Avoid These Foods If You Are Plagued With Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Posted in: Irritable Bowel Syndrome|August 4, 20116 Comments

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is nothing serious but could give you a very upset stomach in the most inopportune time.

Although it is relatively painful and brings discomfort to an individual, it is not as life threatening as Ulcerative Colitis or any other intestinal or digestive tract infections. IBS is often characterized by too fast or too slow digestion of food, thereby resulting to constipation, diarrhea or even excess gas.

This is generally a case to case basis on each individual as some of the causes may vary. What causes IBS for others may not cause any discomfort to the rest of the community as well.

It is also important to know that there are several factors causing IBS aside from foods. Emotions and stress as well as medicines and physical activities can also result to a very upset bowel.

No one food can be pointed out as a sure fire trigger of IBS as the food that might trigger it today, will have not the same effect tomorrow.

It is however, important to know which food to avoid as ingesting on these can significantly aggravate the situation during IBS. Keeping away from these common foods will increase your chances of eliminating IBS sooner or prevent IBS from occurring all along.

Here is a small list of foods to avoid if you are suffering from irritable bowel syndrome

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• Whole wheat bread – this is tricky as there is basically two parts of wheat that has exact opposite correlation to IBS. The outer bran of wheat that is present in whole wheat bread is insoluble fiber that is hard to digest. In fact, since it is insoluble it will pass out on the colon as is, further aggravating the situation. The inner white of wheat however is soluble fibers and aids greatly in digestion, hence white flour is considered as the best buddy for those who suffer IBS.

• Gluten – this is a form of protein that is present in wheat, rye, barley and oats. It is known to cause physical damage to the lining of the small intestine on patients suffering from celiac disease. They are staple ingredients for dairy and chocolate milk products. Although they do not have such drastic effects on people without the disease, it is still fairly common sense to steer clear from it once you are suffering from IBS.

• Milk and other Dairy Products – casein and whey that is found in all milk and dairy products are difficult to digest. This is a common occurrence and explains why there are a lot of people who are lactose intolerant. Milk is also high in fat content and these ads up to the burden of digestion on people with IBS.

Some other foods to avoid…

Other foods to avoid include red meat as it takes time before the body finishes digesting it. Insoluble fibers, alcohol, caffeine, carbonated drinks and artificial sweeteners can all add up to the sufferings of the person with IBS, hence it is a rule of the thumb to stop eating this foods once there is an onset of IBS or better yet, minimize consumption of these to lessen if not to eliminate the chances of acquiring IBS in the first place.