IBS Diet - Diet for IBS
A number of physicians highly recommend that a change to a proper diet for IBS is needed to deal with IBS symptoms. But coming up with the right foods to eat for IBS in a diet plan can be difficult and tricky, without the proper guidelines. IBS comes with both diarrhea and constipation symptoms. Since they are opposing symptoms, then a delicate balance has to be achieved in recommending the proper IBS food items to include in an IBS diet.
It is important to your future health and comfort to start by accepting that you are sensitive to certain food items. You can then realize that you have the power to take control of your condition and start improving your physical state starting right now!
We recognize that it can be very difficult to change your diet. We love our favorite foods, too, whether they are good for us or not. But the resulting effects
that you will experience once you are on the right track will significantly outweigh the inconveniences and the frustration caused by making the transition. And once you start on the right path, making the necessary changes will get easier and easier. Imagine eating out at your favorite restaurant with no pain, no bloating or nausea, and with no anxiety that you will be rushing to the bathroom!
We highly recommend starting a food diary with diet sheets for IBS that outline what you eat and what the immediate and delayed effects on your body are. This does not need to be excessively in-depth. Just keep track of the types of foods that upset your system, how long the effects take to manifest, and specifically what effect they have. Also record the food types that react well to your system. This will quickly show you what foods aggravate your bowels, and which foods lower your IBS symptoms, in varying degrees. As you progress with your diary and altering your IBS diet, you should start to see combinations of food, as well as individual foods that aggravate or soothe your bowels. The primary concept to practice here is balance.
When preparing your diary, it helps to have the assistance of a dietician or nutritionist. They can help eliminate harmful food items and recommend helpful foods, as well. It is also helpful to have a nutritionist by your side because you cannot follow just any diet for IBS that you come across. Food sensitivity can be different for each and every person affected with IBS.
*Be aware that due to limited research of IBS, physicians often recommend high fiber diets without explaining the difference between insoluble and soluble fiber foods, and the different effects they have on your body. Fats and insoluble fiber foods (particularly wheat bran) can aggravate IBS symptoms, but soluble fiber foods (like oatmeal) can help soothe symptoms.
The fact of the matter is that eating safely for Irritable Bowel Syndrome does not mean deprivation, never going to restaurants, bland food, or following an unhealthily limited diet. Nor does it mean eating exclusively from health food stores, or following brutal elimination diets.
It does mean learning to eat safely by realizing how different foods physically affect your gastrointestinal (GI) tract, and your specific IBS symptoms. Following an IBS proper diet simply means learning how foods can aggravate or soothe the bowel.
