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.