One day when this health-nut lady met this IBS-suffering fellow...
#255455 - 03/30/06 06:07 PM
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I thought this board deserved to hear our story, as I blab it to my health food friends all the time. :-D Here it goes:
My dear poor vegan husband has had IBS-constipation all his life. It has always been an impedance to his normal daily life. His doctors, parents, and even his wife (yes, that's me) were *convinced* he didn't have enough fiber. To prove it, the first semester after we were married I switched us to 100% whole wheat bread and muffins at breakfast, piles and piles of veggies at dinner, and carrot and celery sticks every day at lunch. Super healthy, but he was in for it. Ever see someone spend over an HOUR in the bathroom? Just waiting?
Right away I was convinced he had celiacs disease. I mean, we ate plenty of whole wheat flour. So I got rid of all gluten products. Puffed rice or rice flour muffins for breakfast, carrot and celery sticks, corn tortillas and hummus for lunch, and even huge-er piles of veggies at dinner. No change. Still misery. Then I decided if he had celiac's disease, he wouldn't be able to tolerate veggie meat made of sietan (pure wheat gluten). So one night I made sietan pot roast with mashed potatoes and canned green beans, and waited for him to be writhing in pain on the floor. Suprisingly, for the next few days he had NO constipation. (I now recognize that as a very "safe" meal)
Then I found a book called Eating For IBS. Though the diet laid out in this book is too high in refined carbohydrates and sugar for my tastes (sorry, Heather!! I'm still a health nut), the information in it was shocking.
Fiber can be a dangerous? FIBER could do this to MY HUSBAND?!?! Bull crap, I thought. FIBER IS GOOD FOR YOU! (And it is) You can't have TOO MUCH fiber!!! Can you? We decided to try the suggestions.
I don't really believe in miracles, but my husband is now a normal functioning (har har) person. Yes, we reintroduced white flour to our diets(!!) ME, the healthiest nut on the planet! BUYING white flour! I didn't ever see *that* happening.
Now we eat something like this (you will note we still eat quite a bit of insolubles, he just eats them intelligently): Oatmeal with soymilk and fruit, or fruit smoothies, or fat free muffins with 1/2 white and 1/2 whole wheat flour for breakfast; leftovers or sandwiches (made with homemade 1/2 white and 1/2 whole wheat flour bread, pureed beans, marinara sauce or salsa) or soup for lunch (I prefer eating soup everyday, it's much simpler), and a big dinner consisting of a starch center like baked potatoes, pasta, brown rice, corn tortillas or pizza crust (1/2 wh wheat and 1/2 white), some SUPER soft cooked beans (we triple rinse, then soak, then rinse, then pressure cook them for an hour), or tofu, or veggie meat, and a couple servings of steamed veggies. I eat about twice as much veggies (1.5-2 cups) and half as much other food for dinner as my husband. Sometimes we make fat-free, low-sugar brownies, cake or banana smoothie ice cream for dessert.
Results? Even though he's in the most stressful semester of his college life, my husband just commented the other day: Ruthie, I think we're really figuring this out, I haven't had to deal with IBS issues in quite awhile.
*BEAMS!*
*Edited becuze Aye kan't spahell. :-/
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~~ Live simply so that others may simply live. ~~
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that is such a great story to hear, thank you for sharing it with us. Maybe someday I can come on these boards and be able to post something as wonderful as that. Congrats on feeling better and I hope it continues forever!
Bethany
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Microscopic Colitis, IBS-A, GERD, Hiatal Hernia
Bethany, Ontario, Canada
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And thanks for sharing your story. Can I ask some questions?
Does your husband take any supplements, like magnesium? Does he take a soluble fiber supplement, such as metamucil, citrucel, acacia? How much?
Is he able to eat the peels on fruit? What fruits and veggies can he eat?
This is so great to hear. As a long time C sufferer who has not found any relief, I need to hear success stories to keep me going. I am currently taking Miralax, citricel (small amount), flax meal, triphala....and still I am constipated.
Has he ever tried flaxmeal? I was hoping it would help...but it may be causing more problems. 
If he has brown rice for dinner, what kind of SF does he eat beforehand since brown rice is an insoluble fiber. I wouldn't think it was safe to eat along with a veggie...making it two insolubles.
What is he studying in school?
Keep posting...we need to hear good stories! Thanks again for sharing. So glad you found your answer.
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~ Beth
Constipation, pain prodominent,cramps, spasms and bloat!
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What kind of soup does he eat?
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~ Beth
Constipation, pain prodominent,cramps, spasms and bloat!
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Hi  I suppose everyone is different, but here is him:
He doesn't think supplements work at all, but when it has been bad in the past he has added psyillium husk (same as metamucil, but he doesn't eat refined sugar) to his oatmeal, and sometimes we use it as a binder in baking instead of eggs. He also takes magnesium supplements when we travel, because road food is so unpredictable.
The fruits he loves are bananas (eats copiously), oranges (eats occaisionally with lunch), and raisins (eats a couple tablespoons in his oatmeal each morning, I figure the oatmeal makes them easier to digest?). So no, no peels. :-D We also make smoothies with frozen strawberries, blueberries, and peaches (no peels) but those are incredibly pureed any how. He refuses to eat apples or pears unless I eat the peel first. He'll sometimes eat pineapple after a meal. 'Cause he loves it and thinks its worth the risk.
He can probably eat anything he wants to in small quantities, but refuses certain things. He won't go near asparagus or raw vegetables of any kind. Salads are forbidden in this household (sniffles). He eats spinach, kale, and collards if they're super chopped up. He only eats carrots that are practically mush. He loves broccoli, zuchinni/squash and mushrooms. We usually buy frozen vegetables: broccoli, green beans, cauliflower, bell peppers, peas, corn (he'll usually only tolerate corn once a week). But, like I said, he only eats veggies with other foods, chopped and cooked well.
He eats flaxseeds when I grind them and put it in our oatmeal, or when I make zuchinni oat flax fat free waffles or flax brownies. I find it has to be ground really good or otherwise I feel like Im eating fleas.
The kind of brown rice we buy only has 1 gram of fiber per serving! Husband can eat brown rice fine, though sometimes we mix it 1/2 and 1/2 with cooked white rice when times get tough. We toast it, dry, in the pressure cooker, then add double volume of water and cook it for 12 minutes, then let it sit untouched for 10 more minutes, it ends up very fluffy. We do barley the same way. I think the reason he can tolerate rice and barley easier than whole wheat bread is because rice and barley are saturated with water, and coated in sticky gel (I know that sounds gross, but they really are), while bread is baked and very dry, thus if it goes down on an empty stomach... I don't know. It just seems that way.
Best of luck!
Ruthie
Oh I forgot: It's been awhile, but when he is stuck in the bathroom for over half an hour I'll automatically brew up some peppermint and fennel tea. He'll drink a cup or two and start to *feel* better, but he won't necessarily go. That's the thing: its the routine of good eating that keeps his stomach happy, not the quick supplements or teas.
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~~ Live simply so that others may simply live. ~~
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I have a great cookbook from Moosewood. Mostly we make bean soup with our super soft cooked beans, and various veggies. If a.) there are too many veggies for me to chop them individually, b.) Russell having IBS attacks regularly, or c.) I feel like it, I might puree half or the whole thing with my immersion blender. I make a huge pot of soup and fresh bread every weekend.
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~~ Live simply so that others may simply live. ~~
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Thanks for reminding me. Everything is so normal, routine, day-to-day, now that I sometimes forget how wonderful life is. :-D
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~~ Live simply so that others may simply live. ~~
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...before you eat the bean soup? Yipes, don't beans cause much gas? 
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~ Beth
Constipation, pain prodominent,cramps, spasms and bloat!
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Thanks for sharing this. I agree with you that a good diet gives the most benefits. I eat brown rice all the time too (I'm IBS-A) and I find white really bland, I never cook white at home anymore, only brown. I can tolerate brown bread though.
It's funny, carrots are a staple of mine but your husband eats them supermashed. If I touch a cabbage or spinach I get gas, which is such a pity as I love them!
Beans get me too, gas wise, even though I make a great veggie chili  My husband loves them so I do have them every once in a while with a huge portion of rice but they are not to be trusted in my book!
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S.
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Sinead
#255512 - 03/31/06 06:43 AM
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Augie
Reged: 10/27/04
Posts: 5807
Loc: Illinois
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have you ever tried taking a digestive enzyme or something like beano with your spinach and/or beans? It might make them less gassy for you. And pureeing them or mashing them down?
People have reported being able to eat beans again with beano...but then you've probably already have seen those posts! 
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~ Beth
Constipation, pain prodominent,cramps, spasms and bloat!
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Beth
#255595 - 03/31/06 03:57 PM
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cailin
Reged: 08/12/04
Posts: 3563
Loc: Dublin, Ireland
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Hi Beth,
No I haven't tried anything like that- I'm not sure that we have beano over here and to be honest I either skip or suffer! Will have to check it out though, thanks.
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S.
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and you are so wonderful to be helping him. 
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If you're not dead, you've still got time.
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I have the low-fat recipe book, but I usually forget I own it. Thanks for reminding me! I should look through it again.
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My favourite right now is "Moosewood Cooks at Home" - most of the recipes are under 30 mins and so simple to do.
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Thanks for sharing
...And it's always nice to see some other health-nut vegan ladies around here 
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I just randomly stumbled onto your blog the other day while browsing some other vegan blog and then you pop up here in IBS land!
Strange Coincidence!
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Karen
IBS-A
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