Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards | Re: Dairy and Peppermint

Ginger may well be giving you heartburn - like peppermint, it's not recommended for people who have acid reflux or GERD. I don't know what's in the Citrucel powder smoothie but if it's orange flavor it might be irritating just as the ginger and peppermint are. If it's not orange flavor then just make sure there are no artificial sweeteners in it - they can be very tough for us IBSers. Beyond that for any fiber product you need to work up slowly - taking too much too soon will make you gassy.

I agree with the poster who said you need to be sure about your diagnosis. Since IBS is a diagnosis of exclusion it shouldn't be decided on casually but only after all the necessary tests are done and other conditions excluded. I was struck by your saying you've been told you should avoid wheat gluten and barley. It sounds like someone thinks you're gluten intolerant. This is a different thing from IBS although one person can have both. Assuming a doctor told you this you should pursue it. The extreme end of gluten intolerance is celiac disease which is dangerous and must be be definitively diagnosed and managed. On the other end of the scale, if "avoid gluten" was just a casual suggestion, it would be nice to know it's *not* true. Trying to avoid gluten for the rest of your life is quite an undertaking.

As you've probably figured out, dairy is a touchy subject around here. I said in an old post that if someone was bored she could get a lot of amusement simply by asking, "Is cheese okay?" and then watching all the Board regulars go nuts.

I do know what you mean by feeling that dairy is soothing. When my IBS first kicked up, I would have a bowl of cream soup for lunch because it "felt good". The fact is that it may have felt good temporarily but in the long run it was keeping my gut in an uproar.

Think of it this way. Let's say I eat a little regular milk on my cereal in the morning; a small container of regular yogurt at lunch; and some regular ice cream after dinner. My stomach doesn't feel great but I may not be actively having an attack. After a day or two of this I have, let's say, a turkey sandwich on white bread with lettuce and tomato for lunch. I have an attack. I figure it's the lettuce and tomato. In reality, though, the lettuce and tomato wouldn't have bothered me if I hadn't constantly been annoying my gut by eating dairy.

You see, trigger foods don't always trigger immediately. Sometimes they just act like sandpaper, constantly irritating your gut just enough so that at some point you hit overload and have an attack.

The only way to know what really bothers you - and to give Heather's approach a fair try - is to completely eliminate the trigger foods including dairy. Follow the EFI Guidelines faithfully until you're stable. Once you are stable, you can try some of the trigger foods and irritants in small quantities and see how you do. If you keep eating them before you're stable, though, it's pretty unlikely you'll ever get stable.

One reason you may feel your milk and yogurt are making things better is because they have probiotics in them. Some IBSers find probiotics very helpful. Try getting your probiotics elsewhere. Soy yogurt has probiotics and you can also just buy probiotics in pill or liquid form - there are a million discussions on the Boards about which ones to try.

I don't think rice milk is a "drinking" milk although I cook with it all the time. If you don't like any of the soy milks to drink, try almond milk. And some flavors of soy ice cream are very good - it's high in fat, though, so eat just a little after a high-soluble fiber, low-fat meal.

I hope this helps. Welcome to the Boards.

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