Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards

I'm a strict constructionist when it comes to the EFI Diet: my approach was to follow the Diet right down the line until I stabilized. I eliminated all the trigger foods and irritants, loaded up on SF at every meal, started taking an SFS, and was very cautious with IF and fat. (old post) If your DH is C, he's going to have to be braver about IF, but make sure it's chopped, cooked, and well cushioned with SF. It is also my personal opinion that C's may be more in need of fat than D's.

Once I stabilized, I found I could wander off the Diet from time to time, but if I do so too often or go too far, my gut will destabilize. For example, I can have a glass of wine now and then, but have one every evening for a few days and I'm in trouble. Or I might eat a bread product now and then knowing there's a little dairy in it, but I would never even attempt a lamb chop.

As for being fine eating something one day and in trouble with it the next, that has never happened to me as long as I'm eating in strict accordance with the EFI guidelines. It has happened when I've eaten off-program. It seems that for me there's a sandpaper effect going on: when I eat one thing off-program, it might not bother me right then, but it will irritate my gut enough so that the next thing I eat off-program will cause problems. Eating off-program does not just mean eating triggers and irritants; it also means eating IF or fat without enough SF cushion. (Excellent post on triggers )

If everything is making your husband ill, he can try sticking strictly to the Break The Cycle Diet for 2-3 days and see if that settles his gut down. If so, he can then start adding safe protein, IF, and fat back in cautiously. It is possible he will find he cannot tolerate even the 25% level of fat Heather recommends (some people on the Boards can only handle 15%) or that he will find some forms of IF he simply cannot tolerate (I cannot eat any kind of whole grain no matter how well cushioned with SF). Adding fat and IF in cautiously makes it easier to identify any such problems if they occur. He should stay away from all trigger foods and irritants until he is stable. Then, if there are foods he really wants to eat, he can try adding them back in a little at a time and see if he de-stabilizes again.

Before starting the EFI Diet, I was an enthusiastic carnivore with a strong preference for beef and pork. When I did eat chicken or seafood, I preferred it drenched in butter or well-covered with a nice rich cream sauce. Despite this, I adjusted very well to the EFI Diet because I was so terribly ill when I started it. Discovering that when I ate in accordance with the guidelines, I felt a million percent better was enough incentive to keep me away from red meat, dairy, and all the rest. I did find, though, that I spent a lot of the first 3-6 months on the Diet scrambling around to figure out what we were going to eat next. It's not that I craved the trigger foods I had eliminated, it's just that they made up such a large part of my menu it was a struggle to find other meals. Once I found a number of IBS-safe recipes that I liked, life got much easier.

I hope this helps. Good luck.

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