"Breaking The Cycle" questions
#163428 - 03/23/05 03:33 PM
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I am currently doing the "breaking the cycle" portion of the diet to see if it will help me. I read Heather's description of this phase but have a few questions. She says to restrict foods to nothing but soluble fiber, and then mentions "white rice, instant oatmeal, dry corn or oat or rice cereals, pasta, white bread, etc"
She does not mention the other soluble fiber foods such as: bananas, mangoes, papayas, yams, squash, beets, quinoa. Was that intentional? Would a smoothie with rice milk, bananas and papaya be safe?
What is the rational behind "dry" cereal rather than cereal with rice milk?
I want to make sure I am eliminating all trigger foods in this phase - and at the same time, I'm hoping to continue eating at least the safe soluble fiber fruits and veggies if they are not triggers. Let me know what you all think.
Thanks,
Chris
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Hi Chris,
When Heather talks about soluble fiber only for the Breaking the Cycle diet, she is talking about the safest soluble fiber foods that will help ease your stomach from whatever IBS upset it is going through to get it more stable.
Unfortunately, the smoothie would not work as rice milk is an insoluble fiber. This is also why Heather mention "dry" cereal.
I would stick to the foods that Heather mentions at first and then start to add other soluble fibers. Rice, potatoes, pasta, etc. are typically the easiest foods for IBSers to digest.
If you're really having a problem with your IBS lately, stick to the bland foods for a day or two and then slowly start to add others.
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- Jennifer
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When I did this I had just rice or pasta and every day added a new food, mushrooms first, then chicken, then peas, then white fish, carrots etc until I found my feet again. Introducing protein like a baked chicken breast really helped my strength and health
Good luck and definitely stay away from that smoothie, eat WHITE for a couple of days first.
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S.
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I hear both of you suggesting that I stick with bread, rice, pasta for the first few days. I can do that. But can you help me to understand why bananas, papaya and all of the other soluble fiber foods would be left out of this first phase?
I don't get why rice milk would be insoluble fiber. I just checked the label on my rice milk (Pacific Foods) and it says 0g and 0% fiber. Not trying to argue here, just to understand...
Also forgot to ask about sweeteners, i.e. is it okay to put honey on the bread or in the oatmeal?
Thanks again everyone.
Chris
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Hi Chris,
Actually rice milk is neither soluble or insoluble. It's been strained of all solids and is pretty much flavored water by that point. You should be fine eating bananas or any other soluble fruits or veggies during breaking the cycle. (I personally can't live without my bananas during an uneasy day)
One thing I would be careful of with a smoothie is that it can be cold. Try having it with toast or cereal, not on an empty stomach. Cold foods can be a trigger, because they can make your stomach muscles contract. This is why hot tea is so good, it helps the muscles relax. Or if you're feeling really unstable, you may not want to try a smoothie at all. Eating a banana or papaya (or any soluble fruit) not cold may be easier for you during this time.
Honey is okay to sweeten things.
Good luck!
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I think the idea is to avoid food that might cause a reaction. For instance if someone wanted soy milk on their cereal but wasn't getting better at all they might have an intolerance to soy and that would get in the way. I think sugars of all kinds are allowed. Just keep in mind that flavorings/herbs/spices and the like need to be used sparingly so you aren't inadvertantly causing problems. I don't speak from experience as I never did the break the cycle diet. But I don't want to discourage people from doing it. I think that rice milk along with a few other things are what I call "neutral" they aren't either SF or IF. (I could be wrong).
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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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...with some of the SF veggies - bananas is often a culprit, or mushrooms. SO if you don't know whether these are ok for you, then cut them out too. The whole point of breaking the cycle is to give your bod a rest from ALL triggers.
Personally, I'm fine with well-cooked carrots, room temperature mango and squash. Oh and avocado - but I'm less sensitive to fats than some (which is why avocadoes can be a problem SF food).
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Well, based on everyone's feedback I decided to play it safe. For two days I've had bread, potatoes, white rice, instant oatmeal and peppermint tea. The spasms and pain have reduced somewhat but I still have a lot of gas and I am REALLY constipated. I also feel very tired and kind of foggy-headed. I will continue this for a couple more days and report back. Thanks for your feedback.
Chris
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Chris:
Personally, I have problems with the "breaking the cycle" instructions. I'm sorry to say, but I think the instructions are confusing and not in-depth enough for people, especially newcomers to this website (which is probably why you are confused and posting questions), and I think some of the foods that are recommended would cause discomfort. For example, oatmeal can be a problem for some IBS people and can take some adjustment to possibly tolerate.
Having battled IBS all of my life, and having gained a great deal of experience (I think!) on how to deal with it, I would recommend the following foods to get yourself on the road to being stable:
- plain mashed potatoes
- protein in the form of plain baked or boiled chicken breast with the skin removed. I think protein is essential or your blood sugar will drop and you will become foggy-headed (as you have already described). Although I've been voted down on this board on the "organic" subject, I would nevertheless recommend eating organic chicken. I get sick from conventional chicken because I believe the antibiotics and harmones, etc. used in conventional chicken can cause IBS discomfort. A light type of fish meat is also a good protein source -- for example, trout (baked is good). I don't recommend salmon to start because it will be "heavier" on your stomach.
- plain boiled peeled carrots (again, preferably organic)
- French or white bread that is from a good bakery and that contains NO milk products and preferably NO additives. The ideal thing is to bake your own in a bread-making machine and then you can control the ingredients.
- Steamed white rice. I find what works best for me is organic basmati white rice, which I buy at a health food store.
-Peppermint tea (preferably organic). However, if you suffer from acid reflux, stay away from Peppermint tea and try fennel or camomile tea instead. However, if you also suffer from ragweed (hayfever) allergy, stay away from the camomile tea and just have the fennel tea.
- Plain, non-carbonated, bottled water served at room temperature. (Evian is the best -- and most expensive, of course!) If you are IBS-C, drink lots of water and get lots of exercise to help regulate yourself.
I don't personally recommend pasta to start because for some reason it bothers my stomach. The other things I've mentioned above I know from experience are very soothing when you are trying to get stable.
For breakfast, I recommend a plain white-flour bagel or French or white bread (again from a good bakery)with a little babyfood sauce like apple sauce, which contains no additives, smeared on the top in lieu of jam. (I also spread a little organic Earth Balance buttery spread, which I find is fine for my IBS.)
A tip for buying milk-free bread products is to go to a Jewish bakery, which sells "parve" bread. If it is parve, it will not contain any milk products.
Once you feel better, you could start adding more fibre into your diet -- acacia, which Heather sells, is good, but start with VERY SMALL amounts until your system adjusts. Start with more soluble fibre and, as you improve, begin to add small quantities of insoluble fibre, but eat the insoluble fibre WITH LOTS OF SOLUBLE FIBRE.
My other advice is to stay away from prepared foods as much as possible and make your own food because that way you have the most control over your food intake. I do not recommend eating anything with chemicals or additives. And, as I've already said, I recommend eating organic. My opinion is a natural approach is the best way to taming IBS.
After a lifetime of agony, I have been pain-free for almost two years now. I hope you feel better very soon.
Belinda
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Belinda,
I'm very grateful for your post and it resonates with my own experience and philosophy with diet and healing. I agree with you on the organic issue - practically everything I buy/eat is organic and unprocessed. Thankfully I live in a place (San Francisco) with every imaginable food alternative within easy reach.
The other confusing aspect of this is that I'm quite sure there's something going on in addition to IBS. This all started with a bad case of parasites and dysentery and I'm not at all convinced my intestinal environment is free of pathogens. Another possibility, one suggested by my current doc (a specialist in this area), is that the prolonged stress of having a parasitic infection has severely weakened my immune system and so I am now dealing with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia as well.
The diet he suggests for healing the immune system (and he has some authority in this area, backed by a lot of research) is very different from the IBS diet in some ways. He basically suggests no flour and no sugar (fruit is okay), with high doses of protein to increase body cell mass, anaerobic conditioning (weightlifting), pharmaceutical-grade vitamin/mineral supplements, etc.
The problem for me has been that a lot of the foods that are "healthy" (i.e. veggies, beans, fruits, other insolubles) really irritate my gut. The foods that don't seem to irritate my gut (white rice, white bread, bananas, etc) make me feel tired, foggy-headed and bloated. They are also the very foods that my doc (and many others) consider to be "unhealthy", at least for someone healing from a chronic illness.
I often feel overwhelmed and confused by the incredible disagreement about nutrition, diet and healing - even for one particular condition like IBS. At the end of the day, I guess the only thing that matters is what works for each of us. But that can be very difficult to figure out, and takes tremendous patience and willingness to experiment with diets and programs that are often severely restrictive and labor intensive.
Guess this has become a bit of a rant... probably needed to vent. I've been feeling really helpless and kind of desperate lately.
Chris
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