Thursday, September 30, 2010

Irritable Bowel Syndrome Diet - A Quick Guide

Do you know that irritable bowel syndrome diet is the best and most effective way of dealing with the irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a condition that affects around ten to twenty percent of the population in the US alone? Seventy percent of this ten to twenty percent are said to be women. The irritable bowel syndrome is manifested by different symptoms including constipation, explosive diarrhea, and abdominal pain, among others. If you want to learn more about the irritable bowel syndrome diet, continue reading this article.

The irritable bowel syndrome can either cause the colon to contract spastically thereby causing diarrhea or to freeze up thereby causing constipation. Since two common symptoms of the IBS syndrome are associated to the foods we eat, it is a good idea to try the irritable bowel syndrome diet which primarily involves cutting back on chocolate, coffee, carbonated drinks, alcohol, and caffeine, as all these are considered irritants or stimulants that cause the GI tract to be irritated or stimulated to cause an IBS attack. The irritable bowel syndrome diet focuses more on eating healthier foods to reduce the symptoms because once again, IBS cannot be cured.

The IBS diet or the irritable bowel syndrome diet also proposes frequent meals in a day. What does this mean? How can this help? It’s simple. As mentioned, the irritable bowel syndrome is actually caused by the irritation of the GI tract and aside from eating irritants or stimulants; GI tract can also be irritated by large and fat-filled meals. Thus, it is a good idea to switch to 5 or 6 meals a day instead of the traditional 3 meals a day. Just make sure you eat in smaller portions so that the amount of your 5 or 6 meals is similar to or close to the total amount of the 3 meals a day. If you decide to use the irritable bowel syndrome diet to deal with the IBS symptoms, you need to make healthy and conscientious food choices. It is a healthy idea to eat more lean meats, whole grain breads, vegetables, and fruits, to make sure your stomach is kept balanced to prevent any IBS symptoms from flaring up.

Some dietitians suggest that your irritable bowel syndrome diet must be rich in fiber in order to reduce the IBS symptoms. Fiber sources such as peaches, apples, carrots, broccoli, peas, cabbage, kidney and lima beans, cereals and whole-grain breads can round out your irritable bowel syndrome diet. Eating the fiber before any other foods when the stomach is empty is good to reduce the IBS symptoms. You might think that it is hard to follow the IBS diet; however, once you have learned the food you can and you can't eat, it will be much easier for you to reduce the IBS symptoms and to learn the triggers.

All in all, making healthy and conscientious choices of food is the key to irritable bowel syndrome diet. Simply explained, it's all about avoiding trigger foods and eating low-fat, small-portioned healthy meals. When you are able to do this, you can say goodbye to frequent IBS symptoms attacks. Depriving yourself of the foods you want is not the key here. The secret is to be smart in choosing the food to eat. Remember, your well-being depends on you alone!

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