Quote:

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Meat, dairy products, and egg yolks are particularly dangerous for all aspects of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. In some people their high fat content causes violent, rapid colon spasms and triggers diarrhea. Alternately, for others their heavy animal proteins, complete lack of fiber, and very low water content can lead to drastically slowed colon contractions (or one prolonged colon spasm, which is extremely painful) and severe constipation. No matter what Irritable Bowel Syndrome symptoms you're prone to, these three categories of foods pose high risks and are really best eliminated from your diet altogether.

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The Board never ceases to amaze me. Posts I think will get zillions of responses get practically nothing and ones that look pretty humdrum all of a sudden take off. Cool.

I'm not sure who in this thread is responding to whom, agreeing with whom, or whatever at this point, so I'm just going to make some points in sort of chronological order. First, though, I want to emphasize that the passage I quoted from "The First Year" (page 26, box) refers to egg yolks only. As far as Heather's IBS diet is concerned, egg whites are fine. So,yes, Cyndy, I do interpret this to mean you can keep eating your egg white omelettes, subject to my point further down about sulphur.

The point of the quote is that IBSer's have trouble digesting the protein in egg yolks. I'm sure some people cannot digest the proteins found in egg whites either, but this is not an IBS issue. Maddening, yes; IBS, no.

Some people are allergic to eggs, just like some people are allergic to peanuts. Food allergies are not the same thing as IBS.

Exploding eggs. Thanks - this finally got me to look up why this happens, something I'd wondered about for years, but never investigated. This is what I found (From Microwave Answers):

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Why do eggs, potatoes, and other things explode in the microwave?
Microwave energy penetrates foods much more deeply than conventional heating does. The water molecules inside the food heat as quickly as those on the outside. And water expands when you heat it. Eggs, potatoes, and other things with shells or skins explode because the expanding water has nowhere to go.

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I'm tempted to say we're safe from eggs exploding inside us because our bodies don't produce microwave energy. Given how little scientists understand IBS, though, I'm not sure that's a safe statement to make. So I'll just stick to recommending that you don't eat your eggs whole - and be sure to remove the shell.

Eggs and sulphur. I agree with Retrograde on this one: if you're really worried about sulphur from egg whites, try eliminating the egg whites and see what happens. Then add them back in and see what happens.

I did some poking around on the issue of eggs and smelly gas. If I'm understanding what I'm reading, proteins (like egg whites) produce relatively little gas compared to veggies, but they are more likely to produce sulphur, which is the smelly part. Veggies produce more gas because of their fiber, but it's less likely to smell because they don't contain sulphur. With sulphur-containing vegetables, you're getting a double whammy: lots of gas from the fiber and smell from the sulphur. Based on this, I'd say that if your gas is smelly, it might be the eggs, but if the problem is volume of gas, it probably isn't the eggs. I'm very shaky on this: there's a lot of contradiction or partial info or confusion out there on this. (Or maybe the confusion is all between keyboard and chair. )

Well, almost time for lunch. No eggs on the menu, thank goodness. I think I've had enough of them for a while.

Now, Rosie02, aren't you glad you asked?

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[Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]

Edited by Sand (05/28/05 08:58 AM)

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