Soups and vegetables
#177247 - 05/06/05 11:19 PM
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I'm unclear about what exactly I can eat for soups and vegetables on this diet. I plan on going shopping for food, so if I could get some clearly worded tips and, this would be best, exact foods to eat that would really be beneficial.
I need to be having vegetables with 2 meals a day, and I want to have some variety with my vegetables. I would like as many vegetables as possible I can eat.
Is it true that with all vegetables I have to cook them first?
What about lettace in a sandwich uncooked, is that alright because the bread is soulable material?
Are pickels alright to eat?
What are the soups and vegetables I can eat, and what guidelines should I look for when buying these.
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Whether you can handle raw lettuce in a sandwich is going to depend on *your own* tolerancy. Try it and see how it works. If it works, keep doing it. If it doesn't, don't do it again.
I notice that you are asking a lot of questions that require specific answers on why foods are making you bloated. We can offer advice, but IBS is so incredibly individualized that the BEST way to figure out if something will make you bloated is to try it. YOU may not be able to handle foods that the rest of us can, and you may be able to handle foods that the rest of us can't.
The bottom line is, you need to experiment on your own and see how it affects you. This will be a valuable learning experience for you because you'll get a better idea of how *you* handle certain foods. And you will ALWAYS have to check labels. If it contains any type of dairy, whole wheat, or artificial sweetener, STAY AWAY FROM IT.
As for vegetables, some of us (but maybe not you) find that pureeing a can of tomato-based vegetable soup works pretty well for vegetables... if eaten at the end of a SF meal. I like to eat a lot of vegetables and find I have a pretty good tolerance for them if they are cooked. I even ate a medium-sized salad (raw lettuce, of course) after dinner last night and was GREAT. So, buy a bunch of frozen vegetables (avoid corn because it is known to cause problems unless it is pureed) and experiment.
If you find that you cannot handle even cooked veggies very well, try pureeing them after you have cooked them. No need for a food processor unless you feel like spending extra money - a blender will work just fine. And out at restaurants, I like to mash mine with a fork, if I'm worried.
Like I said before, a lot of this diet is experimenting and finding what works for you. For example, Heather said in one of her books that she can tolerate a small piece of solid chocolate if eaten after a SF meal. I cannot, no matter how full of SF that meal was.
Good luck and have fun checking labels at the store!
--------------------
Elizabeth
all those years it wasn't IBS - it was celiac!
send me an email: liz@dopple.net
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You just posted something similiar and it and received many answers this question already! pickles. I'm new, but have noticed that you tend to ask the same questions over and over. Why don't you check out this suggestion/post by Heather. web page
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I make my own soup. My favourite broth base is IMAGINE "No Chicken" broth--there's no "crap" in it--no m.s.g., etc. This is only if I don't have my own stock. To this broth base you can add acceptable/safe veg., rice, noodles, sweet potatoes, etc. Heck, even boneless skinless chicken or whatever.
When I eat vegetables, I cook them, i.e. steam/simmer and then stick them in my food processor and puree them. Note that if I eat fruit it is pureed as well.
Salad/lettuce is variable; some find it impossible and others are okay with it. Just avoid all fat in condiments/dairy/egg yolks/m.s.g./high fructose corn syrup, etc.--I make my own dressings, but I'm really beyond anal!
Eat it at the end of a meal with soluable fiber, should you try salad. If it disagrees with you than give it a hiatus.
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Wind
#177270 - 05/07/05 08:45 AM
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Cyndy
Reged: 03/05/05
Posts: 1301
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Do you puree green beans as well? What veggies do you eat and puree and find most tolerable? Do you puree them before adding them to soups too?
Do you cook your lettuce for your salad dressing as well?
Finally, what fruits do you eat and puree? Do you have to cook fruits too? If so, how do you cook a fruit? I know how to bake an apple, but is this necessary?
Thanks, you seem to be very knowledgeable.
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Could I get examples of vegetables you eat, I don't know what the term puree is.
What are some soup brands and flavors you have?
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Re: Wind
#177332 - 05/07/05 06:01 PM
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Wind
Reged: 04/02/05
Posts: 3178
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Yes, I puree green beans!!! They're actually delicious! Sort of like guacomole. I like mixing in a few handfuls of baby spinach, some fresh dill--I saw the recipe on fatfree.com. Green beans pureed are also good with fennel (anise). When I say I puree just about everything, I am not kidding! A puree of green beans, zucchini, and celery is pretty good. Sometimes, I'll toss in watercress. Zucchini/spinach is always a good combo. I cannot tolerate cruciferous veggies, but my Mum, who can, is addicted to "broccomole" which is basically just broccoli puree. She also loves that low carb faux potatoes made of cauliflower puree. Heck, I love simmering english cucumbers and adding herbs and some leafies and tossing them in the food processor. Personally, I cannot tolerate peppers and most nightshade foods. I might toss in a handful of alfalfa or radish or clover sprouts, for a little "body" and enzymes.
I do not eat onions and garlic--They really kill me--sulfur!
Re: fruit purees--all the time. Re: precooked fruit before the puree? I generally stick to tropical fruit (papaya, mangoes, kiwis)and berries. They don't need any cooking, although sometimes--often--I like to warm up the puree.
I don't really eat apples/pears/peaches unless in season. Peaches and nectarines, because of their structure don't really need cooking before pureeing. I do not eat citrus fruit as they really trigger me.
Re: soups/veggies/purees. I find that a pureed veggie with a little extra liquid (i.e. water, sea salt or stock/herbs) serves as a veggie soup. The veggie itself is so creamy after being pureed that a "notmilk" liquid is not required, or desired. If I feel more soupy, I add more liquid; If I feel saucier I use less liquid.
I try to eat a salad most days and no, the greens aren't cooked. The dressing, though, may be a fresh raw juice or a puree of veggies/fruits or herbs. Often the salad is topped with sf, or accopanied by sf and always at the end of a meal. One of my favourite "crouton" recipes is basically just roasted squash or herbed turnips. Potatoe works well, too, and mushrooms, and beets, plantain, banana, most tropical fruit. (Mango, papaya).
Sometimes, I'm disgusting and make "veggie sundaes!"
One thing that I find that eases digestion is a little seaweed, i.e. kombu.
I hope this is helpful. I used to be embarrassed re: that I puree the bulk of my diet. Now, however, I have no embarrassment about it whatsoever as I am increasingly energized and full of antioxidants and more than just one colour. I try and think of it as "haute cuisine" without the fat and other triggers. Pureeing makes the fiber more soluable and digestible. It's sinfully delicious and nourishing--I do lots of smoothies too. 
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Thanks for all the ideas! Yet, a few more questions if you don't mind. 
When you add the baby spinach or celery to your pureed cooked veggies, is the spinach and celery also cooked? Or do you add in raw to the cooked veggies?
I don't think I could handle a raw lettuce salad! Think it would kill me with pain, unfortunately. 
Since you do eat apples, nectarines and other fruits, do you also puree them too? Sounds like it. And these also do not need cooking even though they are not soluble fiber fruits like the papaya and mango are?
What is kombu and where do you buy it from?
Thanks again, Wind. You have been very helpful. I'm new and just starting this out, but I have the basic know hows down after reading both Heathers books.
Oh, almost forgot, do I need a food processor or is a blender okay?
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Re: Wind
#177337 - 05/07/05 06:30 PM
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Wind
Reged: 04/02/05
Posts: 3178
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Re: to puree is to "make a pulp of cooked food." Basically I cook the vegetable and then put it in the food processor--it looks/tastes like a smoothie. It's "creamy" without cream! It's so comforting and full of colour and vitamins/minerals, potassium. If you want it more "soupy" use or add more water/liquid base. If you want it thicker, use/add less liquid base. With veggies, is basically a cooked vegetable smoothie. Yes, in its most crudest form, adult baby food. I think of it, however, as "haute cuisine." I don't do the egg white thing, but my mother does and these purees often get swirled into her breakfast eggwhite omelette/scrambles.
I do not use anything with M.S.G. or "Campbell's Soup" or mainstream bouillion (i.e. Knorr/Oxo). Those are toxically triggering, hfcs, m.s.g., etc.
My favourite broth/liquid bases:
"Imagine No-Chicken Broth"
Bouillion: "Harvest Sun Organic Vegetable Broth" (Ingredients: Yeast extract, sea salt, potato starch, non-hydrogenated sunflower oil, vegetables--leek, carrots--natural calcium carbonate, spices--tumeric, nutmeg--herbs--parsley, celery leaves) Per 1 tsp. 4 calories/.07 g fat.
I advise you to use organic broths/bouillions. Pacific foods is another recommendable company.
Basically, I DO NOT CONSUME any cruciferous veggies (broccoli/brussels sprouts/cabbage or onions/garlic or peppers/eggplant/tomatoes). My favourite veggies are: baby spinach, zucchini, mushrooms, asparagus, cucumbers, watercress, green beans, alfalfa. I have a BIG PROBLEM with tofu/soy and beans/peas...oranges/citrus, avocadoes and bananas as well as nuts/legumes, dried fruits with sulfites. They're really high in tyramine which causes me MIGRAINES. )
Basically, with a veg. puree you cook the veg., stick the veggies in the food processor and funk it up to the degree you desire. A veggie smoothie. The fibers are broken down for you!
My mother likes these purees as fish/chicken sauces, as well. They're great pasta/noodle and rice sauces, too or just soups/dips, stuffings.
Yes, I'm the food processor queen.
So, all you have to do is cook it and then let your food processor break down the fibers for you. Or, if it's fruit,
it generally doesn't require cooking.
Is this helpful?
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Re: Cyndy
#177338 - 05/07/05 06:45 PM
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Wind
Reged: 04/02/05
Posts: 3178
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The celery and baby spinach are cooked!
Eating a raw apple, even without the skin would personally KILL me. I find that soft, pulpy, fruits--i.e. with pits vs. seeds--just need peeling and a little water in the fruit processor. Fruits with the stringer type of fiber, i.e. apples are the type that I'd cook first! Note/warning: peel everything!
I don't bother cooking berries.
I prefer a food processor to a blender--it more thoroughly and quickly breaks things down into digestible form. I just personally think it does a better job.
Kombu is a seaweed. Most natural health stores carry it. You just snip off an inch or two and soak it. I find that a little seaweed helps with digestion.
Re: salad. LISTEN TO YOUR BODY. YOU'll know IF and WHEN it may be okay, and if that's never THAT'S so perfectly okay!!!
Honour your body and heal! Salad/raw lettuce is a huge trigger for many people with IBS. Incidentally, alot of lettuces are good cooked, i.e. stir-fried. I love cooked belgian endive and radicchio and swiss chard and watercress--with a little broth and herbs, maybe a pureed squash sauce/topping or with some roast mushrooms...or a beetwhip...carrot/ginger zinger!!! Baked herbed potatoe croutons! Noodles, rice...
Just make sure that the fruit, if fresh, is a little soft--i.e. plums/nectarines/peaches/kiwis/mangoes. Sometimes, though, a little simmering brings out the natural sugars in the fruit.
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Not telling people exactly what they can and can't eat is a big irritation for new people- who rightly would rather have others tell them what's ok than try to experiment with everything. But the reason people don't like to do this is that they could say "oh I eat this just fine all the time" and then it makes the new person (who's tummy is more sensitive) really ill and the other person would feel pretty bad. So most posters just try to give the safest advice so that at least they don't make the newbie worse. And things are so individual too. Like with bananas- some love em some hate em. Personally I never puree my veggies and I sometimes eat raw veggies. Lettuce on sandwiches sometimes bothers me. I do eat broccoli and cauliflower and asparagus etc, but I wouldn't want to recommend that. I can say that whirled or pureed peas, green beans and very cooked spinach seem to be the easiest insoluble veggies to tolerate. Soluble veggies of course are a great place to start and build on. Root veggies are so easily tolerated, cooked well. From there you have to experiment for yourself. Maybe the insoluble part of the diet won't be so touchy with you (like me- it is fat that bothers me most.) But we can't predict what won't bother you. I hope the advice helps!
--------------------
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've been trying to be more creative with my pureeing, as its working well for me, and I was previously really missing my veggies.
I do have one question. When I puree things, I've only been making up small quantities of things (like half a yellow squash with a couple baby carrots, etc), and when I try to get it out of the blender, all of the food is underneath the blades. The only way to get it out is to take the blender apart (like you would to clean it), but I've twice now dropped the food out onto the counter or the floor. Do you have a way to get your food out that eliminates that problem? Or would a food processor be different and eliminate that problem?
Maybe I should just get that old "Splat Mat" out from when I was a kid...
--------------------
~~~Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.~~~
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You can buy food processors that are small, usually marketed for preparing baby food! They would be good for anyone making one-size portions a lot of the time. Or some standard size food processors come with a small bowl as an extra, it is intended for chopping herbs and other things in small quantities. I have the same problem and it is one of the reasons I don't puree things as much as I ought to, so I'm thinking about buying one of the small ones.
Josephine
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celery, zucchini, etc separately and then add them all together in the puree? Do you make a big batch all at once?
I'm not sure how to cook raw spinach, zucchini, or celery actually.  Any hints on the cooking route?
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PS
#177508 - 05/08/05 07:12 PM
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Cyndy
Reged: 03/05/05
Posts: 1301
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How do you cook the fennel and watercress, also! I'm not very knowledgeably about how to cook! I'm trying to learn, though!
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1. I do not cook each veg. in a "mole" (translated into English, "mole" means mixture!). Sometimes, though, you only feel like one veg.
2. You put the longest cooking veg. in first.
3. Baby spinach cooks ULTRA-QUICKLY!!! I put it in last if it's in a combo., and basically just turn off the heat, maybe give it a stir, and leave the whole thing alone for 5 or ten minutes!
4. Depending on how finely you slice the veggies also determines the length of cooking. Finely sliced zucchini cooks rather quickly. Celery generally takes a tad longer than zucchini depending on how green, or how bitter it is. Green beans generally take a little longer than celery. It also depends on how well you like your veggies cooked. For example, lets say I was doing green beans, celery, and baby spinach. I'd put the green beans in first with about a cup of water and sea salt and then crank up the heat. Then I'd chop up the celery and toss that in. About 10 min. later I'd toss in some dill (because I like it), add a little more water if required and then a few handfuls of baby spinach and because I'm a salt freak and on a high sodium diet, a little more sea salt. I'd then give the pot a stir, and turn off the heat. Then, about ten min. later, I'd put the liquid and the veggies in the food processor and give it a serious high speed whirl. I might add a little more liquid, i.e. broth or water (broth is a big flavour enhancer) and buzz it for a little longer. I might give it a little fresh lemon juice just for a twist before eating.
Today I did: anise (fennel bulb), green bean, and baby spinach. It was the perfect accompaniement for portabellini mushroom and saffron lime rice with cilantro. YUM. Basically, just do whatever veggies you think may agree with you and keep a "kitchen diary"/response log. You'll be surprised at what you'll discover.
5. Another tip for creating a creamier taste without using "notmilks" (when I use the turn "notmilk" I mean soy/rice/almond milk) is to add a few tablespoons of raw rice to the water as you're getting the whole concoction going. It's okay if the rice gets a little "mushy" as it will all be whirled in the food processor. A little potatoe is another trick, too. It's not necessary, though.
6. Personally, I like a little celery in a lot of these combos--especially the leaves!!!
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So...
#177515 - 05/08/05 07:34 PM
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Cyndy
Reged: 03/05/05
Posts: 1301
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you cook all your veggies in a saucepan with water? You boil the veggies? Isn't a lot of water required in order to make sure the veggies are cooked really well, making them safer? How much of each veggie is safe so that I don't get too much soluble fiber in at each meal?
In 1) you said you don't cook them together, but your directions sound like you do.
Did you see my PS?
Sorry so many questions, Wind. I do appreciate all you help. Promise this is the last set of questions!
What country are you from, btw?
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All my food get splattered against the sides and under the blades. Even when I use the small processor, all the food gets splattered against the sides. I lose half of it!
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Re: PS
#177519 - 05/08/05 07:42 PM
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Wind
Reged: 04/02/05
Posts: 3178
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Re: cooking fennel, watercress, etc.
Cyndy,
I'm a total fuzz ball when it comes to cooking! Seriously though, I just start with a little bottled water and some sea salt and take it from there! I basically wash and finely chop everything--remove the stems from watercress. Celery and fennel and carrots are all chopped match size. Half the time, I just let the food processor chop most of the stuff--it great for zucchini and english cucumbers to get them ultra-paper thin and fine. If I'm in the mood for zucchini faux spaghetti, I use a veg. peeler and peel the zucchini or english cuke into strands. Some people like stir-fried veggies; personally, I'm not exceptionally keen on them. If I do stir-fry, I do it in broth, so it's more of a "steam fry." I like roast mushrooms, or broiled mushrooms and sometimes broiled/roast zucchini. I just crank up the oven...broil it until it looks done--less than 20 minutes! If I do a soup that's really thin, I might just use a hand blender. If it's a basically naked soup, i.e. broth, than maybe just a small bunch of watercress, or a handful of spinach, or a little carrot or zucchini or whatever!
I'm a soup/sauce/smoothie addict. Trust me though, when I say I'm clueless in the kitchen...I didn't know where to start or where to begin beyond a little bottled water, some sea salt and a few veggies that I prayed wouldn't throw off my equilibrium (I used to be a raw vegan before IBS-D)! Basically something nice to go with rice or whatever!!! You'll catch on quickly, though...I PROMISE.
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Blenders are like that--they handle smoothies better and "drink" type of stuff. A food processor is pretty much fuss-free and clean-up isn't a hassle--it's fast and painless and NO SPLATTER!!!
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Re: So...
#177525 - 05/08/05 07:52 PM
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Wind
Reged: 04/02/05
Posts: 3178
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1. Yes, I cook them together, just add them in at different times related to cooking. If something takes longer to cook, then it goes in first. Everything is done together, though, in the same pot.
2. No, alot of water is not involved. I use about a cup.
3. You choose the veggies based on what you think may be safe for you you, and the quantities. Start small, log, etc. There has been a lot mentioned re: personal safe veg. tolerances. With a source of soluable fiber, veg. purees are highly favourable for me. Initially, I couldn't tummy as much as I do now. So, start small if you endeavour upon this venture. Only do it if you are stable.
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to peel the zucchini and veggies! I forgot that was important to be safe!
Thanks for all the info, Wind!
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Re: So...
#177529 - 05/08/05 08:00 PM
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Wind
Reged: 04/02/05
Posts: 3178
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Ooops! I forgot the last question!!!
I'm Canadian--from Waterloo, Ontario. Where do you hail from?
P.S. I hope I was a little helpful. I can't believe that I actually do a "half-assed" job faking cooking. I'm impressed that my own cooking is not only palatable, but DOESN'T KILL ME!!! Seriously, though...I didn't consider touching a green thing for years until I saw an episode of "THE SURREAL GOURMET" on Food T.V...and then I hijacked my food processor and have been playing with veggies ever since!!! The episode involved making moles of untraditional veggies, i.e. beets, broccoli, etc. and presenting them on a painter's palatte. I thought...hey...something like that could be safe for me...with a little rice or whatever (rice is mostly what I eat). And it was--well, not the broccoli, but that's just me, personally!) So, that was my inspiration for reconsidering veggies after a required long hiatus from veggies in any shape or form.
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