How much fat is too much?
#302607 - 03/19/07 08:42 PM
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I know this will probably vary from person to person, but how much fat can you include in a typical meal before it triggers an attack? I use fat free versions of many things, like soymilk and mayonaise, but I'm finding that it's impossible to eat completely fat free. Even bananas have a couple of grams. Also, does it matter what the fat source is? Are certain types of fat more likely to cause a problem? Thanks in advance.
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Eating a completely fat free diet is also unhealthy! You need a certain amount of healthy fats in your diet every day. The IBS diet recommends no more than 25% of your calories in each meal come from fat. If I go much more above that, my system tends to slow down allowing gas build-up and C. In general, high fat foods tend to slow the digestive process.
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Lisa, IBS-C (Vegan)
Stable since July 2007!
Mommy to Rhiannon Marie (Dec. 13, 2008)
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Oh, well what if you have IBS with D? Does too much fat exascerbate that too?
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Too much fat for IBS-D will most likely cause a D attack. I get a lot of pain and then loose frequent stools if I eat too much fat.
As for how much is too much? I use very little oil when cooking and baking. No red meat, dark poultry meat, egg yolks, or dairy at all. Things like oil, dairy-free margarine, nut butters etc I just use small amounts of it.
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Kat
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Don't try to go fat free, just be careful if you're choosing one item that is high in fat, to have it with a safe low fat meal. Since we do have to eat low-fat, try to get fats from good sources like fish, olive/canola oil, nuts, avocados, etc...
All types of fat are the same when digested, but things like red meat and dairy have other triggers as well.
One thing to look at is calorie-fat ratio. If a food item has fat grams listed, times this by 9. Divide this number by the total calories. This will give a percentage of calories from fat. If you're in the range of 15-25% then that's usually fine for someone with IBS. If it's higher than 25%, try having the food with something low-fat like rice or bread to cushion it.
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Kat
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A simple rule
#302649 - 03/20/07 01:25 PM
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Syl
Reged: 03/13/05
Posts: 5499
Loc: SK, CANADA
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A simple rule of thumb that I have found useful is to never eat any food that contains more than 10% fat/oil by weight. In particular, I avoid foods containing palm and cottenseed and I tend to look for foods that contain canola, olive or sunflower oil. I never eat anything containing transfats.
This rule of thumb makes it quite easy to stay within the recommended 15%-25% of daily calories from fats and oils.
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STABLE: ♂, IBS-D 50+ years - Science of IBS
The FODMAP Approach to Managing IBS Symptoms
Evidence-based Dietary Management of Functional GI Symptoms: The FODMAP Approach
FODMAP Chart & Cheatsheet
The Role of Food & Dietary Intervention in IBS
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Ok, thanks for the info.  That helps.
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I am very, very sensitive to fats. I try to eat 30% of my calories from fat per meal. I cannot go over 1/3. I like to have the fat in each meal though because it helps with C and is healthy and makes you less hungry. I heard recently that 40% carbs, 30% protein and 30% fat is a good ratio for weight loss.
I am pretty good at figuring out fat percentage without a calculator. Because you multiply the fat grams by 9 to get fat calories you can do it easily by multiplying by 10 and just taking a little off that. So if something is 300 calories and has 3 grams of fat it would be 30 calories from fat and that is only 10% but since that is rounding to ten instead of nine it is really less than 10%. Therefore the safe fat amount for 300 calories would be 10 grams of fat or so. This is why I will add margarine or nuts to my morning oatmeal and cook my egg whites with margarine etc.
I hope this makes sense!
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IBS-A for 20 years with terrible bloating and gas. On the diet since April 2004. Remember this from Heather's information pages:
"You absolutely must eat insoluble fiber foods, and as much as safely possible, but within the IBS dietary guidelines. Treat insoluble fiber foods with suitable caution, and you'll be able to enjoy a wide variety of them, in very healthy quantities, without problem." Please eat IF foods!
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I looked at my peanut butter, and it has 210 calories, 140 calories from fat. Is that 66% fat? Yikes! I hope I don't have to stop eating it.
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I have a jar of 100% Safeway peanut butter - no additives, no preservative, no added sugar - nothing.
One tbsp of this peanut butter weighs 15 grams, contains 100 calories and 8 grams of fat.
Since 1 gram of fat contains 9 calories then this peanut butter contains 50% fat by weight and 72% of the calories come from the fat.
I guess your peanut butter must contain ingredients other than peanuts.
I have never understood how some IBS suffers can eat this very high fat product 
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STABLE: ♂, IBS-D 50+ years - Science of IBS
The FODMAP Approach to Managing IBS Symptoms
Evidence-based Dietary Management of Functional GI Symptoms: The FODMAP Approach
FODMAP Chart & Cheatsheet
The Role of Food & Dietary Intervention in IBS
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I can eat PB just fine - as long as I'm not using very much, and I'm cushioning it with bread and lots of jelly, which have no fat.
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Lisa, IBS-C (Vegan)
Stable since July 2007!
Mommy to Rhiannon Marie (Dec. 13, 2008)
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Peanut butter is high in fat yes, so I use less of it, and have it with two slices of white bread. The peanut butter I have has 6 grams of fat, 80 calories per 1 tbsp.
I use 1 tbsp of peanut butter and 2 slices of white bread.
Total calories: 80 + 190 = 270 cals
Total fat: 6 + 2 grams = 8, this gives 72 calories from fat (8x9)
Percentage: 72/270 = 27%
So, the safe range is usually 15-25. This is not far off that. I tend to be able to tolerate more high fat things during the afternoons, choosing lower fat meals for breakfast and supper. Everyone seems to tolerate fats differently, so it takes some trial and error to see how you do. I also suggest measuring out the peanut butter, when I used to make sandwiches I think I probably used about 2-3tbsp, and after measuring now I know what 1tbsp looks like!
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Kat
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I tried your calculations, and here's what I came up with for my peanut butter (which is nothing but peanuts and salt), and rye crackers (which have zero fat)
Calories: 50 from crackers, + 210 from pb = 260 total
Grams of fat: 16 per 2 tbsp of bp x 9 = 144 total
144/260 = 55%
Ye gads. Ye gads! I guess I should spread it out on more crackers? I don't want to stop eating my pb!
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Yeah that's why I have it with 2 slices of white bread. Crackers I find aren't substantial enough to cut the fat ratio down. Plus I really like pb&banana sandwiches..
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Kat
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Quote:
Plus I really like pb&banana sandwiches
YUM!! One of my FAVORITES!!
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Lisa, IBS-C (Vegan)
Stable since July 2007!
Mommy to Rhiannon Marie (Dec. 13, 2008)
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A gram of fat has 9 calories not 12. I eat reduced fat skippy PB. It has sugars and stuff that drop the fat percentage down. Regular PB, even organic stuff, has too much fat for me. But then I also never eat PB alone. Sometimes when eating high fat foods you want your food to have a lot of calories to balance it out.
Most PBs have oils in addition to ground nuts.
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IBS-A for 20 years with terrible bloating and gas. On the diet since April 2004. Remember this from Heather's information pages:
"You absolutely must eat insoluble fiber foods, and as much as safely possible, but within the IBS dietary guidelines. Treat insoluble fiber foods with suitable caution, and you'll be able to enjoy a wide variety of them, in very healthy quantities, without problem." Please eat IF foods!
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I love pb with banana too...I don't even put it on bread. I just scoop some PB on a peeled banana and bite..yummy!
The pb I use is Smucker's Natural. I have just introduced it again recently and I can't quite pinpoint it but I know in the past it always gave me gas. Now I take Beano before eating it and after reading K2's calculations, I don't need to do mine to know that I'm probably intaking too much!! My question is....is it the pb that causes gas or is it the fat content? or both maybe?
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Originally IBS-D for a million years!
Then IBS-A, Now a transformed slightly C
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We can eat it because we come from IBS-prone families that spread it ver-r-r-ry thinly. It's honestly one of my safest protein sources if I only have a teaspoon (!) or two on a couple of slices of bread. Yep, we spread it on like everyone else spreads on butter. 
--AC
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Interesting
#302946 - 03/23/07 09:36 AM
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Syl
Reged: 03/13/05
Posts: 5499
Loc: SK, CANADA
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Wow - you are lucky! I have experimented with 1 tsp on a thick slice of homemade sourdough toast. Each time I eat PB toast about an hour or so I get gas, bloating and pain AND I can feel it move through the small intestine. It is a major trigger for me. Not pleasant!
I think that in my case it is the high SF (8 gr/100 by weight) in peanuts that maybe the problem and not just the fat. It just goes to show how each our IBS triggers differ. AND I really miss peanut butter and banana sandwiches 
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STABLE: ♂, IBS-D 50+ years - Science of IBS
The FODMAP Approach to Managing IBS Symptoms
Evidence-based Dietary Management of Functional GI Symptoms: The FODMAP Approach
FODMAP Chart & Cheatsheet
The Role of Food & Dietary Intervention in IBS
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Ach, poor you! Have you tried other nut butters? Perhaps you're just sensitive to peanuts...and you'll do better with cashew butter or almond butter (both of which are really delicious!).
--AC
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High fat doesn't seem to be one of my triggers. Not sure why, but I'm not about to argue it.
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If you're not dead, you've still got time.
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Re: Interesting
#303012 - 03/24/07 05:10 AM
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Syl
Reged: 03/13/05
Posts: 5499
Loc: SK, CANADA
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I have the same problem with cashew butter. It looks like nut butter of any kind is off my menu 
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STABLE: ♂, IBS-D 50+ years - Science of IBS
The FODMAP Approach to Managing IBS Symptoms
Evidence-based Dietary Management of Functional GI Symptoms: The FODMAP Approach
FODMAP Chart & Cheatsheet
The Role of Food & Dietary Intervention in IBS
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Quote:
Yeah that's why I have it with 2 slices of white bread. Crackers I find aren't substantial enough to cut the fat ratio down. Plus I really like pb&banana sandwiches..
I don't understand why we can do this with PB, spread out the fat, yet we can't do it with mayo.
I mean if you have a sandwich with mayo at 25% fat people here frown on it, yet the same thing with PB is ok, why doesn't that diluting fat apply to both PB and mayo?
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IBS-C and Bloating
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I don't get that impression.
BUT, it could be that you're actually getting nutritional value out of the PB (high in protein), whereas you really aren't getting anything out of mayo.
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Lisa, IBS-C (Vegan)
Stable since July 2007!
Mommy to Rhiannon Marie (Dec. 13, 2008)
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