Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards

In a healthy digestive system, the food is moved along, digested, and moved out by a smooth, gentle rhythm - like waves in a calm summer sea. In people with IBS, those rhythms are rough and violent - like the ocean in a hurricane. What Heather's diet and the use of an SFS do is keep the rhythms smoother and gentler in two ways. First, eating something triggers the rhythm to start or to pick up the pace. For IBSers, the trigger foods tend to make the rhythm start hard - rough and violent. Soluble fiber foods tend to make the rhythm start easily - smooth and gentle. That's why eating soluble fiber as the first part and the biggest part of a meal is so important.

Second, IBSers' guts want to spasm, like an eyelid twitch or a charley horse. When that happens the gut squeezes itself together, like a mostly empty toothpaste tube. If you can keep the gut - the tube - filled with something semi-solid (like toothpaste) the spasms can't bear down, can't get a foothold. This is why a LOT of soluble fiber is so important: it makes a gel that keeps the gut full and prevents the horrible spasming from starting or continuing. It's extremely difficult to get enough soluble fiber just from food to keep this fullness going - that's why an SFS is so important.

Although the distinction isn't really true, I visualize the soluble fiber I eat as the fuel that gets my digestion going smoothly and the cushion that softens the blow of foods like protein, fat, and insoluble fiber. I think of my SFS as the gel that keeps my gut inflated, so it can't turn on itself. You need both.

Given that, my suggestions are the same as everyone else's:

Increase your SFS. Based on my own experience, I think this is absolutely crucial. According to Heather, 2 Citrucel caplets provide 1 gram of SF, so to get the 12-15 grams, you'll need to go up to 24-30 caplets. (I'd really think about a powder to use at least at home. Check out Heather's SFS FAQ I reference in my earlier post and find one that does NOT have any Insoluble Fiber in it. I love acacia myself.) Go up slowly. I started with 1/4 teaspoon of acacia per day. After 3 days, I added another 1/4 teaspoon, after 3 days another 1/4 teaspoon, and so on.

I really do think the Break The Cycle diet is a good idea for a few days.

Eat lots of small meals or snacks at fairly close intervals. Even a handful of pretzels can make sure you've at least got something in your tummy. Letting my stomach get empty is the worst thing I can do - the food hitting the digestive tract kicks up a real storm. If you do get hungry, eat only pure soluble fiber, a little at a time, until you've got a fair amount in your stomach.

I'd also keep it very simple: bread, pasta, noodles, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, simple chicken and fish dishes. Cook even the SF vegetables like carrots and zucchini at least in the beginning.

Try Immodium to ease the cramping and control the diarrhea. Once you get your diet and SFS in better order, you might find that the other meds do more to help, too.

My own experience was that I ate almost totally soluble fiber foods for quite a while. I added to them egg whites, chicken, fish, and shrimp. Stuff like IF fruits and vegetables I approached cautiously, cooked, and well wrapped in SF. If a food wan't on the soluble fiber list and wasn't a safe protein, I assumed it was my worst enemy for the first several months I was on this plan. This isn't as boring as it sounds. I ate Kree's Crock Pot Chicken Stew, for example, from the beginning. Heather's Cinnamon Zucchini Bread was a great way to get some calories and some vegetables in me (but not first thing in the morning - it's a little high in fat for that). Heather's Smoky Eggplant Hummus was an early winner for me and ShellMarr's Artichoke Hummus is just as delicious - and easier. Once again, these two recipes got vegetables down me safely. Applesauce and pretzels became my new best friends. I'm lucky enough to be very fat-tolerant (although not first thing in the morning), so Heather's Guacamole (in EFI) with lots of Baked Tostitos was also an early winner for me. I tolerate tomato sauce and onions well, so spaghetti with sauce worked for me too, almost from the beginning.

Even now, my diet is primarily soluble fiber. I start each day with applesauce blended with a teaspoon of acacia. I work at getting some fruit into me (I'm becoming addicted to smoothies) and vegetables (I can actually tolerate small salads occasionally), but I'm still mostly soluble fiber plus protein. Heather's breads are still a primary source of fruit and vegetables for me.

This is what worked for me - I hope some of this helps you. If you have questions, ask. It's nice to meet another D (two, counting Betharoo) whose experience is the same as mine was - I feel a little less weird. And as for those horrible attacks - Heather's diet plus acacia means I no longer have atacks like that triggered by food. The attacks can still crop up when triggered by stress - or when I eat off program - but even then, they're not nearly as bad as they used to be. I wish the same for you.

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

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