What is IBS?

Irritable bowel (IBS) is a catch all phrase to describe anyone who suffers from digestive problems including, bloating, gas, indigestion, heartburn, acid reflux, leaky gut, constipation and diarrhea. Hidden food allergies or food sensitivities are a primary cause of IBS. Many patients have been helped tremendously when they eliminated the offending foods from their diet. 

Many of the everyday foods we eat are the same foods that are irritating and offending our digestive system.  Also, every time you experience digestive irritation or IBS from your food, you further inflame and irritate your stomach and intestines. The inflamed  stomach and intestinal lining is what needs to be calmed down, in order to recover.

I know you might be thinking; “I don’t have food allergies, so I don’t need to do an elimination diet.”  Most patients tell me they don’t have food allergies, but after an elimination diet – they change their mind.  

Food allergies’ are classified as ‘delayed onset hypersensitivities’, meaning the symptoms may not appear until 24-72 hours later.  They are also called ‘hypersensitivities.’ Typically, they don’t cause rashes, difficulty breathing, watery eyes, etc. -- you get the idea.  They just slowly eat away at your immune system and weaken your defenses.  I personally think most people don’t think they have food allergies or sensitivities because they don’t notice any immediate, negative effects.

The Main Culprits

If you suffer from IBS or other health conditions, that you can’t get a handle on, the first thing I recommend is to remove certain foods from your diet for a minimum of 2 weeks.

§          Dairy - yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese, ice cream, sour cream, cream based soups, sauces and dressings.  Stay away from all of these.

§          Wheat (gluten) - usually found in breads, bagels, cereal, pasta, pancakes, pizza, hamburger buns, anything made with flour….keep in mind it doesn’t matter if it is organic or not – if it is wheat based, stay away from it.  In addition, stay away from barley, rye, spelt, kamut and even oats, although oats don’t have gluten they do seem to have gluten due to contamination of other gluten products during the milling, processing and manufacturing.  Also, don’t forget all those green drinks that have barley or soy. 

§          Corn – typically found as corn syrup, corn starch and high fructose corn syrup beside just corn on the cob.

§          Soy and soybean oil – an ingredient in almost every salad dressing in your local grocery store and in almost every restaurant.  Soy is also found in many condiments, including mayonnaise, mustard, sauces, and other packaged goods.  Don’t forget the obvious ones like soymilk and tofu.

§          Coffee and tea – including de-caffeinated. Don’t forget that ‘de-caf’ only means that the beverage contains a lesser amount of caffeine…it doesn’t mean NO caffeine.

§          Monosodium glutamate (MSG) - a neuro-toxin, meaning it is poisonous to our nervous system.  MSG is typically used as a flavor enhancer, it makes foods ‘tastier.’  It is usually listed on the label, but sometimes it is disguised or omitted. You can usually find the words MSG listed on many packaged foods, but can also be disguised under the term “artificial flavors.”  In some cases, it is omitted because the MSG is used to make an ingredient, therefore it doesn’t have to be listed.  Such is the case in many protein powders and health bars that use “isolates, caseinates, hydrolyzed, or texturized proteins.”

§          Artificial sweeteners – artificial chemicals that can have toxic, negative effects to your body.  There is no research confirming that they help with weight loss.

§          Peanuts - usually contain mold. Many people have an overgrowth of yeast, fungus and candida growing in their intestines, so eating foods that have mold is only contributing to the problem.

Let me also encourage you to stay away from all of these, not just the one or two you might suspect.  The reason is simple… the one you don’t eliminate might be the culprit!    It is much like stepping on 10 tacks with your bare feet – you can take 5 of those tacks out, but the other 5 could still be causing a lot of pain.  So, take all of them out of your diet for two weeks and see if you notice a difference.

Food Combining

Combining our foods better can make dramatically improve your success in overcoming IBS. Simply put, food combining means:

§          Eat proteins (fish, chicken, beef, eggs, etc.) with fibrous carbohydrates                                               (broccoli, cauliflower, squash, zucchini, lettuce, tomato, cucumbers, asparagus etc.)

§          Do NOT combine proteins with starchy carbohydrates (potato, corn, beans,                                                        rice, etc.).

§          Only eat fruits by themselves.  Do NOT eat them with your meal.

-          Drink only a few ounces of water with your meal.

Food combining takes into consideration that foods digest at different rates. So, if you eat two foods that take about the same amount of time to digest, it is easier on your tummy.  However, if you eat two foods that are at opposite ends of the “time to digest” spectrum, they are more difficult to digest.  I didn’t say impossible!  I said, more difficult. In other words, if you already have stomach problems and IBS, you don’t want to be eating meals (steak and baked potato, chicken and rice, shrimp pasta) that are going to keep feed the irritation. 

Enzymes to the Rescue

Let me recommend taking a good digestive enzyme with your meal.  I have seen them work wonders on my patients!  Remember, our foods should have enzymes to aid in the digestive process. But, if all you eat is cooked, refined, processed food…you are not getting enzymes, and that could be contributing to your digestive problems.  Don’t forget, as we age, we also produce less digestive enzymes. Supplementing with good digestive enzymes, like Digest Plus, can change your life.

Resting & Digesting

We should eat our meals in a state of relaxation!  When we eat in a relaxed state, our body triggers the production of various hormones and enzymes that aid in digestion.  However, when we eat in a hurry, or when there is a lot of stress going on…it turns off many of the biochemical processes that should be activated during the digestive phase.  When this happens, our food sits in our digestive system undigested.  This allows it to start putrefying and fermenting in our tummy, which is another contributor to IBS.

As you can see, IBS and symptoms associated, are a result of a variety of factors.  You can effectively solve this problem…just put the the resources in this article to work for you & feel the difference!   

Dr. Len Lopez