water soluble fiber you need.  Here’s an IBS diarrhea-predominate shake recipe that will be packed with water soluble fiber.

Ingredients

• 1 cup Lactaid Milk (or a lactose free milk of your choice), cold
• 1 scoop soy ice cream, vanilla
• 2 tablespoons frozen apple juice concentrate
• 1/2 apple, pared and cut
• Couple Handfulls of Flaxseed

Blend this until its nice and smooth.  The more flaxseed you use, the thicker and grittier the shake will be.  Trust me, gritty is good.  Caution: you might get some pieces stuck in your teeth.

To celebrate 4/20, we will look into rumors that marijuana, or rather, the THC in marijuana can cure the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome.  There of course is no cure for the disease itself, only a cure for its uncomfortable and disruptive symptoms.

Doing a cursory search about the subject will reveal two camps: pro-marijuana ‘activists,’ and the other camp that is trying to sell you IBS medicine.  The answers you get from each camp are obvious: the pro marijuana ‘activists’ want you to believe that weed will cure everything (similar to how Brazilians believe that swallowing honey and lemon juice together will cure everything).  I put ‘activists’ in quotes because more often than not, they are unactive types that just have enough gumption to post on a forum here and there.  That’s a joke of course, there are many active and open marijuana users, like Willie Nelson.

Firstly, caution should be used when experimenting with the drug, and of course, there are only a few states where it’s even legal with a prescription.  Some say that it’s a gateway drug, although others contend that its just a gateway to sweat pants and cheetos.

There are proven facts and uses for marijuana, it has been traditionally used by people suffering from chronic (ha, ha, yeah, yeah) nausea.  People undergoing chemotherapy are often prescribed the drug to calm nausea and acid reflux, both major symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome sufferers.  Cannabis can also be used as a muscle relaxer, and IBS is partially a neurological disease where the brain sends incorrect pulses to the colon which cause muscle spasms.

I’ve scoured and scoured the web and have not found any clinical studies related to this.  I imagine there is a lot of red tape to cut through to hold such a study.  I did however find some testimonials from seemingly real people that don’t appear to have a bias on the subject. Here is a story by someone named Christine that only began using cannabis to treat IBS (or so she claims). She does go on to mention something about using the drug recreationally, which in my mind somewhat invalidates her argument. If you go on to read an email response, you’ll find another pretty honest looking testimonial of the drug’s positive effects on an apparently very sick person named Sammy. Who knows if their dramatic IBS symptoms are triggered by a dependency for the drug, or if they really have it this bad naturally, weed being a relief to the symptoms. This is all anecdotal of course.

“Digestive Advantage” is the first pill that I’ve ever tried to treat IBS (although this isn’t a drug, it’s a ‘dietary food’). I just started taking it this week and I thought I’d talk about my experiences with it here so that you can decide for yourself if it’s worth a shot.

I’ve never really tried any real medicines for IBS. Since irritable bowel syndrome isn’t as well understood as some sicknesses, I’ve always been skeptical about any medicines on the market.

One thing I didn’t like when reading the outer label is that “upon initial use, product takes 7 to 14 days to take effect. Some gas & bloating may occur during first few days as your system adjusts.” I like instant gratification, so the 7 to 14 day thing was a bit of a put off. But then the gas and bloating warning kind of ticked me off. I mean, that’s one of the things we’re trying to cure.

I’ve been taking it for about 3 days now, and yes there is a bit of gas. But really not that much. In fact, it was about as much gas as I usually have.

One thing I like about this stuff is you don’t have to take it right before eating or anything like that. I like that it’s a once a day thing that I don’t have to put too much thought into.

So we’ll have to see how it works.

Are you looking into doing clinical trials for IBS? I found a pretty good list of clinical trials offered all over the country, mainly for women who suffer from diarrhea-predominant IBS. These trials help people to better understand their type of IBS (or whether or not they even have IBS) they have, and also to help scientists develop drugs to treat the disorder.

Check out the List Here.

As my first tip on how to ease IBS symptoms, I’m going to say that eating less and spreading out meals has really helped.

But of course, just saying ‘Eat less’ isn’t a very good post to start this blog off.

I actually had The Daily Plate in mind. This is a really cool site I found one day when looking for the calorie content in a McDonald’s Southern Style Chicken Sandwich (trust me, there are more calories than you probably think).

The Daily Plate is a lot like Weight Watchers, only it’s free and instead of points they just tell you how many calories you’ve consumed. They have a huge database of both generic and branded foods, so you just have to say ‘Wendy’s Spicy Go Wrap’ and it will automatically log tons of info about how many calories you consumed, what the Fat / Protein / Carb ratio was, and other nutrients. You can also tell it what activities you performed that day and how many calories you burned. They have almost every activity you can imagine. Yes, they have ping pong. Yes, they have going for a drive. Yes, they have running at 7 mph for 30 minutes for 3 miles. Yes, they have dressing and undressing.

Once you’ve recorded all of your eats and activities, it will build graphs and charts for you to show you your calories, exercise, etc. over time. You can also tell it how tall and heavy you are, your lifestyle (active vs. non-active), and your weight loss goal and it will tell you how many calories a day you can consume that day.

Ever since I’ve used this site to pay attention to what I eat, I eat a lot less and experience fewer IBS-esque episodes. Over-eating is definitely a prominent trigger for IBS, and spreading food out so you eat little by little during the day is a good way to prevent IBS symptoms.