Turkey vs. Chicken vs. Fish
#182200 - 05/31/05 11:11 AM
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As this is my first post, I appologize if this question has been asked. I've been following Heather's soluble fiber reccomendations and been adding foods slowly. I'd like to add some protein back into my diet. Are chicken, fish and turkey all about the same for IBS sufferers, and are these all on the safe list. Do I have to eat some soluble fiber before ingesting these proteins? Thanks.
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Welcome to the Boards. White meat chicken, white meat turkey, and all seafood are IBS safe. They all affect - or, rather, don't affect - me the same. You do need to eat soluble fiber before eating these meats. For that matter, you need to eat soluble fiber before eating anything that isn't soluble fiber.
When I first started, I would eat pretty much an entire serving of soluble fiber - rice, pasta, bread, potatoes - before eating anything else. Now, I just make sure I have a few bites of soluble fiber in my tummy before starting on anything else, then alternate foods so the amount of soluble fiber stays ahead of the other foods. When you're further into the diet and ready to try eating something really problematic - like a green salad - the more soluble fiber beforehand, the better.
HTH.
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[Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]
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I'm really confused on if fish is safe for us to eat on a regular basis, like 3 or 4 times a week. I saw this post by Wind noting that fish contains sulfur which causes gas.
I know Heather lists fish as safe, but this sulfur thing has me confused. Is it safe to eat fish this often?
Does the fish need to be Wild Caught or Organic in order to be "safe"?
Thanks. I'm really confused about fish and egg whites and this sulfur thing. 
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Just because i have to throw my 2 cents in.....for some reason chicken bothers me, but turkey is fine, and so is fish....maybe i'm just a freak....
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Okay, here's how I understand things. (I'm really wishing I'd taken that chemistry class - and one in molecular biology, human anatomy, etc., etc.)
All animal proteins (poultry as well as eggs, fish, dairy, meat, etc.) contain amino acids that break down when digested. One product of that breakdown is sulphur. From the little poking around I did, my impression is that there is a group of people who believe this sulphur is bad for humans (toxic, apparently) and therefore, people shouldn't eat animal proteins. I don't buy this myself, but to each his own, as the old lady said when she kissed the cow.
Wild caught or organic makes no difference in this regard - animal protein is animal protein and it produces sulphur when you digest it. If you want to avoid the sulphur by-products of digesting animal protein, you must become what one Website called "a pure vegetarian".
That's what I understand about the whole sulphur thing. Here's what I believe: animal proteins are safe; fish is good for you; egg whites are fine.
The other thing I believe most firmly is that I can only handle one guru at a time. Right now, I've elected Heather to that post, so I'm eating the way she says to. As long as her guidelines keep working for me, she keeps the position of "My IBS Guru". If her guidelines ever stop working for me, I'll elect a new IBS guru. What has never worked for me is mixing and matching gurus. I can practically guarantee that anytime you get 2 gurus together, they're going to disagree; I'm going to get confused; and the end result is going to be that I'll spend all my time angsting over which guru is right instead of just picking one and putting all my energies into doing what she says. (Okay, I'm putting away my soapbox now.)
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[Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]
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Wow, great advice, Sand. You are so great with your responses! You always tend to go the extra mile by researching and searching your ideas through other sources! Your are a treasure to this board!
Thank you for putting this so straight forward. It makes sense! A big part of my problem is that I haven't picked one sole guru to follow, and yes it is very frustrating and anxiety provoking to try and mesh all the approaches together, which is what I think I am trying to do. Taking bits of info from all of them and creating a whole new one??? I don't know what I'm doing, but it ain't working!
As far as the chemistry class goes, I think you're doing just fine without one! I did take both chemistry and human anatomy and neither is doing me diddly squat! Long time ago though.
And stay on that soapbox! You earned that spot as far as I'm concerned! Your post was well researched, well thought out, and very easy to understand exactly your thoughts on the whole situation! Fish is good for us. Chicken is safe. And egg whites are okay to keep eating. Period. Only one question left....do you think the amounts eaten per week of each should be limited...or can we eat as many times a week as our heart desires? 
I will continue to eat fish and egg whites and try and not stress too much about it. I think maybe stressing over the food is causing the problems with tummy more than the actual food.  Who knows! Impossible to separate food from emotions.
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Re: Thanks Sand!
#182271 - 05/31/05 02:07 PM
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Sand
Reged: 12/13/04
Posts: 4490
Loc: West Orange, NJ (IBS-D)
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Okay, now you're making me blush! Thanks, Cyndy, it's nice to know I can help sometimes.
As for how often to eat what per week: The big fish at the top of the food chain, like swordfish, you should probably eat no more than once a week. For other fish, I haven't paid a lot of attention to the subject (I'm not a big seafood person), but as far as I know there are no problems eating them every day if you want.
Egg whites I think you can eat as often as you want and the same for white meat poultry. Wade Boggs - who was a heck of a ball player, despite going into the Hall of Fame as a Red Sox - ate chicken before every single baseball game. He played 662 minor league games and 2,432 major league games, so that's a lot of chicken. I did hear that now that he's retired he's cutting back a little - he says he's moved away from being a "chicketarian". 
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[Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]
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Lean fish is a great source of protein. As Sand mentioned, sulfur is a compound of every single protein food. Sulfur is actually quite healthy for you. If the fish farts are really ruining your day, then it is up to you to decide whether or not you desire to continue including it in your diet. If you're in pain, discomfort physically or psycho-spiritually re: fish then by all means act appropriately and accordingly.
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My mind seems to be on some kind of delayed fuse - I read something, then it takes a couple of hours to percolate before I go, "Oh". So, two things.
First, if you are pregnant or nursing, you should be careful about fish - especially the big predators - because of mercury levels. If you are a young child, ditto.
Second, there are concerns about mercury in fish even for adults who are not pregnant. I poked around a little, but got contradictory information (of course). Here's a brief writeup from the American Heart Association. And here's one from the US Government that has specific recommendations for some specific fish for pregnant/nursing women and also has hyperlinks to other Websites like this one.
I wouldn't worry about this too much, but, like one of the writeups says, be sure to eat a variety of fish, rather than all one kind and eat the big predators no more than once a week.
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[Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]
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OK, I tried fish for the first time in a long time. I figured fish has the lowest fat content of most meats, let's give it a try. Halibut is my favorite so on the BBQ it went with a dash of salt, rosemary, fresh lemon and pepper. I'm glad to say that after eating a bowl of white rice, I enjoyed the fish very much...with no ill effects. I'm not sure if the soluble fiber suppliments are making the difference, or if it's because I'm seating soluble fiber before eating anything else. What ever the reason, I sure am feeling better day, by day.
Yeah for Halibut!
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