IBS Diarrheal Diet
August 10, 2009 by admin
Filed under IBS Solutions
When you are suffering from chronic Diarrhea disorder, what you eat and how to eat becomes a major consideration in controlling the disorder. While there is nothing classified as a Diarrheal diet, the following eating strategy consisting of four easy ways you will make sure that your diet is not aiding it further.
1. Aim for small meals
Patients suffering from IBS are taught to easily identify trigger foods, which usually cause the irritation. While certain food items certainly don’t go well with the GI tract, causing greater irritation, at times the size of the meal also aggravates the situation and a large meal might immediately bring about a violent response. Larger sized meals usually result in escalation of contractions in the intestines, necessitating urgent visits to the restroom, which is a symptom of Diarrhea. The first rule of a Diarrheal diet is to restrict the size of your meals.
2. Opt for low fat meals
The second rule of Diarrheal diet is to avoid high content of fat in the meals. High fat also might cause intensive intestinal contractions, and it is best advised to keep away from fried, oily and creamy-layered food. Higher fat content is certainly present in fried foods and oily food items. Dairy products like cheese contain a high fat content, and it is best advised that you keep off from such high fat content items, so that your system works in a more rhythmic order and your condition gets mitigated through such a low fat content meals.
3. Smaller meals throughout the day
Another important aspect of Diarrheal diet is to ensure you take smaller portions of food throughout the day. Many patients suffering from Diarrhea-predominant IBS try to be on empty stomach to avoid unnecessary visits to restrooms. Instead, you should eat smaller meals throughout the day, giving a chance to your digesting system to get back a rhythm in its functioning, and also ensure that you are not hungry and as such you don’t go for larger meals at the end of the day. Hence the third cardinal principle of Diarrheal diet is to – smaller size meals throughout the day.
4. Quieter times are testing times!
You should also ponder over the reasons for Diarrhea. Should you blame only the foods for this condition? Remember, Diarrhea can be caused even due to stressed conditions or changes in your hormones. Identify these trouble mongers, before opting for stronger medical starvations. Remember if you restrict food you are likely to suffer from deficiency in nutrition. When your system is quiet, you should test foods which you suspect of giving you Diarrhea, to determine whether they are the trouble mongers.
Claim your free copy of The Top 7 Tips to Avoid IBS
Fat and IBS
The diet for an irritable bowel syndrome involves avoiding all of the foods which irritate the colon and has the potential to cause a spastic colon. A gastro colic reflex takes place when the food goes to the stomach. Foods which help in healing and regulating the colon should be a part of your daily diet in order to prevent and avoid those foods that cause painful spasms and cramps, gas, nausea, and bloating, and assist in the healing of the colon.
The body finds it very difficult to digest fats and certain kinds of animal products. These two kinds of foods trigger IBS Colitis and are also the main causes for both constipation and diarrhea. All these foods should either be completely avoided or limited to the maximum possible extent from your diet. Your diet might need a complete overhaul in order to bring the symptoms under control but they are all positive changes for your health and well being.
Fat is a great stimulant, which is present in the digestive tract. When the food we consume reaches the stomach, a gastro colic reflex takes place, and the colon starts contracting automatically. Sometimes an attack of IBS takes place immediately after the wrong kind of food has been consumed and takes place in a more powerful manner especially when fat is consumed. Though the normal consumption of fat would only result in a bowel movement, this can cause serious problems for people that have IBS colitis or diarrhea. This is because people with IBS do not have a normal gastro colic reflex and the colon could respond in a violent manner. People who have a chronic problem of constipation will find that such spasms will make the colon react very severely, cramps from the colon can cause some sever pain and this will also aggravate the constipation since motility has closed and the feces is not able to move. The muscles should relax in order to provide relief but with IBS it takes some time for normal motility to be restored after such a reaction.
Foods which contain a lot of fat can only aggravate the condition of IBS diarrhea since the muscle spasms which take place as a result of fat digestion will result in such quick gut contractions that there will not be enough time to absorb water. The spasms and diarrhea will also cause a lot of pain. High fat foods can result in both diarrhea as well as constipation for people who have IBS colitis and this is due to the delay in the gastro colic reflex. You can imagine what your body would go thru if the whole meal consisted of fatty fast foods.
It is very difficult to completely avoid high fat foods and people with IBS colitis should try to limit and/or avoid these in their diet pattern. In understanding that your body will have a reaction you can consume a little portion and help yourself by drinking lots of water to keep the system moving. These dietary changes will help you in living a healthier life and pain free life.
