Got IBS?

[ODB]

Helping out a family member with her IBS symptoms and keep coming back to the FODMAP elimination/reintroduction diet.

Anyone gone through this process and have any feed back good or bad? Anything you learned on the way that might be helpful for someone at the start?

 

[Titan]

Sprouts carries a FODMAP free stuff. All those items are fairly expensive, so it's much cheaper to make your own food and leave out the FODMAP ingredients.

As far as restaurants go, onions and garlic will be in nearly everything, even if the server says "I don't think they add any".

 

[BadDogPSD]

Maybe a bit extreme for many, but the lion diet (beef, salt, water) is very effective.

 

[Dab65]

It works well for a lot of people with IBS.

50-80% see solid improvement in bloating, pain, and bathroom issues during the strict elimination phase usually 2-6 weeks. The reintroduction phase is key many learn their specific triggers onions garlic, certain fruits, dairy, etc. and end up with a much less restrictive long term diet.

 

[johnsd16]

Could start simpler and do strict dairy free for 6+ weeks if not already tried.

 

[Silver Wings]

Most elimination diets, like low FODMAP are a fool’s errand. People end up doing a lousy n=1 experiment with a bunch of confounding factors and don’t get any solid data or symptom relief, let alone remission.
I would advise a strict, no BS, no cheating, 60 day carnivore experiment. That’ll be enough time to hopefully get the gut inflammation issues dramatically improved . Then people can see how good they feel and make a choice as to whether the dietary restrictions are worth the improvements. At some point down the road they can start adding back other food and see how it goes. But nothing is going to work until the inflammation is resolved.

 

[Sitting in trees]

Intermittent fasting and quitting alcohol did wonders for me

 

[menhaden_man]

I shed about 35 lbs and got out of a stressful job, IBS magically went away.

Highly recommend psyllium husk pills also, I still take them daily.

 

[Tinkersmith]

I went meat, potatoes and leafy greens for a while and saw a huge benefit. NO DAIRY! No wheat was the only real hard part, that and restaurants and dinner at friends and families houses, nobody else can really wrap their heads around what you're doing and you wind up feeling like you're "that guy". Most doctors don't really get it either. Eliminating alcohol was the thing that really allowed me to start eating normal again though. I still have to be careful and not over do it, and I still avoid wheat for the most part, but it's not as big of a deal to eat FODMAPs as it used to be. Exercise is also key.

A side benefit of the diet is that you're only left with healthy choices, you can really eat quite a lot without gaining any weight. In fact I lost weight, in a good way. Cutting out all those processed foods and carbs goes a long way.

I'll add that it sounds like a bigger deal than it is, and it is daunting at first, but once I got in the swing of it, I really didn't miss the things that I had to cut out. I even came to appreciate how simple meal planing and shopping became.

Also, if your friend really misses garlic and onions, I can recommend an eastern seasoning called asafoetida, also called hing. It's a worthy replacement. Just remember that a little goes a long way, it is strong, it's really easy to use too much at first.

 

[OXN939]

For anyone considering invasive elimination diets... I'd suggest a quick read on carrageenan. TL;DR- it's a cheap stabilizer food additive, which also happens to induce inflammation so acutely and aggressively they use it as a catalyst in lab mice studies.



Now go read the ingredients of stuff in your pantry. If you're not specifically trying to avoid it, 99% chance it's in there. And that id one of dozens of ingredients with effects that bad or worse.

Sad truth, the American food system is designed to provide large quantities of very low quality shelf stable products for the financial benefit of huge corporations. If you're not actively mitigating that, it really doesn't matter what diet you try.

 

[ChrisA]

For anyone considering invasive elimination diets... I'd suggest a quick read on carrageenan. TL;DR- it's a cheap stabilizer food additive, which also happens to induce inflammation so acutely and aggressively they use it as a catalyst in lab mice studies.

View attachment 1076477

Now go read the ingredients of stuff in your pantry. If you're not specifically trying to avoid it, 99% chance it's in there. And that id one of dozens of ingredients with effects that bad or worse.

Sad truth, the American food system is designed to provide large quantities of very low quality shelf stable products for the financial benefit of huge corporations. If you're not actively mitigating that, it really doesn't matter what diet you try.

A lot of brands have it in their cottage cheese. I believe its a thickener or coagulant. Once you know the difference you'll never want that shit in your cottage cheese again, its disgusting to me.

 

[Blacktip]

Retirement fixed mine.

 

[menhaden_man]

Forgot to mention I went keto/carnivore maybe 5 months. Need to do it again it was that good. All those shitty carbs will kill a man. Eggs deer meat and fish ain’t a bad way to feast. Sure do love those IPAs and pizza but it’ll crush a man’s guts.

 

[dieselchessy]

For me Palio diet worked to clear up most of the issues and get to a point I could add back in and see what set me off.
Then just avoid dairy, yeasty stuff, and some yet to be identified preservatives or other chemicals.
I especially avoid anything with dry milk or any dairy byproducts. Actually eating dairy free is pretty difficult.
Things like cereals with around 5 ingredients are fine, but fortified ones with tons of ingredients are bad. (Raisin bran = ok, Cheerios = bad)
Benefiber pre-biotic fiber+ super greens helps alot. AG1 was similar though expensive.
Most any probiotic is bad.

Its probably taboo these days if still available, but StHealthy Nutrition G.I. Restore and their Digest + seemed to help alot, particularly the G.I. Restore. I never did their gut restore combo program, but it might be good.

For me once things were under control, settled down, and given time to heal things improved dramatically.

 

[ChrisA]

For me Palio diet worked to clear up most of the issues and get to a point I could add back in and see what set me off.
Then just avoid dairy, yeasty stuff, and some yet to be identified preservatives or other chemicals.
I especially avoid anything with dry milk or any dairy byproducts. Actually eating dairy free is pretty difficult.
Things like cereals with around 5 ingredients are fine, but fortified ones with tons of ingredients are bad. (Raisin bran = ok, Cheerios = bad)
Benefiber pre-biotic fiber+ super greens helps alot. AG1 was similar though expensive.
Most any probiotic is bad.

Its probably taboo these days if still available, but StHealthy Nutrition G.I. Restore and their Digest + seemed to help alot, particularly the G.I. Restore. I never did their gut restore combo program, but it might be good.

For me once things were under control, settled down, and given time to heal things improved dramatically.

The first time I tried keto I bonked a lot because I wasn't getting enough fat. So I started drinking raw milk for the fat and I don't believe it affects me much but I dont know for sure.

I did drink almond "milk" and no cows milk for several years but I was still eating cheese and cottage cheese. I had the shits a lot but was also drinking a lot of IPA, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Jim Beam, etc. My stools became much more normal once I got off alcohol. Probably should eliminate the raw milk and dairy too but its an easy way to get fat.

 

[ODB]

awesome info guys - really appreciate the comments - they are ringing true to some thoughts we’ve had on how to approach things.

One of the seemingly obvious things is to “eat real food” and try to stay out of any industrial food system. The carrageenan thing is very interesting and I did not know it was an inflammatory. I noticed it was in the heavy cream I sometimes use and had no idea why on earth they would put it in there. Crazy.

I’ll be chatting with her again soon and I am sure she’ll be interested in these real-world comments.

 

[menhaden_man]

I’ll say you are crazy if you don’t try this stuff. I have no wipers these days, you could toss one through a pane glass window.

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