Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards

Here's the reply I promised you.

The terminology can be a little confusing because a lot of foods can trigger an attack if eaten without a Soluble Fiber base. However, there are only 4 trigger foods (The Big Four) that must be completely eliminated:
- red meat
- dark meat poultry and poultry skin
- egg yolks
- dairy

There are also irritants that are best avoided totally: caffeine, alcohol, MSG, coffee (even decaf), artifical sweeteners, carbonation, and for a lot of people HFCS. (web page)

In addition, your husband should eat low-fat, but not no-fat. Fat can be a terrible IBS trigger, but eliminating it completely is simply not healthy, so the trick is to eat it in moderation. Heather recommends no more than 25%. I can eat that much and even a little more, but some people on the Board do better at 10-15%. It's a matter of finding what works for him.

Everything else, including herbs, tomatoes, nuts, and onions your husband should be able to eat, provided he does so safely - which means with a good Soluble Fiber base. (web page) Some types of food can be harder to handle than others - sulfurous foods like onions, for example - but this is a very individual thing. I can eat almost anything except the Big Four trigger foods and the irritants. (web page)

All of the recipes on the Recipe Index should conform to the EFI Diet Guidelines, although some of the desserts may be higher in fat than 25%. Eat those in moderation after a low-fat, high SF meal and it should be fine.

You really can't understand the basics of the EFI Diet by just reading the Message Boards - you need to read what's on the Website outside the Boards. Here are a couple of links that might help:

EFI Diet Guidelines in less than 100 words

EFI Diet in a million words or more (lots and lots of reading) - I say in here to get hold of a copy of "The First Year - IBS" either at your library or by buying it. I really think it helps. The Diet information is all on the Website, but I find it really helpful to have it all laid out in step by step form.

In general, my advice would be start as simply and safely as possible and expand from there. This is where knowing whether your husband is C, D, A, or P would be helpful. If he's D, you can stick more to the SF side for longer (although he shouldn't avoid IF indefinitely). If he's C, it's more important to add more IF sooner. Here's an old post I did with links to even holder posts that talk about how and what I ate when I started out. Remember I'm IBS-D, so if your husband is IBS-C (or possibly A), he may need more IF sooner than I did.

web page

I don't mention it in these old posts, but now I would highly recommend Heather's Brown Sugar Banana Bread for breakfast. I put off making it for ages because I could never seem to get enough ripe bananas. I finally gave up and made it with banana baby food. Yummy, very low fat, and very soothing.

I hope some of this helps. It can be confusing and overwhelming learning all this new information - for the first 3 months I was on the EFI Diet I felt like I was running as fast as I could just to stay barely caught up - but the results were more than worth it for me.

Take care.

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

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