Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards

Hi Natalie

I'm in the UK too. Here' are the kinds of foods I've been buying.....

Sainsburys/Tescos; Kallo Organic Puffed Rice Cereal - really nice with vanilla soy milk. I buy the Provamel alpro brand, they do chocolate too. One of my favourite snacks is Dove's Farm's Tasty bars. They are a rice/chocolate bar which at first I thought was going to taste like a rice cake, but it's more like chocolate - I like them better than standard choc bars!

Tortilla wraps/pitta breads are a safe choice and you can fill them with prawns, tuna, chicken etc.. Both Sainsburys and Tescos have a 'free from' range which includes wheat and dairy free products. I like the 'tru free' brand of wheat free pasta but have recently tried a dairy free mayo. Not bad, but I prefer cooking from Heather's books.

I know what you mean about having time, but with a little planning (and a huge amount of effort on my part!) you can get into a routine. If you've got Heather's recipe book, why not try something simple like the high energy banana shake for breakfast? Really simple to make and yummy too. Chicken and salmon dishes are quite quick, just marinade and cook when you get in from work. I tend to use Patak's Easy Cook Basmati rice with most dishes - again, available in most supermarkets.

For quick fixes, Sainsbury's sell small packets of Miso soup. This is a really low fat soup that's found with the rice/soy sauce shelves - usually tucked away at the back. You just add the sachet to boiling water - so it's good for taking as part of lunch/snack. The 'tru free' range also has a dairy free rice pot, I think it's a lentil one, but it's really tasty and filling and importantly, transportable!

There is a web site, www.goodnessdirect.co.uk that sells quite alot of the brands mentioned by our American friends. The 'Better Than...' range can be bought from here and if you want to look at the soya/tofu cheeses/spreads/cream alternatives, this is the place for you!

For ice-creams, have a look at the 'Swedish Glace' range sold in most supermarkets. The goodness direct site has more of a choice of flavours, but most supermarkets sell the vanilla and chocolate ones. They are dairy free and IBS friendly. The chocolate one is my favourite.

Holland and Barrett do a reasonable choice of IBS friendly spreads but you can normally buy it cheaper is Tescos/Sainsburys/Asda. Vegemince is quite a good alternative to mincemeat when making spag.bol etc.... both Sainsburys and Tescos sell it - look in the vegetarian freezer isle.

I wish we had something like 'baked lays' over here. What you can do is buy small pitta pockets, split in half, spray with olive oil and sprinkle with Cajun seasoning, cut into triangles and bake in a moderate oven for about 8 mins and voila, homemade nachos!

If you have dig around in health food shops, like 'Clare James' you can normally find oatmeal. I've never been able to find it in the supermarkets here, but oatmeal is finely ground oats which are usually IBS safe and this is what I use to make porridge on the weekends.

Anyway, sorry for the long post, just wanted to give you some ideas of what's out there� hope this helps.

Edited by sona (09/04/04 04:29 PM)

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