How to Change Your Eating Habits if You Have Irritable Bowel Syndrome
- 1). Modify your intake of dairy products (especially those from milk,) which can aggrivate an irritable bowel. Many IBS patients find that yogurt doesn't bother their bowels.
- 2). Eat dietary fiber: whole-grain breads and cereals, fruits and most vegetables. Fiber helps to mildly distend the colon, which seems to reduce colonic spasms.
- 3). Eat enough fiber so that your bowel movements are soft, formed and easy to pass without straining, but avoid over-the-counter high-fiber supplements, which may cause bloating and increased bowel irritability.
- 4). Avoid large meals, which cause the bowel to become overly distended and hyperactive. Instead, choose several small meals throughout the day to keep your GI tract more in balance.
- 5). Avoid apple and grape juice if you suffer from a great deal of flatulence; also pass up the chocolate, caffeine, alcohol and sorbitol (an artificial sweetener found in some dietetic products.)
- 6). Stay away from high-fat foods. Fat is a strong stimulus of the colonic contractions that aggravate the irritability of the bowel.
- 7). Avoid gas-forming foods, such as beans and cruciferous vegetables (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, radishes, turnips and brussels sprouts.)
- 8). Practice moderation and selectivity when eating. For example, don't slurp down two milkshakes on an empty stomach or sit in front of the TV eating half a jar of pickles and a bag of pork rinds.
- 9). Keep a food journal, and write down which foods cause you intestinal distress for at least a month. Look for patterns, and avoid the offenders. Share your findings with your doctor.
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