# Comfort Foods and the IBS diet



## tummyrumbles (Aug 14, 2005)

Most IBS diets offer their own version of comfort foods but I haven't found any I could tolerate.

There are 3 food types that feed a bacterial overbalance: starches, high FODMAPs and fibre (all fibre, whether soluble or insoluble). So an ideal comfort food would have to be filling but not gas-causing. I've yet to find anything suitable. Banana and yoghurt is my standard dessert, but I'm still not certain if probiotics are a good idea for IBS /SIBO. For me the safest possible food seems to be well-digested and well-cooked low FODMAP, low-starch vegetables. But these aren't all that filling and not really comfort foods.

Each of the diets offer their own brand of comfort foods. The FODMAP diet disallows complex sugars that are fermentable but allows starches, which are equally fermentable. This diet has gluten-free breads made from potato and tapioca starches which are extremely high in starch, much higher in starch than wheat bread.

The paleo diet excludes cultivated grains, legumes, dairy and refined sugar but allows high FODMAPs. This diet is generally very high in fibre as well as meats. Comfort foods can include seeds and high fibre, complex sugar fruit like dates and figs - real problem foods for most of us.

The Specific Carbohydrate Diet was founded prior to the FODMAP theory and disallows grains and polysaccharides like potatoes and other high starch foods but allows FODMAPs. This diet features breads made from almond or coconut flour. Both are very high in fibre and I found I couldn't tolerate either of them.

The fast tract diet, which I can't find much information on, limits resistant starch, and some FODMAPs but allows other FODMAPs which are known problem foods: cabbage, asparagus and sprouts for instance. As far as I'm aware, this diet also allows white bread, a favourite comfort food but one of the worse foods for constipation. The founder uses a fermentation algorithm to calculate the fermentability of foods by adding the total net carbs, fibre and sugar alcohol and glycemic index however allows some higher GI rice types such as Jasmine or sticky, glutinous rice. Rice is a constipating food for many of us regardless of its glycemic index.

Generally none of these diets limit a food according to its "constipation potential". Simple carbs like rice and white bread might not be as fermentable but can cause IBS symptoms if they can't be evacuated efficiently.

Constipation is poorly understood and no-one really knows exactly how and why certain foods resist moving through. If the fermentability aspect of foods were all we had to worry about IBS would have been solved decades ago. Foods that don't evacuate easily are the other side of the problem and constipation could underlie most forms of IBS.

So far the non-grain, baked comfort foods are either too high in starch or fibre. I'm still trying to find a low flatulogenic comfort food but sadly such a food might not exist.


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## garza5266 (Jun 15, 2014)

So what does your diet consist of?


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## TravDevine (Apr 27, 2014)

I think one of them major problems is looking for a pre-made diet. My 'comfort' foods may cause you severe problems while what you are comfortable with might have me in distress. This desease seems to be pretty much individualized as each of us have other problems that may conflict with or complicate which foods we can safely eat. For example, I have severe GERD which limits some foods others consider safe, not for the constipation but for the regurgatation problem. My 'safe' foods are poached/scrambled eggs and toast; peanut butter and marmalade/strawberry Jam; ramen; Tuna (canned); fresh seafood - and that is about it.


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## tummyrumbles (Aug 14, 2005)

My diet isn't ideal and I'm still experimenting but this is what I have at the moment:

Breakfast: porridge oats

Snack: mandarin, orange or grapes

Lunch: 2 toasted ham jaffles

Dinner:

Meat / fish / eggs with low FODMAP boiled or mashed vegetables - carrots, potatoes, pumpkin, sweet potato, green beans, zucchini - very well cooked.

Dessert: banana & yoghurt.

The banana has less starch the riper it is. I'm not certain whether yoghurt is good or bad. If IBS is SIBO then yoghurt might not be a good idea.

This seems to be my best diet is terms of a minimum of gas and a reasonably quick evacuation the next day.

The steaming and toasting of bread seems to reduce gas symptoms. I can't tolerate bread at all but can get away with toast, especially toast steamed in a jaffle iron. It could be that the heat and steaming reduces the starch content but I'm not certain.

Even though wheat is a problem food, I seem to tolerate toast a lot better than high starch or high fibre non-gluten breads.

Cream of wheat cereal has about half the starch of porridge oats and a lot less fibre, 1 gram to 4 grams respectively. It is the lowest starch cereal I know of. I haven't tried this yet but some people who have trouble digesting starch might find cream of wheat suits them better than oats.

Trav, you could try really well-cooked mashed potato & pumpkin. it should be easily digestible.


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