# Vegetarians?



## 18122

Is anyone a Vegetarian with IBS?I'm trying to find out if anyone stopped eating meat and saw improvements.Currently I am going Veg for 30 days just to see how I feel, and other reasons as well.Let me know what your experience is, if any.







Thanks!


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## Kathleen M.

I think it varies.Some of the things that are plentiful in a vegetarian diet (soy, beans, wheat) can be gas producers so bother some IBSers.However, depending on how you respond to food you may do well. If fatty/greasy meats bother you cutting those out of the diet may help.K.


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## bones20

I have been a vegetarian all my life and I have IBS. However, I took meat once and that was exactly during the period when IBS started with me. I dont think there has been a lot of connection between non veg and IBS


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## BloatyBelly

I am not a vegetarian, but I do not eat red meat, pork, etc. Basically, the only meat I eat is poultry (mostly only breast meat) and fish. I very rearely eat shellfish either. I don't think that meat or lack of has any effect on IBS. In fact, my symptoms have gotten progressively worse over the past 10 years, and I quit eating red meat and pork about 7-8 years ago. Don't get your hopes up about getting better by eliminating meat, but there are other benefits to doing so as long as you continue to get protein through other sources.


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## EarnestAccord

I've been off and on the vegetarian wagon for many periods of my life for the last ten years or so. I have to say that not eating meat most definitely helps with my acute symptoms associated with eating my daily meals. And being vegetarian has definitely brought me out of painful periods where everything seemed to be going wrong. But with that said when I'm feeling good I try to eat chicken and fish as mush as possible because I know my body needs it. I'm very light for my size so keeping weight on me is a constant concern so like so many things with IBS it's a balancing act.


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## Christopher1

I am vegetarian but not with ibs,,,, just i have stopped having meats past 6 months now purely vegetarin...


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## cookiebot

hi!i've been vegetarian for 10 years now, and started presenting symptoms within the last year.i hear people say that vegetarian diet is good for ibs because, generally, it is lower fat.i eat low fat all the time now, and i don't see it helping for me. i just be sure to cook everything i eat now and avoid stinky foods, like onions, garlic, etc.good luck!


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## Yukie

Hi, I'm vegeterian but I don't eat beans and I totally avoid wheat. Wheat makes me really sick. So I don't eat meat, wheat and lactose and that's not so some. I have no major crisis. Just a daily discomfort but it's nothing compared to the diarhea I had with meat lactose and wheat. So, I probably have to adapt your diet.


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## IanRamsay

hihave you tried any probiotics? i guess this is probably a daft question. if you have what have you tried?cheersIan


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## Sarah O

I have been a vegetarian for the majority of my life and I was just diagnosed with IBS. I am very concerned about what I will be able to eat because the list of foods to avoid is what I eat every day. Without salad, fruits, veggies, whole grain, beans, legumes and dairy products I don't know what to eat.


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## Kathleen M.

Most people tolerate some part of the "avoid with IBS" list. They just list all the common trouble foods.Some people have the same symptoms no matter what they eat.Some people only have one or two things on the list that bothers them.Very few people find full relief from eating the "IBS diet" and often they say everyone has to avoid foods that promote loose stools when those very foods help the constipated.Sounds like you are combining all the no-nos from all the lists. Fructose intolerant people may need to avoid almost all fruits (there are a few they can eat or may have to limit amounts) but you might do well with the fruits that are usually "intestine friendly" and OK with the fruits that aren't if you cook them. (that is if you tend to diarrhea and the sugar alcohols in fruits bothers you, doesn't bother everyone)http://www.askdrsears.com/html/4/T042600.asp#T042601Usually people do not have to avoid every single vegetable out there, but may need to limit or avoid the gassier ones, IF they bother you (like cabbage or beans, and if you soak dry beans and switch out the water before you cook them you get rid of almost all of what makes beans gassy). You can also sprout beans and that often makes them less gassy, they use up the problem compounds to spout.Raw veggies are harder on a lot of IBSers, but some people can eat salads, you just have to see how you do. Eating the salad at the end of the meal (like the French tend to do) rather than at the start of meal can help. Probably better as a part of a meal rather than as a whole meal.How much brown rice vs white rice you have to eat or back off on whole wheat and get some bread with some white flour mixed in will depend on how much fiber you tolerate. Fiber helps some people doesn't help others, so you have to play with that.You only have to avoid all dairy if you are allergic to dairy proteins (always pretty rare in all people with any disease even IBS). You may need to avoid high lactose dairy (like soft cheeses, yogurts, and milk) or limit the amount to 6-8 oz of milk with a meal. Aged cheeses and butter only have a tiny trace of lactose. Yogurt and soft cheeses have less than milk but you may need to watch the quantity at one sitting.


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## faze action

I have been a vegetarian for about 10-15 years... developed IBS as a veg.


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## SneakerPimp

I have a very hard time with soy, so being a vegetarian isn't really an option for me. I avoid red meat and eat mostly chicken and fish. I was a vegetarian for two years, but let me tell you, my IBS was the worst during those two years!


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## Brianmay1975

I think I could never be a vegan and I would have a veeery hard time being a vegetarian, because eating mostly veggies would cause me a lot of trouble with gas and bloating. Last summer, I learned this the hard way.I have IBS-D (with infrequent constipation episodes, by the side). Even when my symptoms are in remission and stabilized, I am prone to bloating and lots of gas, so I have to carefully watch how much I eat, what I eat and the way I eat...So last summer I visited some Christian Orthodox monasteries from my country (Romania). Now those monasteries are located in the middle of nowhere, in the mountains (a very lovely setting, to be honest), so we had to sleep over there and eat the food the nuns were cooking. And in the Orthodox Christian faith, fasting means eating an exclusively vegan diet. Monks and nuns are fasting on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. We arrived on a Tuesday night, so we had to eat three meals there on Wednesday, which is a fasting day. After a day's worth of boiled, cooked and fresh vegetables, I was terribly bloated and my tummy was replete with gas... It was a very bad experience, there was a revolution in my tummy and I had a general feeling of illness and discomfort. That's when I became aware that I could never be a nun, even if I wanted to (which I don't).So I think my IBS keeps me from going veg. I do need to eat vegetables, fruits and salads as part of a larger meal, mixed with bread, meat, dairies, eggs, pasta... I usually don't eat red meat, though; I only eat it when I get sick and tired of poultry...


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## moocluckmeow

I am actually transitioning to a vegan diet. It has been all trial and error. I have suffered from IBS my whole life. I was diagnosed with it at the age of 9. Going veg helped a lot in the beginning actually. Meat is a huge trigger for me. As I started going through my teens I also started to form an intolerance to lactose. So needless to say vegan was a good option. But I am not starting to think i may have a sensitivity or intolerance of soy....which is going to make my diet very restricted.....


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## Porcelina

Hi everyone. I'm new here and this is my first post. I googles 'ibs and vegetarian' and this page came up. I'm not really vegetarian, but I do limit my meat intake to mainly fish, chicken and the very odd hamburger and am trying to incorporate more grains/veggies. I find that if I cook my veggies, I have no problem digesting them, but raw (especially carrots) give me horrible stomach pains. For fruit, if I peel off skins of apples, I'm ok, and bananas are fine most of the time. Trigger fruits for me are kiwi and citrus fruits (oranges etc). I CANNOT tolerate whole wheat breads, or even bran muffins and I can't tolerate fake sugars.I find it frustrating because in order to get the essential nutrients from veggies, its better to eat them raw or el dente, but in order for me to tolerate them, they have to be fully cooked.


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## BQ

Porcelina Welcome.. I am the same.. I have to have most veggies cooked. I do remember reading somewhere... don't ask me where.. but somewhere that if I steamed or nuked the veggies I would lose less nutrients than if I boiled them. So if you have a steamer or a microwave... you could try cooking them that way to retain as many nutrients as possible. I also remember that some things can transfer their nutrients more readily to us if they ARE cooked.. like tomatoes.But you are not alone, I do better with cooked veggies too.


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## ziggy7

do you vegetarians eat eggs? you absolutely must eat some animal source or els your damaged stomach will not beable to repair itselfhttp://www.biblelife.org/bowel.htmalso i have made this really nice stratagy at healing and then figureing out what foods your stomach can handle but note its aimed at people with IBS-D and not IBS-C but if you have IBS-C you can try it too just eat way less cheese and maybe more fiber if you have IBS-Cim copy paste itbut first il add that i think it be best to not cook with vegetable oils and only cook with butter so save all the olive oil for greek saladshttp://www.ibsgroup.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=112669try a high fat, medium protein, low carb, diet 20 grams of carbohydrates per day for all foods sept cheese and count fiber in that 20 gram limit per day too that will help keep your fiber under control as wellyou can also have up to 10 grams of carbohydrates per day worth of cheese so total = 30 grams of carbs max per day, 10 worth of cheese and 20 worth of a combind other carbohydrates+fiberalso make sure you do not eat any starches at all that means no potatos or corn or carrorts or any of the starchy vegetables and no milk or whipping cream or sour cream basically no dairy sept for cheese but no cottage or ricotta cheese but i think mostly all other cheese is goodand absolutely no soy what so ever and no canola oil at all and no tomatos make sure you always check the ingridients of a item for these and also no meds and no vitamins either and no nuts or seeds or grainsand avoid all : White and black pepper, vinegar, capers, cinnamon, Cornstarch, Corn syrup, Nutmeg, Vanilla , Ketchup, pickles, mayonnaise, mustard, relish Coffee, Distilled liquor, Black Tea from the 20 grams of total carbohydrates+fiber you eat make sure they are mostly all from low carb vegetables like broccoli and suchso in short you can eat as much butter,meat,eggs,seafood no carb foods like that you can eat as much as you want and then 20 grams of carbs+fiber from low carb vegetables and then 10 grams of carbs from cheese also you will want to avoid berries and fruit for now cause they will add up to 20 grams of carbs way to fast and you won't get enough of the nutrients in your diet that you need if you eat themthis may sound extreme but use it as a test. and once you know your stomach is doing alot better (it can take time to heal) then you can start testing other foods and testing vitamins and such so you have more optionsalso after you know this plan works here is a list of things you can try adding back into your diet to test and see if they are ok for you1. slowly doubleing your max allowed carbohydrate limmit and cheese limmit and see if your body is ok with it2. testing vitamins and seeing if your body can handle them or which brands are ok3. berries4. fruit5. grains6. nuts and seeds7. eating up to a max of 100 grams of carbohydartes a day though i wouldn't eat that manyalso there will be still some things you can most likely never eat like starchy vegetables but if you want you can even test thembut foods you can never eat again because they are health hazardous and toxic are soy and canola oil and soy lethicin is bad too


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## Porcelina

Hi Ziggy. Thanks for the response, but I can tell you right now, that a high fat diet, is a HUGE no no for me. Yes, I eat eggs, but I can only handle one yolk, 2 or more mean stomach aches all day. The diet you mention seem extremely similar to the blood type diet (especially the B one) and atkins. Having nutritional education in my background, I can tell you that you need more than 20 grams of carbs to function properly, the human brain in particular. Its difficult to establish exactly how much one should have because everyone is different; a runner will obviously need more than a sedentary person. Infact, how much one needs varies anywhere between 20-230 grams!I also know that my body does very well to certain starches. Potatoes in particular, usually baked, are fine for me. If I eat that first, than I can eat my 'fatty' food afterwards or I can even eat a romain lettuce salad.All in all, I think we all just have to listen to our bodies and keep track of our triggers. Its tough, but just being in tune with oneself, to know if they can tolerate a food today that didnt do so well yesterday, is something we IBSers are going to have to deal with.


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## ziggy7

hi Porcelina read this real quickhttp://www.ibsgroup.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=112669im curious have you ever tried eating high fat while eating 20 grams or less of carbohydrates? carbohydrates interfere with the fat you eat. i used to think the same thing i could not eat any fatty meat what so ever i could not take a single bite of fatty meat or broccoli with out geting horrible stomach problems but when i cut the carbohydrates out.. it was like magic everything was completely differentalso you are right the diet is just like atkins







and thats basically what im recommending just i slightly changed it to treat IBS-D betteralso the scientific requirement for carbohydrates in the diet is 0 you don't need them however i would recommend someone eat a diet of atleast 1.5% carbohydrates cause animal organs have some so in that sense you need a tiny bitalso a runner does not necessarily need alot of carbohydrates but what a runner who has been eating high carb for along time does need is time for his body to produce more insulin receptors all over his muscles so he can be strong while still on a low carb diet and i will admit produceing more insulin receptors on your muscles has to be the longest adaptation process out of all the other going low carb adaptation processesdepending how high carb a runner ate before going super low carb it can take up to a good 4-5 months and with muscle cramps by the time a runners body produces enough insulin receptors on there muscles to function good and this is why so many runners strongly believe they need to eat high carb but for someone who is not a runner or exercises much you don't need to worry a few weeks should be enough for your muscles to be strongalso as for the human brain it requires 120 grams of glucose however when you enter ketosis it will feed off ketones and then it will only require 50 grams of glucose but again 58% of protein can be converted to glucose as needed in a way that does not spike blood sugars so if you ate 20-30 grams of carbs then your body would simpley convert some protein to glucose to match the 50 grams of glucose brain fuel requirement its very easy and normal for your body to do this and does not cause brain fog or anything except maybe during the first week of the diet as your body adapts it's gotta get the cob webs off this system that in the olden days was commonly used but now hasnt been used in many years so thats why it takes a week or so to adapt again into ithttp://www.biblelife.org/ketosis.htmand as for listening to your body when you have a damaged stomach its impossible to listen to your body because every food you eat hurts it and also really you cut the carbs out and fat like eggs and butter will not hurt your gut (unless your allergic to them but you need a healthy stomach to know if you are) so it may seem like fat hurts it when it was the carbs all along in todays world carbs are everywhere so its very hard for someone to randomly figure out it was the carbs causeing the problems all along but in the past the world was not full of carb foods so it was much easierbut i do agree that when your stomach is 100% fully healed and healthy then listening to your body is one of the best things you can do thats how i figured out all these other foods hurt my stomach. and initially i started atkins to treat my obesity and quickly found out i had far less gas and it slowy healed my IBS as well


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## WonkyColon

I have IBS-A and have been vegetarian for 5 years. All the veg protein sources-- cheese, beans, nuts, soy-- give me trouble. Except for eggs. I can usually handle eggs. I'm not even considering trying a diet w/ meat to see if it will help my IBS. I really can't stand the taste of meat and I've got major ethical problems with eating meat. (Not that I force that on anyone else.)My calories are about 40% unprocessed carb, 40% healthy fat, and 10% plant-based protein and 10% dairy/egg protein.


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