Irritable bowel diet aims to reduce or eliminate foods that are IBS triggers. If you are an IBS sufferer, please don’t despair when seeing the list of these foods because some of them can still be eaten by you in small quantities following the proper guidelines. Also, there are safer substitutes to these foods and you can eat them freely. The following are foods that should not included in an irregular bowel diet:
Red meat – includes ground beef, hamburgers, hot dogs, steaks, roast beef, ham, etc.
Poultry dark meat and skin- organic turkey and chicken and skinless white meat are fine.
Dairy products – includes cheese, butter, sour cream, milk, ice-cream, yogurt. Dairy products trigger IBS even if you are not lactose intolerant because of the high fat content of most dairy. Also, dairy contains proteins whey and casein which can cause serious digestion problems.
Egg yolks – organic eggs are recommended, egg whites are fine.
Other high fat foods- French fries, onion rings, fried chicken, corn dogs, battered and deep-fried foods, margarine, all oils, mayonnaise, coconut milk, solid chocolate, nuts, unbaked potato chips, corn chips, nachos.
Coffee/Alcohol/Carbonated drinks- these contain enzyme that are GI tract irritants.
Artificial sweeteners- can trigger pain cramps, gas, bloating and diarrhea.
MSG- it has many negative anecdotal findings that are related to digestive problems.
The most harmful foods are red meat, dairies, egg yolks and fried foods and it is best that these should not be included in the irregular bowel diet. You might find the idea shocking but giving them up will mean that your whole body will be healthier and you will feel better.
It is important also to maintain low fat diet if you are suffering from IBS but it is also important that you don’t go fat free. Your body also needs healthy fats in order to function properly. The total fat intake should be kept at 20% to 25% of your total calories. These fats should be monounsaturated and should contain essential fatty acids which can come from olive oil, canola oil, avocados, finely ground nuts, fatty fish, flax oil, etc. Irregular bowel diet therefore should eliminate the above list of foods because they are the culprits to this problem.