If you have been diagnosed with IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) you know how troublesome (and sometimes debilitating) the symptoms can be. IBS is a rather non-specific diagnosis, as the way symptoms present can vary quite a bit from person to person. Some may have diarrhea, while others struggle more with constipation. For others, nausea and bloating are more severe.
The good news is that by better managing your diet, you can often reduce your symptoms and improve your quality of life. Finding what works for you can be tricky, as dietary management varies based on each person and their symptoms. However, there are a few general recommendations that can be helpful.
Keep a food/symptom log
This is the best way to find out which foods trigger your symptoms and which help alleviate them. Because people often don’t eat one food at a time, it can be difficult to pinpoint if there is a particular food that seem to be causing issues for you. Make notes about any symptoms that appear within an hour of eating. Over the course of time, it will become easier to find correlations.
Also, if your symptoms ever flare up, make note about other things happening at the time, even if they don’t involve eating. Are you feeling more stressed than normal? Did you just have a difficult conversation with someone? Did your schedule change suddenly and unexpectedly? Did you go to a new place? Keeping a log will help you learn more about how your body operates – and by extension, how you can take care of it.
Limit the amount of processed foods you eat, including those with artificial ingredients
The fact is, the human body doesn’t deal well with artificial sugars, fats, colors, etc. These foods also tend to have a negative impact on the microflora of your gut (the types of bacteria in your digestive system). The balance of bacteria in your GI tract is super important! Eating a lot of processed foods tends to disrupt that balance and can worsen GI issues, in addition to just being overall detrimental to our systems. Instead, look for foods with ingredients you recognize. You can never go wrong with fresh fruits and vegetables, and whole, unprocessed foods are great, too!
Learn what activities help you discharge your stress.
While the demands of daily life mean it’s often not possible to eliminate – or even decrease – your stress, there are ways to better manage it. There are ways of discharging stress and other negative feelings rather than holding onto them.
Why is this important? Simple: Your gut has tons of nerves in it! Research has found that stress can wreak havoc on the nerves. If we don’t let go off all our “emotional baggage”, it is very easy for that built-up tension to then affect the nerves in your GI tract.
There are many ways of discharging stress, and the best methods can be unique for each person. My personal favorite is martial arts! Exercise, meditation, and listening to music are all great ways to help dissipate pent-up energy and frustration, even for people who are not athletically-inclined or musically trained.
For those suffering from specific symptoms, here are some other suggestions:
Coping with Constipation
When a person is constipated, their stool moves too slowly through the large intestine, resulting in hard, painful bowel movements. To avoid this, ensure you are getting adequate fluid and fiber intake. Avoid eating too many starches – bread, pasta, cookies – as those tend to be more binding. If there are foods your body is reacting negatively to, that can cause things to move slower, too. (Another reason to keep a food/symptom log.)
You can also talk with your doctor about taking probiotics. These can be helpful for maintaining a good balance of healthy bacteria in your intestines, and there are some formulations that are specific for gut troubles. Eating plenty of fiber also helps provide more bulk so that your colon knows to move the food along more consistently. Fruits and vegetables have lots of great fiber in addition to other nutrients. When upping your fiber intake, though, be sure to also drink a lot more fluids. (Too much fiber combined with not enough fluids can actually make constipation worse.)
Dealing with Diarrhea
People with diarrhea have the opposite problem of those with constipation – their stool is moving too quickly. In this case, starchy foods and foods high in soluble fiber tend to help bind extra fluid. For example, oatmeal has quite a bit of soluble fiber. Adding a soluble fiber supplement, like Benefiber, may also be useful, but add it to your diet slowly and gradually!
Getting Rid of Gas
Some foods naturally produce more gas, whether you have IBS or not. These include beans, lentils, potatoes, eggs, asparagus, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, onions, garlic, lactose (found in milk), soft drinks, artificial sweeteners, and some whole grains. The situation just becomes worse for those with IBS. Many of these foods are good for you in other ways, though, so you shouldn’t eliminate them from your diet entirely. Just practice moderation, and note in your food log if one of these foods in particular is giving you trouble.
Wheat can be a common trigger for people in this area. It may be worth eliminating wheat for a period to see if it improves symptoms. Also, increasing your fiber intake suddenly will tend to cause more gas and GI distress. Consuming excess amounts of insoluble fiber in particular can also do this.
Again, gas isn’t an excuse to not eat your vegetables! Just try to avoid eating a lot of gas-producing foods together in one day if you are already struggling with breaking wind.
Treating Nausea
Personally, this is usually my first indicator that something I ate didn’t agree with me. It typically starts before any of the other symptoms. So, I will immediately make note of anything I ate at that particular meal or snack. (Once again, keep a food/symptom log. It really is a powerful tool!)
If you do experience nausea, ginger and mint are both excellent natural remedies. I can’t tell you how much ginger ale I consumed when I was pregnant and had morning sickness! Ginger or mint tea – hot or cold – can also work. There are also ginger mints you can buy from many grocery stores that are great for nausea. Ginger also adds a great flavor to meals. In addition, sometimes when I have fresh mint growing in my garden, I will just wash some leaves and put them in my water without even steeping it. Mint can worsen reflux, though, so it’s not recommended for people with reflux disease.
As a dietitian, I have personally struggled with IBS myself, and I know how challenging it can be. That said, because I have listened to my body, I have found ways of keeping my symptoms manageable, and I feel good most of the time. I have had to make some dietary modifications for myself, like eliminating wheat. I have found through both my own personal experience, as well as those of my clients, that the most important thing is to listen to the cues your body gives you. Our body knows what it needs – we just don’t always pay attention.
My final thought on this topic is to do your best to create a positive environment surrounding eating. When people struggle with GI issues, food often becomes something they don’t even want to think about anymore. If your brain creates negative associations with food, it can make the situation worse than it already is. Try to make the experience of eating as positive as possible. Eat with family, listen to uplifting music while you eat, or even eat at a favorite location. Anything you can do to make eating a positive experience can be helpful. After all, good food is truly one of life’s greatest pleasures!
Think of it this way. Imagine it’s a Monday, and all day long you find yourself having to deal with things you’d rather not deal with. You get stuck in traffic, your desk piles up at work, the weather’s awful, and when you get home, you see that no one bothered to clean up the kitchen. You’d probably feel pretty irritable, wouldn’t you?
Your body works the same way. When we subject our GI tract to unhealthy food – or food our body simply doesn’t tolerate well – it reacts exactly the same way we do: It gets irritable. But by following the steps above, you can make your gut a lot happier. When you do, I guarantee that you’ll be happier, too.
Good luck!