Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards | "I had green salad last night with a little bit of dressing and I think I am paying for that. Are salads bad for IBS?"

Try having green salads at the end of the meal, just a small portion with a fat free dressing. Don't add cheese, bacon bits, or other high fat items.

Have your soluble fiber foundation foods for your meal first - rice, pasta, potatoes, etc. At a restaurant just set the green salad aside until you're done with the main course, and have some of the bread basket white (not whole wheat) rolls first. That will get extra soluble fiber into your gut so you can have the insoluble fiber from the leafy greens in your salad and stay stable.

The worst way to eat veggies with IBS is raw, on an empty stomach, with no soluble fiber foundation, and with added fat. This will be a very likely IBS trigger.

Having those same veggies chopped and cooked till very tender, with or after soluble fiber foods, with little to no added fat, will be much safer for touchy tummy. The same thing goes for fruits - a raw whole fruit salad on an empty stomach will likely cause problems, but throw the same fruits in the blender for a smoothie and have after rice/oat cereal (again, more soluble fiber) and you're much more likely to be just fine.

XOXO
Heather

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Heather is the Administrator of the IBS Message Boards. She is the author of Eating for IBS and The First Year: IBS, and the CEO of Heather's Tummy Care. Join her IBS Newsletter. Meet Heather on Facebook!

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