They also have been shown to aggravate some IBS symptoms such as diarrhoea. Fatty Foods and Fibreįatty foods are not great for anyone and therefore should be limited as part of a healthy diet. If you are thirsty try a non alcoholic drink to start with and remember to stick to no more than 14 units per week. Alternatively, choose a non-alcoholic drink every second round or try just slowing down so that you don’t drink as much in the same time frame. Try mixing them with lemonade or soda water to make a shandy or spritzer. But it can be done! Try changing your drink to a single rather than a double, or swap to a low alcohol beer or wine. Most people find cutting down on alcohol a little more tricky. Some restaurants will have an alternative caffeine free drink such as mint tea, or other herbal varieties. Most coffee shops will have decaffeinated versions too, you just need to ask when ordering. There are decaffeinated versions of many of these drinks so it’s an easy swap to change from normal coffee to decaffeinated and it doesn’t alter the taste too much. Hopefully your food diary will have indicated how often you drink caffeinated drinks, How often do these appear? You may consider cutting down on caffeine and alcohol. Physical Exercise also helps alleviate stress and improve mood, so try a walk, a swim, yoga or Pilates. Try meditation, deep breathing techniques or using an app such as Calm or Headspace to talk you through a relaxation exercise. However we can deal with this stress and help ourselves to relax. When we are stressed, our hormones prepare our body to fight or run away, this involves increasing our heart rate and our pulse and emptying our bowels… not very useful when facing an interview rather than a tiger! this is part of our ‘Fight or Flight’ response, an innate system which prepares our body to face threat, such as a wild scary animal. Think about people who get a bout of diarrhoea before an exam or interview…. Many people ask me “does stress really affect my gut?” Still water is best, so carry a bottle with you – aim to drink the whole bottle before you leave work or college or before say 6pm if you are at home that day. Sometimes drinking more is just about reminding yourself – find something that you like to drink. Planning ahead can help with this – if you already know what is less likely to cause you trouble, plan your meals around these foods, make yourself a sandwich the night before or keep a portion of last night’s meal to warm up for lunch the next day. Sometimes we miss meals because we are in a rush or have pain and don’t know what best to eat. Also a healthy gut needs a variety of foods to keep the bacteria in balance. It is not advisable to commence a low FODMAP diet without the help of a registered dietitian – restricting your diet may mean that you avoid many foods and therefore miss out on some important nutrients which may lead to deficiencies. However rather than starting with a restrictive diet, some small changes may be all you need to control your symptoms and reduce the amount of medicines that you take. More recently research has shown that some carbohydrates may contribute to IBS symptoms These carbohydrates are call Fermentable Oligo- saccharides, Di-saccharides Mono-saccharides and Polyols and a Low FODMAP diet to restrict them has grabbed media attention. Most people report alcohol, caffeine and fatty foods as their IBS trigger foods. Your first point of call should be your GP, as there is a set protocol for the GP to follow, which may require taking blood, or bowel sample to rule out other things, as some people with other gut disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease or coeliac disease have similar symptoms.įor this reason it is also difficult to perform research into the best diet for IBS. The symptoms can be catastrophic for many people and you may feel that you are not being taken seriously or that you are in so much pain that there must be something really wrong…you go back and forth to the doctor but nothing seems to work?Īlso, the symptoms you experience may differ from day to day and not be the same as the next person with IBS, which makes it so difficult to diagnose.
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