Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards | Re: I dont get it (I kinda go off on a rant!!)

It's not that dried fruit has added sugar, it's just that its natural sugar is concentrated. Dried fruit is almost pure sugar and fibre. Most of the water is gone. So it's easy to eat more dried fruit than it is to eat fresh, so you end up with a higher sugar load. I remember eating a few dried apricots several years ago and regretting it for days. I'm not saying that the fruit is a problem for you � maybe it's not � but it definitely is for me. I can eat small amounts of fruit and lately have been having a few green grapes after dinner in the evening. I've never been a big fruit eater � because of the consequences � so I generally just stay away from it altogether, forgetting that I can tolerate some � and really should be eating some.

As for other veggies, try to eat as much cooked carrot, squash, sweet potato, and turnip as possible. These are all soluble fibre veggies that pack a bigger nutritional punch than just plain white rice. Try having a small amount of well-cooked insoluble fibre veggies to go along with them, to help get as much nutrition as possible. Everyone is different with which IF veggies they can tolerate � I seem fine with broccoli but other folks can't touch it. It also helps to finely chop or puree your IF veggies. You should also take a multi-vitamin if you are concerned about not getting enough nutrients. I take the Avon Women's Formula � it is dairy-free, gluten-free, artificial flavour and colour-free, you name it. I've been taking one with dinner every night for about 3 weeks and so far so good! I have to chew them up because I can't swallow big pills, but this helps with absorption anyway.

As for the headaches, I still believe that you are having migraines. Migraines can definitely last for days at a time. The difference between a sinus headache and migraine is that the sinus headache generally only happens if you have a cold and/or sinus infection. If you have no symptoms to suggest this, then chances are it is a migraine. You've heard that migraines are usually so intense that they strike the sufferer down for hours (or even days) at a time, but they don't have to be quite that intense. I have actually had migraines at work and continued to work through them (in agony, of course, but not completely incapacitated). For me the pain occurs sort of at the bridge of my nose, and spreads across my upper cheeks below my eyes, the brow area above my eyes, and sort of in the temple areas (this is what the classic sinus headache is supposed to feel like). I also experience a bit of a stiff neck feeling. And it's not just pain, per se, I once told a fellow migraine sufferer that it feels like my head wants to throw up. She said, "yes! That's it". Other people get migraines that just suddenly come on strong and intense, and describe a feeling like an ice pick being driven into their skull � I have had this happen but fortunately it only lasts for a few moments at a time. Some people have this feeling for hours! But as I said, when I get that sinus-like migraine, I find the best thing to do is lie down with an ice-pack over my eyes and forehead. It really helps!

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IBS-A since age 12, and fructose sensitive; with the exception of my pregnancy, have been following Heather's diet since Nov. 19, 2007.
Taking 12g of Acacia per day. Relatively stable since March 2008!

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