I ate a very large salad on Monday this week which consisted of cucumber, beetroot, coleslaw, chicken, tomatoes and spinach. I went on a lovely walk yesterday and was feeling really good the first say 5 miles and then my tummy started to play up i.e. I needed to go to the toilet, not easy as I was walking on a country path so there are no toilets. I always carry a plastic shovel made for walkers if they get cut short so that you can dig a hole in the ground; unfortunately this is what I had to do.
I did feel better once I had been but when I got near to the car my tummy started to play up again and I felt poorly for the rest of the evening - Excruciating tummy pain, feeling nauseous and generally unwell. The only thing I could put this down to is the spinach as I haven't eaten raw spinach (I don't like cooked) in a very long time; the other thing I thought of was the coleslaw.
Today I have felt much better but have been feeling absolutely shattered, has anyone else felt this after an upset tummy?
Thank you
52 Replies
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I'd say it is the coleslaw, it is very rich and I think it might be want your problem was. I eat raw spinach at least five days per week and it doesn't bother me at all.
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Thank you for your response and I did wonder as of course it has raw carrot and cabbage in it but as I hadn't eaten spinach in a very long time I wasn't sure if it was that.
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Don't eat them for about three weeks and then try again, but not at the same time, maybe then you will be able to find out what one did it. Try the spinach first and if you have no bad reaction to it then it's prob the coleslaw.
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Thank you Jim and that is what I will do. I am slowly but surely finding out my triggers but what a long process!!
Hi Alicia,
Sorry you had such a bad outcome to what seemed a promising day.
An upset tum, no matter whether it's a bit of food poisoning, bug or whatever always makes me feel shattered the next day.
Beetroot is a real no-no for me and has been ever since I was child. The combination of iron and high-fibre that it contains would have given me all sorts of probs. I can't even take multi-vitamins if they have iron in too.
Hope you feel better tomorrow.
Cat
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Thank you Cat and I never thought of beetroot. I have been taking multi vitamins since the 90's (the same ones) and have to say that they haven't affected me in any way so I'm lucky there.
I am hoping after a good night's sleep that I feel much better in the morning.
If you haven't tried the FODMAPS elimination diet, it might be worth your while. Beets are high in FODMAPS. The diet helped me find many, but not all of my triggers, but it was a good starting point.
Thank you runswithdogs and I downloaded the FODMAPS on to my phone earlier in the week - the Food Maestro one and just now need to get my head round what I need to do.
My daughter found that barley was a major trigger and it is in so many things - vinegar and bread for example. I found corn products of all kinds including chips and corn syrup make me itch all over! Tramadol gives me anaphylactic shock!! That and some nuts. It is a dangerous thing to be human!!
I find raw cabbage a problem (though a small amount is ok), and I know a few people who've given up cucumber because of their issues with it. Hope you can work out what it was and so avoid it.
Thank you Robert and I have a problem with broccoli and the same as you can eat a small amount but can only eat it for a couple of days and then go without it for a couple of weeks or so. It sucks that it's healthy food that is bad for people with IBS!
Hi Roberta, sorry too quick thinking you were Robert :(. I love broccoli but certainly can only have it in small amounts. I have followed a soluable fibre diet and I do feel better on it but I honestly cannot stomach white bread but will now be making my own sourdough bread which I do like. Carrots are definitely my go to as long as they are cooked, I eat them just about every day.
No worries, everyone thinks that, my name is misleading and I keep forgetting to sign my messages. I only recently found out about the whole soluble/insoluble fibre thing, and it has helped me manage things. White bread is awful, I agree. Sourdough is delicious though, I ate it for years because I can't have bakers yeast. Unfortunately I can now only eat wheat occasionally. But there's still lots of tasty things to eat. I have crispbreads now, which I actually really like the crispy texture of. I hope you'll feel less shattered soon, it really takes it out of me when I have an attack too.
Thank you Roberta and I actually really like your name - I hope it doesn't get shortened by people too much. I like crispbreads as well and will certainly be eating more of them.
I actually feel so much better today and I don't know whether it's a coincidence or not but I tried Kefir (flavoured naturally with cherries) and I loved it and since drinking that this morning I am feeling much better.
Thank you Sue and definitely not hard to give up. I have to be honest salad isn't my favourite food as I enjoy cooked vegetables much more but can't eat many of them - I'll look like a carrot if I eat any more - ha ha
It is unusual for a meal to react so quickly, what had you eaten earlier in the day? The stomach very cleverly separates solids and liquids at the time of eating. You say they were stomach pains, if they were it would have been under the ribs on the left hand side. Sounds a bit like something a little lower down. What you ate at that meal was a sudden rush of fibre, had you eaten that sort of balance earlier in the day and are you used to that?
It's difficult to say much more than to recommend a book by Giulia Enders - a young German doctor, "Gut - the inside story" this will give you a really good understanding of the mechanism of the digestive system. It will help you understand what is happening when you eat. It's available on Kindle if you use one.
The suggestion already made to separate out foods is a good one, better than going to the doctor. Sounds strange but really coarse 100% proper wholemeal bread is good for that sort of complaint; not my words but from a consultant surgeon specialising in the digestive tract. He used to prescribe it for his patients after operation.
I didn't react that quickly but when I did it lasted for a while but as I get IBS C I tend to get the nausea and excruciating pains rather than the runs. I bought Kefir for the first time yesterday to try it and liked it so I will be making my own culture.
So am I then if that's the case. I also don't think that doctors/the NHS are that well informed sometimes.
I liked your last sentence, never a truer spoken. Young student doctors get practically no education on nutrition which is the prime function of the body. Hippocrates said "All disease starts in the gut".
Thank you Tibblington for your reply. I had eaten some breakfast cereal earlier in the day (apricot mini shredded wheats - I know it wasn't the healthiest of cereals and I don't normally eat them but fancied them) but nothing else. I have now bought the mini shredded wheat without any added sugar etc and am eating these.
I honestly think I must have overloaded my tummy with raw salad. Funnily enough I only suffer very occasionally if I eat sandwiches.
I'll have a look for the book online (I don't have a Kindle but my hubby does) and very interested re coarse 100% proper wholemeal bread.
I wouldn't be too critical about the mini-shredded wheats with fruit; you can also get them with raisins, I think. There's an article which might interest you on the subject of bread and at the bottom there is a link to a bread recipe that I use to make all of our bread. Go to: healthscams.org.uk/the-whit...
By the way I have an organic muesli with grapefruit juice as I like the sharp taste. There's nothing wrong with good whole milk not homogenised.
Try not to snack - that is if you should be tempted - thus giving your system time to process what you have given it.
Thank you Tibblington and yes you can get them with raisins and also blueberries. I have just read through just about all of the text regarding white versus wholemeal but have to say that the only white bread I like anyway is either French stick or sourdough bread, my favourite is wholemeal with seeds.
I will be making a lot more of my own bread as I'm not really keen on packaged bread at all and cannot stand packaged white bread. Interestingly I watch a programme on TV last year about baking bread through the ages - I cannot remember what the programme was called. The series actually shocked me as I didn't realise that bakers were using synthetic ingredients before the turn of the century! Just goes to show that they have been trying to make a profit for a very long time!!
I will have a look at the bread recipe and I did buy Kefir yesterday and also whole organic milk. I did my main shop today and unfortunately they do not sell organic milk so I will have to buy that separately which is a menace.
Will keep all posted on how I get on.
Thank you for that Angela, I will give them a try.
Consider that the chicken could upset your stomach. I went vegetarian and my IBS alot better. Chicken in particular gave me wind & upset stomach. I'm going vegan slowly as any animal product upsets me bowels. I don't think it's that uncommon. Especially if lactose intolerant. I did do it for ethical reasons as watched something that put me off meat but the IBS clearing up was good side effect. Oh and I can't eat cucumbers as they upset my stomach. So look out for them maybe. Hope you feel better soon.
Thank you very much Anxiouspony and I used to be a vegetarian but used to get really tired so went back to eating meat albeit I eat very little meat. Just need to sort the diet out to ensure that I get enough vitamins etc.
I had Kefir today and really enjoyed it albeit it was naturally flavoured with cherries; I am going to make my own as well as I'm going to make my own sourdough bread. I have also bought Lactose free milk.
I was lucky and got a dairy free meal on our recent flight to and from Orlando after a few emails. Unfortunately for me our breakfast yesterday on plane was a bar - oats and fruit - was very lucky we parked our car at a hotel as was able to use the loo for their restaurant. So many foods these days can cause us to flare up and even gluten free Oates do it for me!! The rest of the time away I ate " safe " foods except corn dogs and fried chicken and BBQ food - all in two days because I knew they would make me ill but wanted to try them!! The oats bar - well I should have not eaten it because it wasn't nice and secondly I had a 6 hr drive in front of us to get home!! I'm a firm believer of you fancy something you know will upset you plan it well!! X
That was lucky but not so lucky for yesterday's breakfast. Luckily enough I don't seem to have a reaction to oats, well not that I have noticed and I'm sure I would have done by now!
Isn't it awful though that we have to plan if we want to eat something we now we can't. How lovely it would be just to pick anything up and eat it rather than having to plan.
Coleslaw has onion in it so my money would be on that causing the problem. My advice would be to cut onion and garlic out of your diet altogether - that is what they say for the low-FODMAP diet anyway. Onions always make me poorly, much more so than any other food, even gluten.
As for feeling shattered afterwards I think that's par for the course. Just think what your body goes through and what it loses in terms of salts, fluids etc every time you have these symptoms. I always find rehydration solutions after any diarrhoea and lots of water, rest and sleep really helpful after severe symptoms or during a flare up.
I should have thought before having a 'healthy' salad in that is wouldn't be good for me to have too many things that aren't good for IBS. I now have the Food Maestro app on my phone and will be following that as I need to get this sorted and the surplus 1/2 stone in weight. If I don't look after my weight now who knows!!
I have to say the day after I felt poorly I was much better and not shattered.
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what is ibs? 
Have any of you had these symptoms?
Left sided pain and blockage feeling
Upset tummy
