Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards | Re: New here: ? about diagnosis & white bread (long, sorry!)

Hi there, and welcome to the boards!

Ok I'll tr try to answer a few of your questions. You'll find that the boards tend to slow down a little on weekends, but by Monday more ppl should respond to this (and if it's gotten lost just bump it again).

I was going to ask if you have been tested for gluten intollerance since you said you have problems with white bread - but you mentioned you do ok with whole wheat pitas and cereals. Please CHECK the ingredients of the white bread you've been eating - many breads contain hidden diary products and HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) both of which can cause problems for IBS. So it might not the bread but rather some of the ingredients.

This diet recommends that you treat whole wheat breads VERY CAREFULLY as they are insoluble fiber. However some people can tolerate them really well while other can't eat them at all - that's just the trial and error, individual nature of this syndrome.

Food combining and atkins-type diets are TYPICALLY detrimental to IBS people - since food combining usually specifically disallows having SF foods with other things like proteins, something which most of us NEED. Also Atkins just scares me, plus cutting out carbs is also cutting out fiber - not a good idea for anyone but ESPECIALLY for those with any type of GI problem.

Also you mentioned bananas. Apparantly bananas have a fairly high natural fat content and I know a few gals on here don't tolerate them well either. So that may be why you can't...

My advice I think would be to give a few of the other solubles a try, like peeled potatoes, applesauce, pasta etc. on their own (without any insolubles or fats or anything else) and see how you do. I think it would be VERY unlikely that you would be inollerant to the whole category of soluble fiber foods - these kinds of foods help soothe lots of differnet GI complaints not just IBS (i.e. look at the BRAT diet). If you DO have IBS then you will probably start feeling better pretty quickly. However if you're worried about these SF foods not agreeing with you, take a day or two to ease into the "what to eat when you can't eat anythign diet" - which is ALL SF and which you'll need to do for a few days (but NO MORE than that since you're C) to break the cycle.

And have you cut out ALL the triggers? If not you need to do that right away - including all dairy, all coffee and caffeine, all red meat etc. You're not likely to get far without doing this. Some people can tolerate some of these things in small amounts - but that comes later. For now, you have to break the cycle and get to work on feeling better.

Also start taking an SFS. This is NOT the same as the medications you are taking. It is a nutritional fiber supplement that will fill your gut with SF (and, depending on the brand you choose, possibly some IF too). It is NOT medication. Read all the info on this site about SFSs - start slowly at a low dosage etc...

Chicken should be ok as long as it's ALL WHITE MEAT. If it is, then it's probably something you put on the chicken and not the chicken itself. Also make sure you're eating it with lots of SF in the future.

However for now, I'd go super simple, as I mentioned above, with only SF, and then slowly (after a couple of days) start to reintroduce insolubles. Tofu is ok for most folks on this diet but stay away from that for the time being and stick to SF foods (and an SFS - start with a LOW dose). If you can't find a brand of white bread that agrees with you, stick to the other safe foods, and maybe stay away from bananas too. You know your body's reactions best! It will only be for a couple of days - no more - and you should start feeling better. Then you can start having other things like protein.

As for your sugar question - probably not IBS related since it doesn't seem to be affecting your GI system (migraines are not a typical IBS symptom and are usually something else). Sugar (sucrose) is actually very safe for most people with IBS (though some need to watch out for fructose - fruit sugar), but lots of people without IBS get migraines from sugar. If you've already identified that link, I'd stay just stay away from sugar if you can, though it's probably not related to your IBS.

I don't know if I've answered all your questions here but I'm sure someone else will come around. Hope some of this was helpful!

Again, welcome! Hope you're feeling better soon. Keep us updated on your decisions and progress and we'll be here to cheer you on - that's the great thing about these boards, whatever you're going through, in all liklihood someone here has been through it.

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