?s bout what I bought
#154224 - 02/25/05 04:06 PM
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Ok I finnaly did it!
I ordered the Acacia stuff....funny thing bout that Acacia it is also my daughters middle name!!!
I ordered the Fennel tea, peperminy caps and the 2 books.
The "Eating for IBS" seems a bit daunting. I hate to cook.
But the "First year..." one has been very informative! ThankGod for people like Heather who write these things!
But ok so for those of you who love the Acacia, Fennel Tea and Pepermint caps...help me out!
What time of day is best to take my Acacia (I'm starting out on one dose a day except when my hormones make me worse). Is taking it in the moring and/or on an empty tummy ok?
Ok and can I add the Acacia to my glass of Fennel hot tea? Or is that too much or not good to mix?
And since I'm starting to think I have IBS-A and stress and hormones are my worst triggers rather than food. Then can I take these things only on my bad days? Like when going somewhere and/or that 'time of the month'?
On average I do pretty well actually.
Dairy and meats do not seem to be any problem for me. Whereas coffee, sweetners, carbonation, eating too much, heavy fat etc can be bad for me but even those don't give me attacks every time I swallow them.
Whereas on a healthy IBS food day if I get nervous it is guranteed diarhea.
So does this sound normal??
I swear my GI is much more sensitive to what I'm thinking than what I'm eating!ugh
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Quote:
But ok so for those of you who love the Acacia, Fennel Tea and Pepermint caps...help me out!
What time of day is best to take my Acacia (I'm starting out on one dose a day except when my hormones make me worse). Is taking it in the moring and/or on an empty tummy ok?
Ok and can I add the Acacia to my glass of Fennel hot tea? Or is that too much or not good to mix?
And since I'm starting to think I have IBS-A and stress and hormones are my worst triggers rather than food. Then can I take these things only on my bad days? Like when going somewhere and/or that 'time of the month'?
I hope I can explain things a little. First of all a SFS is not medicine or a drug or anything like that and has no danger involved. It is more like eating a big bowl of oatmeal since all it is is soluble fiber like in food but easier to digest. So an SFS needs to be taken every day. I feel taking it in the evening is better than morning for the time at the beginning when you are taking only one dose. I also have been told by my GI doc that taking SFS with dinner is best. I put mine in my fennel tea and let it sit for 5 minutes. You should just start with 1/2 teaspoon and then add 1/2t. in the morning later when you are ready. From there go up 1/2t when you are ready. It takes weeks. The peppermint capsules should be taken on an empty stomach. You can just take them when you feel the worst. I tend to believe though that fennel and peppermint has cumulative properties and so I drink fennel/peppermint tea every day. Try to keep on acacia everyday. An A person doesn't like changes and if you get D you still have to take SFS so as not to get C the next day and start a cycle! That is what I have. So good luck with the acacia and tea!
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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'm pretty regimented about meds, so I did/do this:
I started with 1/2 teaspoon of acacia every day. After 3 days, I went up to 1 teaspoon; another 3 days, 1-1/2 teaspoons; another 3 days, 2 teaspoons... You can see where this is going. I'm up to 8 teaspoons now - it did take weeks - and plan to go to 10, which is the max dose Heather recommends. I take 1 teaspoon first thing in the morning in about a half-cup of applesauce and another 1 teaspoon last thing before bed in another half-cup of applesauce. The closer the applesauce is to room temperature the better the acacia dissolves. However, even if it doesn't dissolve all the way, it has no taste or texture that I can discern so it doesn't bother me to eat it even if I can still see it in my applesauce. The other 6 teaspoons I dissolve in 24 ounces of water in a water bottle and drink some of it with every meal. Set this up the night before you plan to drink it and the acacia dissolves completely overnight.
Once you're taking acacia, it's very important to be sure you're getting enough water during the day. Heather recommends a minimum of 128 ounces. I never make that, but I can usually get in about a hundred.
Unfortunately, I don't like the taste of the fennel tea, but I plan to keep trying to get used to it. As for the peppermint caps, my doctor is trying me on Bentyl and pointed out that if I took both the Bentyl and the peppermint caps and felt better, I would never know which one - or both - helped, so I'm waiting on the caps until I finish my 2 weeks of taking Bentyl 3-4 times a day.
I was a reluctant cook who for years had prepared basically the same 6 or 7 dishes and I, too, found Heather's "Eating for IBS" overwhelming at first. I actually started with recipes from this site since some of them seemed simpler and didn't call for ingredients I'd never heard of.
I've begun to try some of the recipe from Heather's books and have found some of the breads to be wonderful. They look complicated to those of us who aren't natural cooks, but they're really not. Once you start making them, they're all really the same idea, just different ingredients. My favorite is the pumpkin apple spice - try that and you'll get big time rewards for not a terrible amount of effort. Also, the Chocolate Silk Pudding is to die for - I was so proud of myself for actually mastering a double boiler.
I also love Heather's mushroom/rosemary and BBQ chicken pizza, but I don't make my own crust. I buy the Pillsbury Classic Pizza crust in the tube and follow the directions on the can for baking (on a cookie sheet), but use Heather's toppings (the BBQ sauce is fabulous and very, very easy). Also, nothing could be simpler than Heather's Herb Baked Chicken Breasts. They go great with the Skinny Mashed Potatoes you'll find in the recipe index.
As for stress versus food, Heather's diet and the SF have stopped my food related attacks, but my stress-related ones are still there. I think, though, that now I'm on the diet, it takes more stress to kick off an attack.
HTH.
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[Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]
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Helloooo TP
You've got some great advice here but I'll just add my two cents 
It's best to take Acacia a couple of times (2-4) throughout the day instead of just once. That way your stomach/colon always has some SF to work with. Like others have said, start at a small dosage and work up. I take 3 TBSP a day now (started at 3 1/2 tsps a day and worked up I think):
I take 1 tbsp first thing when I get up in the morning before eating anything (mornings are always bad for me and that REALLY helps -- you asked if it was ok to take in the morning or on an empty tummy? It's the BEST thing to take then!)
then I mix 1-1/2 tsp in a 1L bottle of water and sip that between breakfast and lunch, that way I have a good foundation of SF in my tummy for lunch
then I have another 1L bottle of water with another 1-1/2 tsp of Acacia between lunch and dinner (usually have a snack in there too).
I have my last tbsp of Acacia with a cup of tea right before bed (also helps with the mornings).
Like minnie mentioned, Acacia is not a drug - it's like a big bowl of oatmeal (well said! ) And it's totally ok to put it in tea (fennel or otherwise!) It's not "too much", as they're not drugs, your stomach will LOVE this! lol just make sure to mix the Acacia in some cold water first to let it dissolve because it doesn't dissolve well in hot water.
I also take peppermint caps - 3x a day between meals (after breakfast, after lunch and after dinner). I have the fennel tea but I only drink it occassionaly - more often I drink peppermint and chammomile.
As for Eating for IBS, it's a great book, but I must admit I was a little overwhelmed when I first got it too - all those specialty ingredients. The first thing I made were the bread though - they are sooo good and sooooooo easy!
You mentioned hormones - if you, like me and many others on this board, tend to get worse IBS flareups (especially D) during that one happy week each month, try evening primrose oil capsules. I've noticed they've worked for me. I take 2 capsules 2x/day every day of the month except when I have my period, and the week right before I have my period I bump it up to 3x/day. It really helps balance the hormones. You could also try black cohosh I think, though be careful because I think that can have interactions with the pill if you are on it.
And lastly, on stress - yes, my IBS is mostly triggered by stress now too. It didn't used to be that way but, as I think Sand mentioned, since being on this diet my food-triggers are almost completely under control (except if I eat too much at one sitting!  ) Have you considered hypnotherapy at all? I haven't tried it but I know a lot of people on these boards have had success with it for controlling stress.
Phew! Hope some of that is helpful!! 
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