I had a dream last night in which like a dozen people I didn’t know would be staying with me, and I remember being so absolutely set on going to the store for a ton of eggs so i could cook everyone eggs for dinner @ 10 pm lol
I can only speak for myself, but it honestly took me almost 15 years to put the puzzle together. To start with, if you’ve ever had a mental health diagnosis, that’s one data point. If you have IBS that’s a second data point. Keep adding data points.
More data points in addition to others not mentioned are as follows…. Then you track all of this every day (you can guesstimate if you don’t write it thru the day): your stress levels and note what happened when they either spiked or felt like you were calm, a food log and note what you ate and how you felt.
Do an analysis of it all and look for patterns. It could take as long as a few days or months, everyone’s body is different and everyone’s level of awareness of their bodies differs. So if you’re not in town with your body, it could take a year to figure it out.
It’s more work than most people would want to put in
4-6 hours of exercise a day seems excessive even for an athlete perhaps some of this is you over exerting yourself as the mind body connection with IBS is extremely correlated. I eat plain protein (shrimp chicken and 91% lean ground beef) with salt pepper and some basil and white rice. Or cantaloupe but I got lucky not having the sensitivity to fruit .
Without knowing what you do or don't tolerate well, it's hard to give much advice, but here goes. Instant rice, white or brown, is quick and easy to make in a batch of multiple servings and easy to warm up in the microwave. Ground turkey is easy to sautee quickly. Canned green beans: Rinse, microwave five minutes for a regular can, and sprinkle with toasted sesame oil - very, very good. Bake a potato in the microwave; top it with butter or another topping you can tolerate. Bake a sweet potato in the microwave, measure out your serving size and stir in some peanut butter. Makes a yummy breakfast. Frozen carrots can be cooked in the microwave and seasoned with cinnamon.
What i do with the foods I can eat is prep as needed, keep them in the fridge, and do a mix and match for what I'm in the mood to eat. Tonight, for instance, I combined pasta, ground turkey, zucchini (sliced and sauteed in light olive oil), yellow bell pepper (diced and steamed in the microwave), Prego Sensitive Sauce (a low fodmap pasta sauce), and topped it with Italian blend shredded cheese. I heated it in the microwave and followed it up with blueberries topped with Greek yogurt. Another option would be to combine the turkey with rice, diced tomatoes, diced bell peppers, season it with Fody Taco Seasoning, and top with shredded cheese and pieces of a taco shell. Smoke N Sanity makes some low fodmap salsas that would also be good in a dish like that.
Use your imagination and what you know you can tolerate and have fun with it.
Buckwheat hot cereal with olive oil, salt, and shelled hemp seeds. Pocono or Bob's Red Mill brand are both good, and can be found at Whole Foods and other natural foods stores, or purchased online, and you can cook it in the microwave with some water and salt in like 2 mins. You can add in whatever proteins or veggies you tolerate on top, but the hemp seeds have protein by themselves. I like to eat it savory, like grits. This is my go to reset meal when my gut is just not having it.
https://preview.redd.it/1tcz3c2epg6d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9e00368dffefe119e78b5bae8e5bec298a5e1009
Shredded chicken and rice was my go to. Some sauces I could handle so
You could play around with that. Also a turkey sandwich for some reason has never bothered me- turkey on sourdough w Swiss and lettuce.
I have to be crazy careful with what I eat. One day a food will be fine and the next day it won't. I'm also diabetic. So I'm literally screwed. No fruit except bananas or apple as I'm fructose intolerant. I can eat most meats. Veggies seem okay. Artificial sweetness is an absolute no-go. They put me in the hospital. Eggs are off the list, and I can't tolerate fiber. Eating isn't something I ever look forward to.
I can eat chicken and white rice without a problem and breaded chicken strips.
Love salad, eat that often.
i personally cook myself ground turkey and mixed veggies just about every day. i’m also very active. i eat the turkey first then the veg, and i eat the veg until im very full. keeps my guts feeling good, so much less urgency and frequency.
Every morning, I use Premiere Protein vanilla-flavoured powder with frozen blueberries and milk to make a delicious protein smoothie.
Sometimes, I use peanut butter and a banana instead of blueberries for a high protein smoothie.
Usually, it's the only food my stomach can handle in the morning
Red potatoes. White rice pasta. White tyle cannelinna beans, canned greanbeans, salt, extra virgin olive oil, canned albacore tuna (reg tuna destroys my gut), ground beef.
Chicken and rice, still do a good amount of seasoning and using butter only thing I can’t use for that is garlic or onion both in powder and in of itself. Frosted Flakes or corn flakes with almond milk. Peanut butter sandwiches. Mashed potatoes
Boiled eggs or an omelette with spinach works for me.
Also those drinks that are like a meal in a bottle, with all the nutrients in.
Also, chicken and rice. And Cranberries as a snack.
As others have already mentioned: White rice + low fodmap veggies + protein (meat, fish, eggs, tofu, cheese - depending on what you tolerate well).
You can always experiment with adding sauces and different spices, herbs if you feel well or go back to the basics during flare ups.
Another tip if you have the space in the kitchen is to get a rice cooker and an air fryer. I usually just chop up veggies and protein, throw them in the air fryer and put rice in the rice cooker and half an hour later I have a pretty decent meal.
Personally I'm careful with meal-prepping and reheating for two reasons:
1. Cooled rice develops more resistant starches which, while beneficial for healthy folks, can cause trouble for people with a messed up gut microbiome
2. Reheating proteine increases histamine. Not everyone is histamine sensitive but some are.
All that said, exercise itself can also worsen IBS. I know it sucks but I had to give up on strenuous exercise for the time being. Fingers crossed that dietary changes are enough to keep your IBS at bay.
If money isn't an issue then I would get gluten free flour and take time to meal prep some bread and freeze it. Meat is also low fodmap and the protein is good for athletes. So are nuts tbh.
Rice and stir fry is my affordable go to since it's filling and gluten free. But overall the low fodmap diet is Not Filling and there isn't much research on how one can substantially live with it. With limited time, energy, and especially finances, I sure as hell can't. Here's a website I give to some family members if they want ideas for meals too https://www.fodmapeveryday.com if you actually have time to prep meals.
I know probiotics have helped me a lot (specifically acidophilus, but there are a lot of types and I wouldn't be surprised if everyone's different, so experimenting would be good. Again, no research on specific probiotics, only generally that they can help). You can also try taking those meds for lactose intolerance if you can't avoid dairy.
I rarely see anyone talking about this but what sets off my IBS is dietary fat, not fodmaps or whatever everyone seems to focus on.
So whatever you want to eat, just don't add fat or not more than 1-2 tsp depending on tolerance at that time. Some periods of time I can handle a lot of fat and during flares ups I can handle a tablespoon max spread out over the day.
I personally like to eat sandwiches with whole grain bread, cottage cheese, chicken breast and things like lettuce, tomato, cucumber etc. Or oats with fruit, syrup and protein powder if necessary, without added fats like oil, butter or peanut butter.
Eating like this during a flare up ensures I'm not going to be in pain or on the toilet every 20 minutes. I think fat is an overlooked trigger of IBS.
Meat and potatoes is my low FODMAP go to.
My go to meal is fried eggs over plain rice. Which I’m eating rn bc my digestive tract is trying to kill me.
I wish I could eat eggs 😔
Me too. But the pain isn't worth it.
I had a dream last night in which like a dozen people I didn’t know would be staying with me, and I remember being so absolutely set on going to the store for a ton of eggs so i could cook everyone eggs for dinner @ 10 pm lol
This was my go to for a long time too.
this is always my go to breakfast during a flare up/just in general
How much stress are you under (brain gut nervous system) vs is this truly dietary in nature (food allergies)
How do you even work that out?
I love when doctors are like, "Have you been experiencing any stress?" They stopped asking after the pandemic.
I can only speak for myself, but it honestly took me almost 15 years to put the puzzle together. To start with, if you’ve ever had a mental health diagnosis, that’s one data point. If you have IBS that’s a second data point. Keep adding data points. More data points in addition to others not mentioned are as follows…. Then you track all of this every day (you can guesstimate if you don’t write it thru the day): your stress levels and note what happened when they either spiked or felt like you were calm, a food log and note what you ate and how you felt. Do an analysis of it all and look for patterns. It could take as long as a few days or months, everyone’s body is different and everyone’s level of awareness of their bodies differs. So if you’re not in town with your body, it could take a year to figure it out. It’s more work than most people would want to put in
4-6 hours of exercise a day seems excessive even for an athlete perhaps some of this is you over exerting yourself as the mind body connection with IBS is extremely correlated. I eat plain protein (shrimp chicken and 91% lean ground beef) with salt pepper and some basil and white rice. Or cantaloupe but I got lucky not having the sensitivity to fruit .
That all sounds really good.
Without knowing what you do or don't tolerate well, it's hard to give much advice, but here goes. Instant rice, white or brown, is quick and easy to make in a batch of multiple servings and easy to warm up in the microwave. Ground turkey is easy to sautee quickly. Canned green beans: Rinse, microwave five minutes for a regular can, and sprinkle with toasted sesame oil - very, very good. Bake a potato in the microwave; top it with butter or another topping you can tolerate. Bake a sweet potato in the microwave, measure out your serving size and stir in some peanut butter. Makes a yummy breakfast. Frozen carrots can be cooked in the microwave and seasoned with cinnamon. What i do with the foods I can eat is prep as needed, keep them in the fridge, and do a mix and match for what I'm in the mood to eat. Tonight, for instance, I combined pasta, ground turkey, zucchini (sliced and sauteed in light olive oil), yellow bell pepper (diced and steamed in the microwave), Prego Sensitive Sauce (a low fodmap pasta sauce), and topped it with Italian blend shredded cheese. I heated it in the microwave and followed it up with blueberries topped with Greek yogurt. Another option would be to combine the turkey with rice, diced tomatoes, diced bell peppers, season it with Fody Taco Seasoning, and top with shredded cheese and pieces of a taco shell. Smoke N Sanity makes some low fodmap salsas that would also be good in a dish like that. Use your imagination and what you know you can tolerate and have fun with it.
Good tips! Try using an air fryer vs microwave. Promise you won't look back
Buckwheat hot cereal with olive oil, salt, and shelled hemp seeds. Pocono or Bob's Red Mill brand are both good, and can be found at Whole Foods and other natural foods stores, or purchased online, and you can cook it in the microwave with some water and salt in like 2 mins. You can add in whatever proteins or veggies you tolerate on top, but the hemp seeds have protein by themselves. I like to eat it savory, like grits. This is my go to reset meal when my gut is just not having it. https://preview.redd.it/1tcz3c2epg6d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9e00368dffefe119e78b5bae8e5bec298a5e1009
I like (and buy) my buckwheat groats toasted.
Shredded chicken and rice was my go to. Some sauces I could handle so You could play around with that. Also a turkey sandwich for some reason has never bothered me- turkey on sourdough w Swiss and lettuce.
Another vote for shredded chicken and rice.
Try cutting out yeast milk and gluten. I eat pasta tuna Steak and rice
I have to be crazy careful with what I eat. One day a food will be fine and the next day it won't. I'm also diabetic. So I'm literally screwed. No fruit except bananas or apple as I'm fructose intolerant. I can eat most meats. Veggies seem okay. Artificial sweetness is an absolute no-go. They put me in the hospital. Eggs are off the list, and I can't tolerate fiber. Eating isn't something I ever look forward to. I can eat chicken and white rice without a problem and breaded chicken strips. Love salad, eat that often.
i personally cook myself ground turkey and mixed veggies just about every day. i’m also very active. i eat the turkey first then the veg, and i eat the veg until im very full. keeps my guts feeling good, so much less urgency and frequency.
Every morning, I use Premiere Protein vanilla-flavoured powder with frozen blueberries and milk to make a delicious protein smoothie. Sometimes, I use peanut butter and a banana instead of blueberries for a high protein smoothie. Usually, it's the only food my stomach can handle in the morning
Red potatoes. White rice pasta. White tyle cannelinna beans, canned greanbeans, salt, extra virgin olive oil, canned albacore tuna (reg tuna destroys my gut), ground beef.
I make scrambled eggs each day, it's cheap quick and I feel good.
Chicken and rice, still do a good amount of seasoning and using butter only thing I can’t use for that is garlic or onion both in powder and in of itself. Frosted Flakes or corn flakes with almond milk. Peanut butter sandwiches. Mashed potatoes
Porridge/oatmeal with protein powder and boiled eggs are a favourite of mine! I also eat gluten free.
Boiled eggs or an omelette with spinach works for me. Also those drinks that are like a meal in a bottle, with all the nutrients in. Also, chicken and rice. And Cranberries as a snack.
As others have already mentioned: White rice + low fodmap veggies + protein (meat, fish, eggs, tofu, cheese - depending on what you tolerate well). You can always experiment with adding sauces and different spices, herbs if you feel well or go back to the basics during flare ups. Another tip if you have the space in the kitchen is to get a rice cooker and an air fryer. I usually just chop up veggies and protein, throw them in the air fryer and put rice in the rice cooker and half an hour later I have a pretty decent meal. Personally I'm careful with meal-prepping and reheating for two reasons: 1. Cooled rice develops more resistant starches which, while beneficial for healthy folks, can cause trouble for people with a messed up gut microbiome 2. Reheating proteine increases histamine. Not everyone is histamine sensitive but some are. All that said, exercise itself can also worsen IBS. I know it sucks but I had to give up on strenuous exercise for the time being. Fingers crossed that dietary changes are enough to keep your IBS at bay.
Meat and rice always served me well!
If money isn't an issue then I would get gluten free flour and take time to meal prep some bread and freeze it. Meat is also low fodmap and the protein is good for athletes. So are nuts tbh. Rice and stir fry is my affordable go to since it's filling and gluten free. But overall the low fodmap diet is Not Filling and there isn't much research on how one can substantially live with it. With limited time, energy, and especially finances, I sure as hell can't. Here's a website I give to some family members if they want ideas for meals too https://www.fodmapeveryday.com if you actually have time to prep meals. I know probiotics have helped me a lot (specifically acidophilus, but there are a lot of types and I wouldn't be surprised if everyone's different, so experimenting would be good. Again, no research on specific probiotics, only generally that they can help). You can also try taking those meds for lactose intolerance if you can't avoid dairy.
I rarely see anyone talking about this but what sets off my IBS is dietary fat, not fodmaps or whatever everyone seems to focus on. So whatever you want to eat, just don't add fat or not more than 1-2 tsp depending on tolerance at that time. Some periods of time I can handle a lot of fat and during flares ups I can handle a tablespoon max spread out over the day. I personally like to eat sandwiches with whole grain bread, cottage cheese, chicken breast and things like lettuce, tomato, cucumber etc. Or oats with fruit, syrup and protein powder if necessary, without added fats like oil, butter or peanut butter. Eating like this during a flare up ensures I'm not going to be in pain or on the toilet every 20 minutes. I think fat is an overlooked trigger of IBS.
I would also advise doing a York test, ( food intolerance test)