we know that stress is a HUGE contributor to IBS. Analyzing your diet and supplements to death is NOT going to help you any. You can't endlessly worry about everything you ingest and expect to feel healthy.
If you want to follow Heather's diet -- follow it. It's a bit confusing at first but with the amount of info on her website and the info from the message boards it should be pretty clear-cut what MOST people can tolerate. Sure, maybe you'll end up being one of those very rare people who can't tolerate plain mushy cooked carrots. But you can't stop eating a food simply because you find one person who says they could never tolerate carrots. (And, at the risk of sounding rude, you need to also weigh into consideration what else that person says -- many people begin posting before they have fully grasped the complete principles of Heather's diet, and will complain that Cheerios give them attacks, when it's really the 2% cow's milk they're pouring on the cereal that's making them sick.)
It's frustrating to be sick and not get any better. But if you're not getting any better, then it's time to try something new. It's scary when you're already sick, but you won't become any better if you just stay in your rut and worry about if you're doing the right thing or not. I know when you're always sick and you're always hurting you look for a source -- you keep thinking, "What am I doing wrong?? what did I eat that was wrong??" But you have to look beyond what you're already doing to figure out what you're *not* doing. And by this I mean starting with the basics -- the SF/IF balance, exercise, stress control. If you look at the majority of people on these boards who have been stable for awhile, most of them only use a SFS as a supplement, maybe something like probiotics, and some of them use an AD to keep stress/anxiety under control. (And lots of them have done the hypno!) I think it's a bad idea to get caught up in the supplement craze before you've really, truly given the base diet alone -- meaning SF/IF in foods plus a SFS -- a fair shot. And you really need to be honest with yourself about what a fair shot is. I read posts by people who complain the diet isn't working in one thread but in another thread mention getting drunk on Saturday night, or having a Whopper for lunch, or drinking a mocha latte every morning. Or a C who can't go, but doesn't eat enough IF. Or a D who can't get stable, but eats too much IF, or half a carton of soy ice cream. Again -- I'm not trying to pick on anyone, but I see stuff like this happening all the time. Everyone has a perfect right to eat what he wants, of course, but I don't think it's fair for someone to complain about the effectiveness of the diet when he isn't truly following it.
Although I don't want to offend anyone, I would also like to point out that lots of conflicting posts on a subject that has already been well-covered in the past (i.e. the whole soluble-vs-insoluble debate of this thread, or if peeled potatoes are safe, or how much IF a C should eat each day) can be very overwhelming for new people, particularly the ones who lurk. I lurked for a long time before posting, and I might've been scared off if I saw all these long threads that seemed to contradict what I had previously believed to be fairly simple info I read from Heather's book.
The boards are a great resource ... but if you're really confused and conflicted about the diet, it's much better to take a step back and focus only on the material that Heather herself has actually produced. She's helped a lot of people, and that didn't happen on accident. I can't even imagine what the past two years would have been like for me if I hadn't found Heather's diet.
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jen
"It's one of the most serious things that can possibly happen to one in a battle -- to get one's head cut off." -- LC
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terrific summary! and ...
