# DIET-CONFLICTING INFORMATION



## 18122 (Sep 15, 2005)

Okay, for some reason, I feel like the only person in the world who knows TOO much. Iknow that is not true so I need some help!I have read so many books and so much conflicting information that I have no idea what to do anymore! I've read natural health books (such as "Gut Solutions", "Maker's Diet", "Juice fasting and detoxification", "The Detox Book")..and then I have read Heather's books "Eating for IBS" and "First Year IBS".On the one hand, the natural health books are saying detox and eat whole foods to cleanse and heal your body and the other books are telling me to eat sort of the opposite, with the exception of fat, alcohol, etc (all that remains the same=Not allowed) to stop the attacks.SO, I was wondering if anyone has notice the same thing?? Has anyone tried fasting, detoxing, cleaning, etc???Any experiences, advice, or opinions would be greatly appreciated.Thanks!!!


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## Screamer (Aug 16, 2005)

Hi! I recently posted on a diet regime I am about to start. I too have read all the conflicting information and feel like I know way too much for my own good. I tried Heather's soluble fibre diet for 4 months and was worse than I ever have been, I do believe it works for most people, but apparantly not for me.I haven't actually done a "detox" program but I have been reading "You are what you eat" like the tv program. She is a holisitic dietician and recommends all those super healthy foods that are generally seen as a no no for a lot of us, like whole grains etc.All I can say is that after trying the soluble fibre way and knowing that when I eat a lot of white stuff I feel a whole lot worse that I am going to try the other way (she also has a one day detox which won't involve a whole lot of laxatives and diarreah just for interest). I guess you can only try one way, see how that goes for you and if you get sicker or stay the same for a few months then try the other way.Hope this helps (well it's not helpful) but just know you are not alone in all this confusion.Oh and welcome to the boards


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Most of the Detox, etc things while they SAY they are for IBS (and pretty much every other problem on the planet) are not specific to IBS.Even once you get to what people say to eat for IBS you find conflicting information, but not nearly as much as if you add in all the "it will cure every single disease state known to man" diets.What you want to look at is what the the philosophy of the diet to evaluate if you think the recomendations might help. And then it is up to experimenting. Some IBS-D types tolerate some foods that really should give them raging diarrhea, it varies a lot from person to person. That is part of the conflicting information. Also is what the person trying to get you to eat things that should get your bowels moving or ease the diarrhea. Those are two different things often times. If you wanna go eat prunes, but if you suffer from a lot of diarrhea, avoid prunes (and a lot of times they will say eat prunes for IBS but not distinguish between the constipated vs the not in that recommendation).I'd tend to stick with Heather's recommendations because she is focused on IBS not detoxing or juicing for every other disease known to man, and from what I have seen of her she did her homework fairly well.Also, one complicating factor is that for some people with IBS diet is not a trigger, it doesn't matter what they eat they get the exact same result. I'd stick with what is healthy, without being a fad or too extreme or crazy (and some of these things in some books are a bit odd) try to avoid things that are known to trigger the symptoms that you have the worst (which may be exactly what some of the detox diets tell you to eat, they generally want you to poop excessively to clean out the colon--which isn't needed anyway--and for a lot of IBSers getting things moving is not something the want or need. Eating that way will only make them stuck in the bathroom more than they already are)And even if you stick with ONE plan (do not try to put them all together, they have very different goals and assumptions which is what leads them to say eat only this, never eat any of that if you try to combine them) you may need to work through what works for you personally. No two IBSers have the exact same dietary issues. You will have to play around with things. A lot of people can't eat the huge amounts of raw fruits and veggies a lot of detox diets require and juicing often only makes it certain you can get even more of the particular carb or sugar in a food that will give you diarrhea than you could possibly get if you ate the whole veggies you made the juice out of IMO. Most people won't eat 3-4 apples or a whole bunch of carrots, but you can drink the juice from that fairly easily.K.


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## Jazzi7 (Dec 15, 2005)

I know of the detox diets and plans. I work in Pharmacy although they do claim they are good for IBS it's one of those things. I think for me personally they would be murder I mostly have gas and C with occasional D yet that mostly comes from taking the same amount of fibre laxative stuff every night... I would be careful of claims because they don't need to prove it or have real studies in order to publish. IBS is a bit of a coin phrase for sales these days. Alot of things are marketed towards IBS but not all of them work for most people. It's like if you put weightloss on it you know it will sell. Some of these products are probably good for you but not as helpful to IBS as they claim always. It's the same with books and diets. I think the detox thing may work for your average person fine I have known people who have done it. But I would be very careful going into it with IBS. If you do try it be a bit conservative with it or have a talk to a natropath about it and ease yourself into it maybe. It's worth trying things I think but at the same time I know for me it's always taking into consideration can I afford for this to go bad in the next couple of weeks while I'm trialing it. Coz trying new things can always go both ways. But then if you find you are having a bad week anyways it's worth a try. One thing people forget sometimes I think that I know for me IBS can have nothing to do with diet at times and more to do with stress etc... what events are happening in my life at the time. Etc... You have to take all things into account when trialing things. Just because you are eating these things and your IBS is bad doesn't mean it's the food neccesarily.


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