Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards | White bread=the root of all evil???

Hey guys, hope everyone's tummys are behaving at the moment (I usually just tell mine to behave and if it doesn't then that's its problem!) Anyhow, just wanted to share a thought with you all. I posted not so long ago about the fact I needed advice about how to safely put on weight (I've been eating a lot of bread, although i want to bake my own as we all know the crap that is in most stuff) Well, the bread I've been eating is white, baps with my dinner and toast near bedtime, apart from two small squares of rye/sourdough bread that I have with a soya milk fruit smoothie for pudding. I have been stressing big time about the fact I'm eating refined carbohydrates, despite the fact I keep reading Heather's threads about the fact it isn't going to kill me, just go for fresh stuff, but I just wish it was wholegrain/brown! (ps other things I've been having are hummus and peanut butter to help me put on weight, as well as bigger portions in general, although the aforementioned foods give me smelly horrendous gas!)

I have just been to a big event today in the UK for fitness instructors, where we all gather and get to have all the TOP people teach us new formats we can use in our classes and tips on teaching. It's been fab, I've done a lot of the dance classes as that's my main interest (broadway musicals, funk, rock and roll, mtv dance) as well as aerobics and a lecture on nutrition. Exercise always makes my IBS non existent. Funny tummy in the morning? Go to gym and it's gone. This is where I would like to make my point: the lecture I went to on nutrition (entitled "Don't Eat That!") was informative and I agreed with a lot of the key principles they were describing for a healthy lifestyle: eat organic, food that's in season, eat instinctively,avoid all sweeteners and packaged foods and eat WHOLEGRAINS only. They practically spat on the word 'white bread' (which is my general atttitude towards it as well, unfortunately) as it isn't nutrient dense and they said it is about as effective as eating a piece of paper. Interestingly, the guy made a point (one of the guys was from the US, by the way) about the fact white bread forms a 'dirty' glue that sticks inside our body. This made me laugh, as it reminded me of the wonderful 'glue like' effect that heather has taught us HELPS food to pass smoothly through our messed up GI tracts.

The main focus of the lecture was about Glycaemic Response They were talking about the disadvantages of the GI diet that everyone is so fond of (eating low Gi foods keeps you feeling full for longer and keeps your blood sugars level) and were raving about the Glycameic Load method instead (admittedly I live a lot of my diet by the Glycaemic Load) where the carbohydrate value of a food is taken into account as well. For example, using the GI diet some healthy foods such as parsnips have a really high GI of about 96 whereas a chocolate bar only rates at about 30-40, so it is not as reliable. The lecture was focused on how supermarkets try to sell us mainly carbs carbs carbs and they were implying this was bad, due to the effect carbs has on our blood sugar levels. SYNDROME X is the ongoing investigation into the long term effects of fluctating blood sugar levels, suggesting that there is one underlying 'degenerating' state in the body due to this and everything else contracted in life (symptoms, diseases etc) is simply a product of the many years of abuse on our poor blood sugar levels. Well, as our fabulous IBS group knows, we balance our blood sugar levels really well by eating small portions on a regular basis.

Sooooo, when the guy started raving on about the 'pure evil' of white bread, I felt quite moved (already feeling segregated from everyone else after having my 'special dietary needs'- eg bringing all my 'prepared foods and snacks as always' and requesting to use the microwave in the kitchen) and thought I'd pipe up. I pointed out that combining foods with the white bread changes its GL load and makes it more nutrient dense. Both the guys taking the lecture were 'barking' at me me by this point "Why would you bother?" they said. For some reason, I decided to talk about a 'friend' who had IBS, (couldn't be bothered letting eveyone knowing my bowel habits at this point) and said that not everyone can not eat wholegrains. Personally, since eating more bread, I have found it to be a very effective SF cushion as opposed to other things (I eat sweet potato, brown rice, oat cakes, but in smaller amounts) "Ahhh," one of the guys said "Well, that person has already caused their own problem as they have been eating refined products for such a long time that their system no longer works properly." The guy did have a point, as we all know that intolerance to a food can be caused by eating too much of it and I did grow up eating a lot of crap (and tons of dairy!) Well, just thought I'd mention about the white bread thing now as I kinda feel too guilty about eating it now. I looove brown bread and I do miss it, I eat products such as the rye bread but miss it so much. I think quite a few people are concerned about eating the white bread because they don't want to put on weight and Heather does offer alternatives: I'm worried that once my weight is back up to a normal level that I won't be able to stop eating it. I can't imagine my life without it now! My tummy seems to like it!

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