# Lamb and Pear Diet - Anyone heard of this?



## Anna Marie (Nov 26, 2002)

I have suffered from IBS for years now and after a bout of post infection irritable bowel I have been seeing a specialist regularly. I saw my specialist yesterday who recommended I go on an elimination diet to find out what I could be intolerant to. As I have no idea of any foods that I may be intolerant to he suggested I go on the 'stewed lamb and pear diet' - he said that this is where I eat nothing but lamb and pear for a few days and then slowly introduce other food groups to see if they cause a reaction. I asked for more info but he said that was it!Has anyone ever heard of this diet before? Or know where I could find more info? It does sound a bit odd to eat nothing but lamb and pears!! Any advice / comments much appreciated!Thanks Anna


----------



## SteveE (Jan 7, 1999)

I've heard of this. I think there are two potential problems with it:1. Pears are high in sugars of various sorts sorbitol and fructose (both, I think) which can cause excess gas, pain, and bloating in some of us...especially if it is relatively alone in the gut.2. Most IBSers respond well to increasing fiber to some degree. You might be better-off trying that first. Take a look at this book for a better way of dealing with your diet: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...=glance&s=books I think you'll find that most people who opt for the elimination approach go with chicken and rice instead of pear and lamb. Brown rice gives you some fiber without the above mentioned fruit issues.The last time I tried the elimination approach, though, I was so weak and drained from lack of food that I thought I was going to die. So did my wife, and we eventually decided I should quit that approach.


----------



## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

There is a series of elimination diets that all look like Lamb and Pear, etc. Most of them are geared toward food allergiesBasically you eat just a couple of things for a few days and if the symptoms go away then you found an elimination diet that works for you. Generally they tend to be one meat, one grain, one fruit/veggie. Usually starting with the things that the least number of people are allergic to.Most people can eat either lamb, or beef, or chicken. It is pretty rare to be allergic to lamb, and since people don't eat so much of it that also helps to make it less reacted to by people with overt IGE mediated food allergies. If you cook the pears you avoid the sorbitol issue which is not a food allergy and can bother some people with IBS.Most of the elimination diets are kinda weird, but they are not designed for long term use, so being weird isn't such an issue as missing a couple of nutrients for a couple of days is not a health risk. Staying on them forever can be problematic. Most were designed for food allergies rather thatn IBS-food intolerances, but sometimes they can work for that as well.If the diet eliminates the symptoms after a few days then you start adding back other foods. Generally starting with things you eat frequently/like to eat to see if they cause a reaction. You add a food for a few days and note the sympotms. No symptoms, it is a safe food. Symptoms then you limit it from then on. You may need to test a food more than once as IBS tends to wax and wane and sometimes the symptoms are just having a bad day and anything will be bad, or some people go into periods where nothing bothers them as well.K.


----------



## Mike NoLomotil (Jun 6, 2000)

Zero in.... ___________________________________________"The last time I tried the elimination approach, though, I was so weak and drained from lack of food that I thought I was going to die. So did my wife, and we eventually decided I should quit that approach. " ___________________________________________I cannot re-emphasize enough what KM points out above: stoneage diets are not for long term dietary therapy. They are a way to isolate a safe "few foods" diet to cause symptoms of food allergy or food intolerance to enter remission (go away) temporarily so the patient can then begin a series of serial structured open oral challenges. The end game is that the person will have a chance at ariving at a safe oligoantigenic diet.So the diet is indeed not only nutritionally unsound, regardless of what the safe few-foods end up being (rice-lamb-pear as KM said is a common starter point) but for patients with slow motility can really be problematic from a "gastromechanical perspective" as well.This approach works very well for isolating food allergies sonce these are highly repeatable non-dose dependent reactiosn witha rapid onset.NON-allergic reactions from most other pathways are usually dose dependent and delayed-onset so they can be more difficult to isolate with the usual ALLERGY oral challenge protocol. To isolate a non-IgE food intolerance you have to be asymptomatic AND flushed out for several days after any offending food is ingested in the challenge and you have to eat the trial food, mmmm, "freely" they say for at least 3 days to ensure a shot at matching the dose-time schedule of any delayed onset reaction.This can bne very tough and is why, while the approach DOES result for most patients if done right, in a diet which will reduce symptoms noiceably (if you can stick to the whole process properly and endure it), often the results are not satisfactory due to follwoing a more tolerabel protocol which then of course compromises the whole point of doing it. This is why some allergists-immunologists over the years have contrived "shortcuts" (in vitro tests of several types) to try to isolate the non IgE mediated reactions as a shortcut.If you do want to try the approach it is best to do it either with an RD who actually is trained in this method or at elast get a good set of tools.try this bookIBS: A DOCTORS PLAN FOR CHRONIC DIGESTIVE TROUBLESBy Gerard Guillory, M.D.; Vanessa Ameen, M.D.; Paul Donovan, M.D.; Jack Martin, Ph.D. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/088...3369143-6824157 MNL


----------



## Engine23 (Nov 19, 2002)

I know for a fact lamb is a trigger food for me...to fatty I guess!


----------

