How To Eat With IBS

If you suffer from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), you may wonder how to eat with IBS without triggering your symptoms. Irritable bowl syndrome may cause diarrhea, constipation and stomach cramping and bloating. There is no cure for IBS, but you can control your symptoms by changing your diet and skipping certain foods.

1. Eat more fiber. People with IBS who experience constipation should add fiber to their diet. High fiber foods include beans, whole grains, oatmeal and fruit. Try adding several servings of high fiber foods to you diet.
2. Watch out for those beans. Although it helps some IBS patients, high fiber foods can make symptoms worse for others. Some people experience unpleasant gas after they eat beans, vegetables in the cabbage family (broccoli, for example), raw vegetables or fruit peels. If you find that eating a lot of fiber does more harm than help, eat cooked vegetables and peel the skin off apples and other fruit. You may have to give up broccoli and other gas-causing vegetables for good.
3. Go easy on the fat. Fried, fatty foods can trigger IBS symptoms. Try cutting out french fries, burgers and anything fried and see if your IBS symptoms clear up.
4. Pass on caffeine, booze and soda. Alcohol and caffeine can irritate your intestines, triggering your symptoms. Some people find the carbonation in soda upsets their digestive tract. Eliminate coffee, tea, alcoholic drinks and soda from your diet and see if your symptoms go away.
5. Watch portion sizes. One way some people learn to how to eat successfully with IBS is to greatly reduce the size of their meals. Break up three square meals a day into five or six smaller ones.

Resources:

What I Need to Know About Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Tell Me What to Eat If I Have Irritable Bowel Syndrome