Figuring out a problem food when IBS-C
#160781 - 03/15/05 12:57 PM
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Augie
Reged: 10/27/04
Posts: 5807
Loc: Illinois
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This may sound like a very basic question, but how does one determine or name a trigger food if diarrhea is not the symptomatic result? Well what I mean is what symptoms would a constipated person experience that would suggest a particular food was a problem for them? I always have some pain, and usually even bloat and gas. Everything can't be a trigger!
And if you eat an entire meal with 3 or 4 different foods, how do you know which food caused the problem?
I know this is a basic question, but how do other IBS-C people define a trigger food? By what type of symptoms since I don't get D.
Thank you. I hope this makes sense. I didn't explain it very well! My brain is not working very well today! 
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~ Beth
Constipation, pain prodominent,cramps, spasms and bloat!
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hmmm???
#160803 - 03/15/05 02:57 PM
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i know just what you mean! i am also IBS-C. sometimes i eat so many different things in a day..and then develop pains and symptoms..that its hard to know *just where* it came from. keep a little journal of everything you eat in a day, and highlight the things that most-likely caused the pain. write down when you ate it..how long after you felt symptoms or pain..and what kinds of pain you had. hopefully it can be a process-of-elimination and you can easily subtract the triggers from you diet--without the mess and stress!! hope that helps~ 
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VEGAN ASHLEY~IBS/C
www.myspace.com/dutchflowers
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I don't think there is a very easy answer. Partly I don't think you can tell if a specific food causes C. And probably nothing is. Triggers IMHO are more for D and cramping. YET I think with certain foods like onions maybe or hot peppers or brocolli or that sort of thing (I eat all of these) if you had real severe gas pains and felt more than usually uncomfortable then you would know that food doesn't agree with you. But triggers, for C only, is not really an issue. Primarily eat lots of fiber- throw in IF with everything you eat and drink lots of tea and water. Try to eat more veggies and fruits if possible. Try not to worry about people having all these trigger foods- the ones that aren't forbidden. What I mean is stay away from the forbidden foods like HFCS, sorbitol, red meat, etc and just ignore the personal trigger foods. I don't think I have any BTW.
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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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Hi Beth.
The only way to determine a food intolerance/ allergy is by doing an elimination diet. I'm in the process of doing a detection diet at the moment.
The basic process I'm following is from the foodintol.com.au website. It involves eating normally for 2 weeks, recording EVERYTHING I eat, drink and the supplements I take. Also recording symptoms - GI, mood, skin condition etc, everything. Then based on the symptoms matrix I decide which of the four main food groups my symptoms are likely to be caused by: gluten, dairy, fructose or yeast.
For the following 2 weeks I do the restriction phase, whereby I completely eliminate ALL forms of the food group, still recording everything I eat and drink, and whether my symptoms have improved. The thing about C related IBS is it can take up to 48 hours for the food you've eaten to cause GI problems.
After two weeks of restriction, you test the food again and rejoice if you have only one food intolerance!!, or continue back to the restriction phase with another food group if you're symptoms are only slightly improved (if you have no change in your symptoms during the restriction phase you're not intolerant to that food, obviously, so you bring it back into your diet).
The thing about IBS is we're usually intolerant to numerous food groups. What I didn't realise is how prevalent fructose malabsorption is in people with IBS, and more importantly how many foods contain fructose! The other eye opener was yeast - its in just about everything! AND it causes all the typical IBS symptoms.
After only 2 weeks on the detection diet I'm already finely tuned into my response to gluten. So I now know that I definately am gluten intolerant, as opposed to only suspecting it. I'm interested to test out fructose and yeast, as these are the 2 food groups that I haven't tested before, and am hoping they'll be my final answer to the bloat.
And just a bit of extra info, fructose & yeast free diets are only temporary until your system stabilises. You can then go back to limited intake of these foods. A fructose free diet eliminates most fruits, all sweet veges, and all other forms of sugar except for glucose (there are tonnes of other forms, so depressing!). A yeast free diet eliminates all over ripe fruit and veges, all tomato based products, all sugar based products and all yeast based products.
After reading through all the info from the website I am SOOOOOOOOooo much better informed about how food affects us, and how to identify what foods have nasties in them (even fresh foods!). Its still only early days in the detection diet, but I've already got good results. I've got a goal of being bloat free by my birthday - May 13 - so fingers crossed this process is the answer for me 
If you (or anyone else) wants more info just send me an email. Always happy to help.
Chrissy xx
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~ Live life, don't let life live you ~
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I will be interested to hear some input from this also-I am the exact same way- I don't get the diarrhea from anything but I always have discomfort/crampy/pain. Always! Sometimes the discomfort is pain and I don't know if it's something I ate or from haveing all that poop inside. Even though I have a bm every day- I don't think I go enough.
Good question though- thanks for asking it.
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Melissa
Pain predominant w/occasional C.
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