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Food Supply

In the beginning, Belinda was skeptical about organic food. So she decided to do an experiment. She went to the supermarket and bought eight conventional vegetables. She took them home and cooked them. She ate a small portion and began to feel nauseated. Her nausea went on for hours.

The next day Belinda went to a health food store and purchased the same eight vegetables, but this time she bought all organic. She took the vegetables home and cooked them exactly the same way she had cooked the conventional vegetables the day before. She ate the same small portion … and waited … and waited … and waited. Nothing happened! She felt absolutely fine! This experience convinced her there must be something to organics and she began to eat mainly organic.

In fact, when you think about it, it makes good sense that eating organic is better for IBS people because organics contain no chemical pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers, antibiotics or hormones. They also haven’t been genetically modified, meaning they haven’t been cross bred with other species of plants. Normally older species of plants are used in organic farming.

Since IBS attacks can be triggered by even minute amounts of chemicals or antibiotics, etc. in food, it is best to eliminate these triggers if possible.

In particular, certain foods like eggs and chicken contain high amounts of these contaminants so it is recommended IBS people buy organic eggs and chicken that is either organic, naturally raised or kosher.

Eating organic is also recommended because IBS people probably don't get as much nutrition as non-IBS people because they must eat a restricted diet. In such cases, every vitamin counts!

Organically-grown produce is packed with vitamins because it is cultivated from older species of fruit and vegetables. Conventional produce, on the other hand, is not cultivated to necessarily have high vitamin content. Rather, it is cultivated to not bruise easily, look appealing to grocery shoppers and to have a long shelf life. These factors are aimed at ensuring good profits as opposed to ensuring good nutritional values.

How To Prepare Food

You will need to peel, remove seeds and cook most vegetables. Some exceptions to this would include lettuce and tomatoes.

Lettuce is safest when eaten with soluble fibre (such as in a sandwich) or at the end of a meal. Tomatoes are safest when peeled, seeds removed and eaten raw with soluble fibre (again, such as in a sandwich).

The safest vegetables to eat are root vegetables such as carrots, turnips, beets and parsnip.

Generally boiling or baking vegetables is best. Frying vegetables is not safe.

The two safest fruits for you to eat are bananas (peeled and eaten raw) and apples (peeled, cored and boiled into a sauce or baked until soft). Apples should be eaten with soluble fibre (such as on white, French or sour dough toast).

If you don’t have time to cook vegetables or fruit, you can try buying baby food because it is usually cooked and pureed.

Certain cooked vegetables are difficult for IBS people to tolerate. These include any in the cabbage family (including cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts) and in the garlic and onion family. However, cooked cauliflower may sometimes be quite tolerable in small quantities. Garlic and onion may be tolerable in small amounts in powdered form (as in cooking spices).

Certain fruits are difficult to tolerate too even if they are cooked. These include pears, peaches, nectarines, plums, prunes, pineapple and citrus fruits. Many IBS people react to melon too although Belinda can tolerate small amounts of watermelon, honeydew and cantaloupe.

For fish and poultry, it's best to bake, boil or barbecue the meat or use any method that doesn’t involving a fatty cooking process such as frying.

Belinda uses her own steam-bake method for poultry and fish. She puts the meat in a large Corningware baking dish, fills it up with water, covers it and bakes it in the oven. When it’s ready, she removes all the skin and fat in the broth before eating it.

Meal Frequency and Portion Sizes

With IBS (and many other conditions too), it's best to eat small meals and often. It's also important to NOT miss any meals because that can make your IBS worse.

The goal should be to keep your digestive system running evenly and as smoothly as possible. The way to do this is to have something to eat every few hours.

For example, you can make sandwiches and, if you're at work, eat a half-sandwich every couple of hours. You can also have other snacks as well.

It's also best to carry food with you wherever you go because it can be difficult to find IBS-safe food sometimes. So, for example, if you're going to the mall, bring along something to munch on so you don't put your digestive out of whack.

The key thing is to never allow yourself to go hungry. Your goal should be to eat something at regular intervals.