Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards

When I notice that I am becoming unstable I fall back to my base diet. Once I am stable I re-introduce foods that I had included before I became unstable one at a time.

My base diet is oatmeal, white rice, chicken breast and carrots. It usually takes 2-4 days to become stable again.

I have also found it can sometimes take 2-3 weeks before I feel the effects of an offending food that is a trigger. So when I am stable I re-introduce foods that I feel that I know are safe first in order to expand my variety of opttions. A suspect food I only introduce when I know I am stable. However, once I introduce a suspect food I wait a few days to see if I can feel its effects.

Here is a recent example. I am fructose malabsorber. When a food contains more free fructose than glucose my bowel cannot digest the fructose and it produces gas, bloating and D. From past investigation I found that maple syrup contained more glucose than fructose and hence was okay for me to eat. I introduced homemade cinnamon buns into my diet made with brown sugar and maple syrup. The syrup added a nice glaze to the buns. I eat one for my evening snack.

About 3 weeks after I introduced them into my diet I started to become unstable. I dropped back to my base diet and stablized in 3 days. And I did some more research. I came across an interesting report that gave the amount of fructose, glucose and sucrose in various grades of maple syrup. The most commonly sold grade of maple syrup in the US is Grade A medium and it can contain more free fructose than glucose (0.7:0.6).

Unfortunately, Canada does not use the same grading system as the US and the information about the sugar content will not be available until later this year. I have to wait until this information is out before I can repeat my experiment with maple syrup. On the other hand I am stable again

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STABLE: ♂, IBS-D 50+ years - Science of IBS

The FODMAP Approach to Managing IBS Symptoms
Evidence-based Dietary Management of Functional GI Symptoms: The FODMAP Approach
FODMAP Chart & Cheatsheet
The Role of Food & Dietary Intervention in IBS

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