April is IBS Awareness Month so what foods do you see as triggers for IBS?

Hi Jerry,

I will look forward to reading those links later. I already try to avoid artificial sugars, and also try to keep my sugar level as low as I can.

Zest

FODMAP diet was suggested to me by dietician at hospital. Started off well but then life events interfered (and of course caused more IBS type problems) and so that all went haywire. Am thinking of starting to try that again. Info re FODMAP can be found online. Not very good at adding links!

For me not getting enough fibre is a definite trigger.

I think I had multiple causes in the past, perhaps just a general overload of inflammation, possibly dairy or fats and at one point onions seemed to trigger it, but on my current low oil vegan diet it's just fibre.

Excellent post Jerry and I quite agree Diet is paramount. I had terrible IBS until I gave up Gluten, then it all went away (thank goodness)

Great job on the posting, Jerry! Thank you for sharing this with everyone!😀

Hi Jerry

An excellent post and thank you. I totally agree with you 100% re dietary needs and there are far too many synthetic foods out there i.e. synthetic flavouring. Also, margarines are awful as they contain so much synthetic additives that I will only eat butter and nothing else.

The foods that I have found that irritate my tummy are: raw carrots, raw onions, baked and kidney beans, sweetcorn, normal bread (I now make and eat sourdough bread and am much better) and some fruit but I've not yet worked out which fruit irritates my tummy.

I have been under a Dietician but have now been signed off as I was starting to feel so much better but had a slip at the weekend and think that may be because I was at a friend's house and she baked some little things, not sure what they were called, and they were made with chickpea flour, spinach and potatoes and fried and little doughballs (they were tiny) and I had about 4 of the chickpea flour ones and one doughball. I didn't feel well on Sunday night, Monday or part of yesterday but I think I have also had some kind of virus so it could be a combination of the IBS and a virus.

I am going to go back to keeping a diet sheet and marking down any symptoms and will do this for a while and see if I can find out what else disagrees with me.

I am eating so much better than I was a few months ago in that I don't eat chocolate any more, make my own raw fruit bars, one pot meals etc.

I used the FODMAP diet to identify triggers though there weren't any surprises it confirmed I'm ok with dairy and moderate quantities of wheat ( a lot of wheat causes some bloating but not the horrible symptoms I get from trigger foods)

If I stick to avoiding triggers I'm pretty much symptom free.

Problem foods for me are brassicas, alliums and legumes.

There's some I can't touch without very unpleasant symptoms, and some I can tolerate in very small quantities. It's been trial and error and I'm still occasionally caught out by something I've not prepared myself ( leeks being the worst they will cause vomiting as well as bowel symptoms) I've found out some things are brassicas by symptoms happening and looking the suspect up ( mustard - who knew?)

I don't use any medication, if I eat a trigger by mistake I just wait it out, symptoms normally gone within 24 hours.

Edited to add- though there are common culprits, trigger foods are very variable from person to person which is why an elimination process is important you don't want to cut out things that you might be okay with as it limits your chance of maximising nutrients.

I don't believe in ibs.

I would also recommend having a look at a low FODMAPs diet if you have either IBS-D or IBS-C. The Monash University site has the most comprehensive information on the diet and has found that approximately 75% of sufferers who tried it had some relief from their symptoms.

monashfodmap.com/i-have-ibs...

After years of trying to cram myself full of high fibre foods, the low FODMAPs diet has been a revelation. I’ve always tried to avoid heavily processed foods and added sugar, but as others have said, “healthy” foods can be a trigger for IBS. I’d already been avoiding gluten and lactose for many years. My particular triggers are onions, garlic, and too much fruit.

Peppermint or ginger teas have been very useful.