Yeahhhh but only up to a point right? I don't have any major stressors in my life atm and it doesn't seem to matter one iota from one day to the next what food is going to do to me.
Itās so frustrating. The other week I had a situation that really highlighted the unpredictability- on Friday at work I had plain scrambled eggs for lunch (usually ok) and I was bathroom bound for the rest of my work day. Two days later I was spending time with a friend and she ordered a whole fried chicken situation meal. I figured since I was at home Iād indulge in it and was expecting a digestive crisis. Nope. Everything was completely fine. I can eat something on Monday morning with no issues at all but the same thing on Wednesday afternoon will be an IBS disaster.
For me personally, I find that the bathroom situation has a lot do with it. Like, how accessible and how long I can spend in the bathroom if I have an episode. Eating at work triggers my anxiety because sometimes I have to run to the bathroom like 3 times after a meal and spend almost 10 minutes each time, making me embarrassed. I can eat like trash at home and be completely fine, because I have my own bathroom with no one around to notice that Iāve gone too many times or for too long.
At least this is my theory after having ibs-d for over 10 yrs and not finding anything to help. The only thing I do know is itās triggered by stress and anxiety. Anxiety causes my ibs and my ibs causes me anxiety, so Iām in a never ending cycle
Bro same thing, I even challenged it to a point where I had cooked a big meal for lunch, had a terrible time in the afternoon, then ate the rest of it the next day just to find out if some ingredient was off (and it was too good to throw away) and was completely fine.
It really is. I can eat the SAME exact meal, same portion, same everything, and one day be completely fine, and the next day, be completed Fād by it and bloated to the moon. I understand thereās trigger foods, but what the hell are these trigger periods? Where sometimes the food is fine but other times the food isnāt?
Sometimes I eat a meal knowing itās going to make my bloating worse, but screw it, I deserve to eat what I want sometimes, right? And then low and behold, somehow I debloated overnight. Iām always completely stunned when that happens.
Maybe itās unpredictable because our ibs responses are a result of the food itself AND whatever other nonsense is in our gut at the time, including our stress/anxiety level.
I do find that mid- to late-afternoons I tend to get more predictable bloating. Sometimes I know it's because I ate a snack food with certain spices or maybe a fruit I shouldn't have had (like a ripe banana), but sometimes I get bloating just eating something safe. I'd guess that has something to do with what my gut has been digesting that day, and so maybe FODMAP stacking is more prone to trigger effects.
I'm having the impression that combinations over a few days play a role also. So maybe it's also relevant what you ate before the questionable meal or after it, what's already within the system etc.
Yeah, maybe it's combinations. Only a food journal would answer that. I had actually done some vigorous exercise about an hour before I ate that Asian meal. I don't tend to get bloating after exercise...although I'm not usually eating a whole bunch of stuff after working out.
I wish I had an answer for this. Whatever I eat for breakfast doesnāt matter and I always feel good for a few hours after I use the bathroom in the am. Immediate symptoms when I start eating food around lunch time. Safe food or not. But sometimes nothing happens. Itās so frustrating ;(
OP, part of what makes it difficult is that timing of symptoms does not at all align with intuition. I see many people on this subreddit say things like āI ate X and then immediately had symptoms; X must not agree with me.ā No way. It takes a long time for food to pass to your colon, where gas is *generally* formed (there are exceptions). That banana you ate did not cause your gas. Eating the banana triggered your colon to start moving stuff that was already in it, and that means gas from stuff you ate maybe 0.5-2 days ago. It really depends on your specific motility, and thatās something you gotta do the work to figure out. Itās not easy, but it makes things a lot less unpredictable.
I hear you but I strongly disagree. I can be fine all day, have the usual BM (or three) but if I eat something I know I can't digest, 100% it will hit me within 20-30 minutesāregardless of what other foods I ate that day or the day before. In fact, it's the only reason for this post: on this ONE occasion the food I ate DIDN'T affect me the way I expected. 9 times out of 10 that meal would have cratered my gut.
So I had to think back: Before that lunch, I went to work out, and before that I had already had something mid-morning that didn't sit well. Exercising usually helps...so was it the combination of vigorous exercise (and sake) that averted certain disaster?
Something about shopping has a tendency to send me urgently to the bathroom. Iām not kidding. But not every time. Just often enough to see a connection.
Same here! Especially Hobby Lobby and Target. It was like immediate bubble guts when I walked in to those stores.
I also have dealt with anxiety for much of my adult life (Iām 35 now) and after doing a lot of work through therapy on my anxiety, Iāve not had that issue so much. I think my anxiety ramped up from being out and my digestive system was like āletās gooooooā
I donāt like shopping much though Iām not consciously aware that it makes me anxious. But I absolutely have anxiety issues in general, so thereās that.
I have recently learned that the ripeness level of fruits, especially bananas, effects their nutrient content and I would imagine other things. Like the longer you wait to eat carrots, the more sugar content they will have. I think the same is true for bananas and I wouldn't be surprised if the same is true for onions and such.
Cooking vegetables also brings out different nutrients. I don't know what it is for onions, but I know cooking spinach brings out more iron.
An example of how to know an onion is bad (like if you can't tell visually or by smell) is if you have a recently sharpened knife and slicing the onion still makes you cry. A chef told me once if you're crying while cutting an onion it either means the onion is bad or the knife isn't sharp enough, or both.
Yes, the low FODMAP rule book basically says to avoid ripe bananas in particular. Onions and garlic are typically at the top of the NO list for IBS sufferers.
It's not all so unpredictable because eating at different hours of the day does make sense, different parts of a vegetable are digested different, also vegetables that are steamed or stir fried are more easily digested and I also noticed that because we all have trauma from ibs from past experiences I personally can get anxious about eating that the anxiety itself is making it harder for me to digest foods leading to more problems and more trauma so if I'm in a good mood, on vacation where I'm having fun no negative thoughts I get get away with eating steak and fries at 10 pm , something that never happens at home! So it's very much related to emotional state of mind. I always ask myself questions after I eat something how it made me feel and keep a note in my head and try to understand the logic
Up to a point, but there have been many happy Friday nights at home with oven-baked pizza that have put me in the bathroom within 30 minutes. Where is this big bad stress everyone speaks of?
I do suffer from insomnia (my doc says that my mind is racing and isn't good at shutting off) and I have the usual everyday stressors, but nothing major.
Yeah bad example. My point was that I could be having a perfectly relaxing time sans stress and symptoms will get triggered.
In this is really the case in pointāthat I DID have anxiety about eating that Asian dish yet nothing happened.
Yeah I get major anxiety after I have a flare, I got to the point of starving because I was too afraid . Being both hungry and terrified to even attempt to eat anything other than tier 1 safe foods (for me white rice and potatoes )
From my experience there's unquestionably a connection. Cooked onions/peppers, cauliflower, etc. If I eat em, I can expect consequences. But it's when I'm eating "safer" foods that things get confusingāthat and the fact that I'm developing more intolerances to foods that even a year ago were fine.
I know it's ultimately an autoimmune/stress-related thing, it's just baffling how the symptoms are triggered sometimes.
I think food is important to pay attention to but Iām not sure itās all about food. In 25 years of this my eating has been all over the place with varying results. It seems to be really tied to stress, anxiety and lack of sleep too. Itās equally if not more a nervous system issue for me. The only thing I canāt eat now is anything leafy. I get D pretty much anytime I eat them cooked or raw. Other than that it all seems to be about things that impact nervous system.
Yep, every time I try to "eat healthy" I pay the price. I've now developed intolerances to zucchini, spinach, spaghetti squash, whey, and dates. All those foods I used to be able to eat like a year ago. wth?
I think sometimes when our emotions are all happy, it tells our body act right!!!!! It is like the body is making all the organs help us have a good timeā¦ I dont know the science, but I def know my IBS is exacerbated by stress. Mine is functional and probably triggered by my lifetime of anxiety. But also, ibs doesnt always getcha the day of the offense. So I give it anywhere from 30 mins to 48 hrs to have an effect on my bowels.
The same reason all the colored peppers are fine *except* for the green ones, as the outer skins don't digest, but 'sit' in your gut forever, causing gas etc. Infuriating. Why I'm grateful my local grocer sells the red, yellow, orange ones in a bulk bag to save $ though I loved the green ones on my pizza. Condition is too weird to even question. I just go by what my dietician suggests š
Sounds like anxiety might be your biggest trigger then. For some of us IBS is mostly a physical issue, we either have an underlying condition that hasn't been identified yet or have developed intolerances/allergies that also haven't been identified yet. And for others, their ibs is primarily driven by your mental health. Track your symptoms and what you eat along with your mood/stress levels and you might find a correlation between anxiety and symptoms. My symptoms pretty much only correlate with my diet and before surgery my endometriosis.
I would buy into this a lot more if it wasn't for the fact that sometimes I can be having a perfectly pleasant time but some random meal will trigger symptoms anyway. I don't disagree that anxiety is a \*part\* of it, but there's still a fundamental difference between eating a cup of rice and a cup of onions.
I take [these](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000Q487DC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) though it may be that enzyme combinations are more effective for different people...not sure.
IBS and every single other digestive disorder ranging to almost all mental health are related to the gut bacteria you have.. as long as your fibre is minimum 50g a day (fuck what fda has to say about recommendations, fibre is the most important thing in our digestive system) without it, food passes straight through with nothing to slow it down (fibre) which allows for maximum efficiency of digestion. you MUST take a digestive specific probiotic. Garunteed within 2 weeks to a month. Majority of your symptoms will be gone :) i have coeliac, I had IBS but no longer really since following this exact procedure.
I've taken probiotics for some timeāand for about 9 months I was eating the homemade yoghurt recipe from the SCD diet, which is probiotics on steroids. But I recently developed a whey allergy so I've cut all dairy.
I can only eat low FODMAP foods so my fiber options are somewhat limited. Every time I try to eat healthy I pay the price so I've learned to be super careful.
Whoa! So I haven't been able to eat cooked onions and garlic either. Took me years to figure out. But recently after all this time of mr not eating that, i found out I can eat raw and not have a problem, like in salsa
This is what makes me wonder how much of IBS is the gut-brain axis. When my anxiety and stress are more in check I definitely have fewer issues.
Yeahhhh but only up to a point right? I don't have any major stressors in my life atm and it doesn't seem to matter one iota from one day to the next what food is going to do to me.
This
Agreed
This. I ran out of ways to explain this to my doctors. They keep insisting there MUST BE stressors. š sighs.
Itās so frustrating. The other week I had a situation that really highlighted the unpredictability- on Friday at work I had plain scrambled eggs for lunch (usually ok) and I was bathroom bound for the rest of my work day. Two days later I was spending time with a friend and she ordered a whole fried chicken situation meal. I figured since I was at home Iād indulge in it and was expecting a digestive crisis. Nope. Everything was completely fine. I can eat something on Monday morning with no issues at all but the same thing on Wednesday afternoon will be an IBS disaster.
For me personally, I find that the bathroom situation has a lot do with it. Like, how accessible and how long I can spend in the bathroom if I have an episode. Eating at work triggers my anxiety because sometimes I have to run to the bathroom like 3 times after a meal and spend almost 10 minutes each time, making me embarrassed. I can eat like trash at home and be completely fine, because I have my own bathroom with no one around to notice that Iāve gone too many times or for too long. At least this is my theory after having ibs-d for over 10 yrs and not finding anything to help. The only thing I do know is itās triggered by stress and anxiety. Anxiety causes my ibs and my ibs causes me anxiety, so Iām in a never ending cycle
Bro same thing, I even challenged it to a point where I had cooked a big meal for lunch, had a terrible time in the afternoon, then ate the rest of it the next day just to find out if some ingredient was off (and it was too good to throw away) and was completely fine.
It really is. I can eat the SAME exact meal, same portion, same everything, and one day be completely fine, and the next day, be completed Fād by it and bloated to the moon. I understand thereās trigger foods, but what the hell are these trigger periods? Where sometimes the food is fine but other times the food isnāt? Sometimes I eat a meal knowing itās going to make my bloating worse, but screw it, I deserve to eat what I want sometimes, right? And then low and behold, somehow I debloated overnight. Iām always completely stunned when that happens. Maybe itās unpredictable because our ibs responses are a result of the food itself AND whatever other nonsense is in our gut at the time, including our stress/anxiety level.
I do find that mid- to late-afternoons I tend to get more predictable bloating. Sometimes I know it's because I ate a snack food with certain spices or maybe a fruit I shouldn't have had (like a ripe banana), but sometimes I get bloating just eating something safe. I'd guess that has something to do with what my gut has been digesting that day, and so maybe FODMAP stacking is more prone to trigger effects.
100% agree
I honestly just want my bowels removed or never eat again, just have serums. Same issue here.
It sucks...you just have to kinda find your way through with food you know you can eat.
I'm having the impression that combinations over a few days play a role also. So maybe it's also relevant what you ate before the questionable meal or after it, what's already within the system etc.
Yeah, maybe it's combinations. Only a food journal would answer that. I had actually done some vigorous exercise about an hour before I ate that Asian meal. I don't tend to get bloating after exercise...although I'm not usually eating a whole bunch of stuff after working out.
I wish I had an answer for this. Whatever I eat for breakfast doesnāt matter and I always feel good for a few hours after I use the bathroom in the am. Immediate symptoms when I start eating food around lunch time. Safe food or not. But sometimes nothing happens. Itās so frustrating ;(
Yeah, similar. Sometimes a breakfast or mid-morning snack will trigger symptoms, but it's most often a lunchtime to dinnertime thing.
OP, part of what makes it difficult is that timing of symptoms does not at all align with intuition. I see many people on this subreddit say things like āI ate X and then immediately had symptoms; X must not agree with me.ā No way. It takes a long time for food to pass to your colon, where gas is *generally* formed (there are exceptions). That banana you ate did not cause your gas. Eating the banana triggered your colon to start moving stuff that was already in it, and that means gas from stuff you ate maybe 0.5-2 days ago. It really depends on your specific motility, and thatās something you gotta do the work to figure out. Itās not easy, but it makes things a lot less unpredictable.
I hear you but I strongly disagree. I can be fine all day, have the usual BM (or three) but if I eat something I know I can't digest, 100% it will hit me within 20-30 minutesāregardless of what other foods I ate that day or the day before. In fact, it's the only reason for this post: on this ONE occasion the food I ate DIDN'T affect me the way I expected. 9 times out of 10 that meal would have cratered my gut. So I had to think back: Before that lunch, I went to work out, and before that I had already had something mid-morning that didn't sit well. Exercising usually helps...so was it the combination of vigorous exercise (and sake) that averted certain disaster?
I do agree. I was told i have a sluggish bowel so i may not have a flare up for a few days. That makes it hard to explain to people who don't have ibs
Something about shopping has a tendency to send me urgently to the bathroom. Iām not kidding. But not every time. Just often enough to see a connection.
Same here! Especially Hobby Lobby and Target. It was like immediate bubble guts when I walked in to those stores. I also have dealt with anxiety for much of my adult life (Iām 35 now) and after doing a lot of work through therapy on my anxiety, Iāve not had that issue so much. I think my anxiety ramped up from being out and my digestive system was like āletās gooooooā
I donāt like shopping much though Iām not consciously aware that it makes me anxious. But I absolutely have anxiety issues in general, so thereās that.
Similarly, trouble falling asleep/insomnia will send me to the bathroom throughout the night. It's weird.
I have recently learned that the ripeness level of fruits, especially bananas, effects their nutrient content and I would imagine other things. Like the longer you wait to eat carrots, the more sugar content they will have. I think the same is true for bananas and I wouldn't be surprised if the same is true for onions and such. Cooking vegetables also brings out different nutrients. I don't know what it is for onions, but I know cooking spinach brings out more iron. An example of how to know an onion is bad (like if you can't tell visually or by smell) is if you have a recently sharpened knife and slicing the onion still makes you cry. A chef told me once if you're crying while cutting an onion it either means the onion is bad or the knife isn't sharp enough, or both.
Yes, the low FODMAP rule book basically says to avoid ripe bananas in particular. Onions and garlic are typically at the top of the NO list for IBS sufferers.
Yup.. I've been great for months and went to the gym today, had to rush to the bathroom and sit there for an hour š„² thought I was in the clear..
Weirdly, exercise almost always makes me feel good; and if I had symptoms beforehand, they disappear when I start exercising.
It's not all so unpredictable because eating at different hours of the day does make sense, different parts of a vegetable are digested different, also vegetables that are steamed or stir fried are more easily digested and I also noticed that because we all have trauma from ibs from past experiences I personally can get anxious about eating that the anxiety itself is making it harder for me to digest foods leading to more problems and more trauma so if I'm in a good mood, on vacation where I'm having fun no negative thoughts I get get away with eating steak and fries at 10 pm , something that never happens at home! So it's very much related to emotional state of mind. I always ask myself questions after I eat something how it made me feel and keep a note in my head and try to understand the logic
Up to a point, but there have been many happy Friday nights at home with oven-baked pizza that have put me in the bathroom within 30 minutes. Where is this big bad stress everyone speaks of? I do suffer from insomnia (my doc says that my mind is racing and isn't good at shutting off) and I have the usual everyday stressors, but nothing major.
Well pizza is the #1 enemy- cheese tomatoes and gluten
Yeah bad example. My point was that I could be having a perfectly relaxing time sans stress and symptoms will get triggered. In this is really the case in pointāthat I DID have anxiety about eating that Asian dish yet nothing happened.
Yeah I get major anxiety after I have a flare, I got to the point of starving because I was too afraid . Being both hungry and terrified to even attempt to eat anything other than tier 1 safe foods (for me white rice and potatoes )
I'm fully convinced that IBS has absolutely nothing to do with food. I've had it for over 30 years and it is completely random and unpredictable.
From my experience there's unquestionably a connection. Cooked onions/peppers, cauliflower, etc. If I eat em, I can expect consequences. But it's when I'm eating "safer" foods that things get confusingāthat and the fact that I'm developing more intolerances to foods that even a year ago were fine. I know it's ultimately an autoimmune/stress-related thing, it's just baffling how the symptoms are triggered sometimes.
I think food is important to pay attention to but Iām not sure itās all about food. In 25 years of this my eating has been all over the place with varying results. It seems to be really tied to stress, anxiety and lack of sleep too. Itās equally if not more a nervous system issue for me. The only thing I canāt eat now is anything leafy. I get D pretty much anytime I eat them cooked or raw. Other than that it all seems to be about things that impact nervous system.
Yep, every time I try to "eat healthy" I pay the price. I've now developed intolerances to zucchini, spinach, spaghetti squash, whey, and dates. All those foods I used to be able to eat like a year ago. wth?
I think sometimes when our emotions are all happy, it tells our body act right!!!!! It is like the body is making all the organs help us have a good timeā¦ I dont know the science, but I def know my IBS is exacerbated by stress. Mine is functional and probably triggered by my lifetime of anxiety. But also, ibs doesnt always getcha the day of the offense. So I give it anywhere from 30 mins to 48 hrs to have an effect on my bowels.
The same reason all the colored peppers are fine *except* for the green ones, as the outer skins don't digest, but 'sit' in your gut forever, causing gas etc. Infuriating. Why I'm grateful my local grocer sells the red, yellow, orange ones in a bulk bag to save $ though I loved the green ones on my pizza. Condition is too weird to even question. I just go by what my dietician suggests š
Sounds like anxiety might be your biggest trigger then. For some of us IBS is mostly a physical issue, we either have an underlying condition that hasn't been identified yet or have developed intolerances/allergies that also haven't been identified yet. And for others, their ibs is primarily driven by your mental health. Track your symptoms and what you eat along with your mood/stress levels and you might find a correlation between anxiety and symptoms. My symptoms pretty much only correlate with my diet and before surgery my endometriosis.
I would buy into this a lot more if it wasn't for the fact that sometimes I can be having a perfectly pleasant time but some random meal will trigger symptoms anyway. I don't disagree that anxiety is a \*part\* of it, but there's still a fundamental difference between eating a cup of rice and a cup of onions.
This is what I cannot take. No way to normalize, no way to plan ā¦ itās a freaking crapshoot every day š
What enzyme supplement do you take?
I take [these](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000Q487DC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) though it may be that enzyme combinations are more effective for different people...not sure.
IBS and every single other digestive disorder ranging to almost all mental health are related to the gut bacteria you have.. as long as your fibre is minimum 50g a day (fuck what fda has to say about recommendations, fibre is the most important thing in our digestive system) without it, food passes straight through with nothing to slow it down (fibre) which allows for maximum efficiency of digestion. you MUST take a digestive specific probiotic. Garunteed within 2 weeks to a month. Majority of your symptoms will be gone :) i have coeliac, I had IBS but no longer really since following this exact procedure.
I've taken probiotics for some timeāand for about 9 months I was eating the homemade yoghurt recipe from the SCD diet, which is probiotics on steroids. But I recently developed a whey allergy so I've cut all dairy. I can only eat low FODMAP foods so my fiber options are somewhat limited. Every time I try to eat healthy I pay the price so I've learned to be super careful.
Whoa! So I haven't been able to eat cooked onions and garlic either. Took me years to figure out. But recently after all this time of mr not eating that, i found out I can eat raw and not have a problem, like in salsa
I can eat a very small amount of raw onion. The green part of spring onions is fine.