# How to pinpoint a "trigger" food?



## ImissTacoBell (Mar 15, 2016)

Diagnosed with Post Infectious IBS D recently and trying to figure out how to determine if I'm having a reaction to certain foods. I can eat foods that typically cause issues for other IBS D with no issues, and then other times I'll eat the same food and have a problem. The issue is, it's not always immediately. Obviously if I eat something and am in the bathroom with D before I finish chewing, I know something is up. But sometimes I'll eat it and feel fine the rest of the day and then the next day have issues.

For example, last night I ate chicken pot pie Viola (like a stir fry basically, meal in a bag) and some blueberry muffins. I felt fine eating and after eating, felt fine all night and didn't use the bathroom at all. This morning my wake up BM was as good as its gotten since I got ill. My post breakfast BM was very loose and mushy, but it's been like that sometimes the last few weeks. Then I had a BM early in the work day, which is not too common, and it was also very loose and mushy. I don't know if this is a reaction from the food last night (I've only eaten it 2 or 3 times since getting sick 6 months ago) or if I'm just having an off day.

How do you know if a food is a "trigger" food? Does it typically affect you immediately or can it take time? If it takes time, how do you know it's that food and not another food you ate after that food?

Don't think this matters, but I'm 10 days in taking 25mg amitriptyline in the evening, usually around dinner time.


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## ZenDada (Feb 19, 2016)

My worst triggers were raw vegetables and coffee. Some have issues with fatty foods, chocolate, alcohol, dairy and gluten. I didn't react to any of those. I did have issue with temperature. Especially eating something hot and cold in the same meal. Or drinking liquids while eating. Or eating liquidy foods high in salt or sugar. Eating anything at all before my work commute was a trigger - heck mornings alone were a trigger! Having to leave the house before 10 AM was always risky. I hope that gives you some ideas to test for yourself. I can eat anything now on Viberzi. But if you want to try avoiding triggers first, try those.

Oh, my triggers would bother me within 30-60 minutes, not later.


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## ImissTacoBell (Mar 15, 2016)

Thanks. For about 3 months after I got sick I did cut these foods out (basically starved bc I was afraid to eat, lost 37 lbs that I didn't have to lose, still haven't gained more than 3 lbs back). I was still really sick and having D all the time.

I'm more curious about how you know if a specific food has triggered you. Will it be immediately, or can it take a day or so to affect you.


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## ZenDada (Feb 19, 2016)

For me, if it didn't trigger in 30 minutes, it wasn't a trigger food. I was never able to control IBS-D with diet alone though.

I'm on Viberzi now, and symptom free no matter what I eat.


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## jaumeb (Sep 1, 2014)

Eat the food for five days and then avoid it for five days. Keep a diary.


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## ImissTacoBell (Mar 15, 2016)

Interesting. I always assumed the same, but often I'll only feel poorly the day after eating something, not immediately following. There are only a few foods that would cause immediate negative reaction (broccoli and cheddar soup? Terrible idea).

I never really felt that food was as big of an issue for me as others with IBS d. Maybe bc mine is post infectious? I was living off bananas and white rice for a month and still had terrible d.

My Dr said if the amitriptyline doesn't help me, we can consider Viberzi. Can you tell me how it's helped you? I don't have pain like a lot of others do, it's the urgency, frequency, and poor quality of my BMS that I need to fix. I'd like to go back to eating whatever I want, too. I cut things like coffee, caffeine soda, all fast food, all fruits and veggies that aren't soluble fiber (which is basically just bananas), and a lot of other foods to be safe. When you say you can eat anything, is that really true or you just don't have issues with safe food anymore?


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## ImissTacoBell (Mar 15, 2016)

Jaumeb: I have been keeping a diary for 4 months now but no pattern has emerged from food. That's the most frustrating part. I avoid foods I haven't even tried since being sick just to be safe, for all I know I could eat them easily. Of the foods I do eat, sometimes I feel fine the next day, sometimes I have a horrible day. Very few foods have set me off soon after eating them, unless I was already having a bad day.


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## jaumeb (Sep 1, 2014)

ImissTacoBell said:


> Jaumeb: I have been keeping a diary for 4 months now but no pattern has emerged from food. That's the most frustrating part. I avoid foods I haven't even tried since being sick just to be safe, for all I know I could eat them easily. Of the foods I do eat, sometimes I feel fine the next day, sometimes I have a horrible day. Very few foods have set me off soon after eating them, unless I was already having a bad day.


Aglaee Jacob wrote a book on the topic o finding your safe foods. I tried her method and every diet I came accross. I tried every possible combination, from purely vegan to purely carnivorous.


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## rpmljm (Mar 5, 2016)

My case seems very much like yours, Imisstacobell. I have never been able to tie it to any particular foods and I have no pain either, just urgency, loose bowels, etc.

I tried Xifaxan which did nothing. I then tried Viberzi which made things worse. I was having a lot of problems with leakage while on it. I had to stop after 6 days. It certainly did not help me as it has many others. Maybe that is a clue as to what my causes are, but I don't know what that would be.


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## ImissTacoBell (Mar 15, 2016)

Thanks for the book recommendation, I'll check that out!

Wow rpm, I'm sorry the new medicine made you worse! My GI recommended trying it if the antidepressant Amitriptyline doesn't work. It's hard when food doesn't seem to trigger you and when you don't have pain so much as horrible discomfort.


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## rpmljm (Mar 5, 2016)

I tried amitriptyline many years ago with no results. Maybe I should ask about trying it again to see if maybe it would work now...


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## tummyrumbles (Aug 14, 2005)

I can always tell by mushy, light brown and hard to evacuate stool the next morning. Also lots of gas starting a few hours after eating something suspicious. I know what my safe diet is and it's very limited: seafood, meat, eggs, salads and low FODMAP vegetables. If I stray from this too much I get symptoms. When I stick to this diet I get normal, fairly solid BMs and they are dark brown. They are usually complete as well with no symptoms for the rest of the day. The worst foods for inflammation are all grains and their flours, legumes and nuts but nightshades like white potatoes can be a problem too.

Diarrhea is a sign of inflammation and a warning not to keep eating the foods causing it. I follow the Paleo autoimmune diet but add low FODMAP as well and I think this is the best approach for everyone with IBS, regardless of what type you have. Grains, legumes & nuts cause Leaky Gut and none of us can be really sure whether this is what is causing our IBS. I'm leaning more to this theory the more I read up on it. If you must have grains just eat white rice, as this seems to be the least toxic of all the grains (low in lectins, phytates etc). Salads aren't inflammatory for me and don't produce gas whereas high FODMAP vegetables do. If you can eat a food and there's no gas after about 4 hours and your BM is fairly normal the next day that would indicate a safe food.


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## jaumeb (Sep 1, 2014)

I tried tummyrumble's diet, raw diet, cooked diet, autoinmune paleo, ... Just everything.

I must clarify that Aglaee Jacob's method didn't work for me. That's why I am still looking for answers.


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## jaumeb (Sep 1, 2014)

I tried tummyrumble's diet, raw diet, cooked diet, autoinmune paleo, ... Just everything.

I must clarify that Aglaee Jacob's method didn't work for me. That's why I am still looking for answers.


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## ImissTacoBell (Mar 15, 2016)

I started on 25mg Amitriptyline and right before 2 weeks on it my GI increased it to 50mg. I've only been on that dosage for 3 days now. I have noticed that my wake up BM is more solid but also bumpy and dark in some spots. Kind of like a constipated BM, but I don't see how that's possible considering I have anywhere from 2-5+ BMS a day. I can't remember the last time I went 1 day without a BM, so I can't be constipated.

How long were you on amitriptyline for, RPM?

TummyRumbles: so for you, you see the results of a bad food the next morning, not soon after eating it. I have those BMS too, but again not consistently. I can get them the morning after eating just white rice, applesauce, and chicken (the safe diet that I had to live off for a month), or I'll get them after eating "normal" food, but another time eat the same food and have a 'normal' BM.


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## rpmljm (Mar 5, 2016)

It was so long ago that I don't remember how long I took it for. I would guess a week or 2. I do believe that it was 25mg though. Maybe I should try 50mg.


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## ImissTacoBell (Mar 15, 2016)

You should give it more time. I was very surprised when my GI increased my dose after just under 2 weeks when I was originally told it takes 2-4 weeks to start seeing results. I dont think 2 weeks or less is long enough to determine if it helps or not. I'll give this dosage 3-4 weeks before seeing if I want to increase again or try another kind.


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## rpmljm (Mar 5, 2016)

ImissTacoBell said:


> You should give it more time. I was very surprised when my GI increased my dose after just under 2 weeks when I was originally told it takes 2-4 weeks to start seeing results. I dont think 2 weeks or less is long enough to determine if it helps or not. I'll give this dosage 3-4 weeks before seeing if I want to increase again or try another kind.


Thanks. Like I said I really don't remember for sure how long I used it. I will ask about it and the increased dose.


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## tummyrumbles (Aug 14, 2005)

Yes, ImissTaco. I rarely get immediate symptoms, it's usually a few hours later. Any diet that reduces carbohydrate fermentation will work for everyone. But the big thing to remember is that it only takes a small amount of undigested carbohydrate to cause a lot of gas. So you can do everything else right all day, but slip up with just one thing, say a small amount of cabbage or nuts or just bread, and that would ruin everything for me the next day. I don't really think we get inconsistent symptoms randomly. There's a reason for everything, so if your BMs are normal one day but mushy the next it's definitely something you ate - or sometimes overeating or eating too late at night. Anything that causes carbs not to be fully digested. The only time I got an immediate reaction was diarrhea after eating buckwheat pikelets, something I never ate before. I rarely get diarrhea. So the buckwheat had an osmotic effect, because there were no enzymes / bacteria to digest it(?). It just rushed straight through the colon. I think we all have Leaky Gut to a certain degree and it could be that IBS-D people have it worse. Mark Pimentel theorised that some of us produce gas that causes constipation and others diarrhea, but for all of us inflammatory foods are the cause.

It's not true that nothing works. Meat and seafood are digested mainy in the stomach, so don't really feed bacteria much, it at all. Seafood is high in Omega3, which is anti-inflammatory. There's not much to cause inflammation if you boil up pumpkin or carrot for a long time, assuming you have a problem with fibre. Its not that a Paleo Autoimmune diet wouldn't work because it does, it's the fact that it's so hard to stick to 100%.


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## jaumeb (Sep 1, 2014)

Tummy, I was 100% strict with autoimmune paleo and every diet I tried. For me sticking to a diet is not a problem.

I would encourage everyone to try AIP. I guess the success rate would be high but not 100%.


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## mellosphere (Sep 22, 2015)

I agree with you Jaumeb. I have tried all the diets out there but they haven't made a big difference. I am so desperate for something to work that dietary restriction has become a non-issue. It's that the diarrhea still won't stop.


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## tummyrumbles (Aug 14, 2005)

So a diet of pizza, baked beans, cabbage and prunes has exactly the same effect as tinned salmon, boiled carrot, pumpkin and ripe banana? Really? Diet makes absolutely no difference? I think people who say this should post their diet as this argument makes no sense to me. I remember some time back a lady with IBS-D said that she needed to boil her safe veges for 4 hours. That might seem excessive, and I'm not sure what nutrients if any would be retained, but this worked for her and at least it stopped the diarrhea. Maybe after a few weeks as your gut lining heals and the inflammation stops you could gradually reduce the cooking time - to 3 hours, then 2, then 1 - then maybe 20 minutes, 10 minutes.

I'm not convinced by "diet makes no difference" argument because of the lack of detail. Not many people here actually state what they eat over 24 hours so the IBS puzzle just continues. If you genuinely feel that diet makes makes no difference, and that you're on the best diet you possibly can be on, then why not post what you actually eat over 24 hours?


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## InvestigatorLG (Feb 23, 2016)

Thats what I take everyday to have good size formed stool

Florastor (yeast probiotic)

Psylium fiber

Omega-3

also

Chitosan capsules ( will make good formed stool, but can be dangerous for health if taken too much or too long)

And keeping a good diet. It's strange but couple months ago I reintroduced bread in my diet and I have no problem with it no symptoms at all

Except of course leaky gas, which is the same with or without bread I guess


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## goodmedicine (Mar 22, 2016)

It seems to me that IBS-D looks more like the body's response to general stimuli, rather than a reaction to a certain food----?


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## rpmljm (Mar 5, 2016)

goodmedicine said:


> It seems to me that IBS-D looks more like the body's response to general stimuli, rather than a reaction to a certain food----?


Assuming you are correct...what type of stimuli do you think it could be? Any ideas? Thanks


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## ImissTacoBell (Mar 15, 2016)

I think, for me, it's stress and anxiety more than food. Whereas with a lot of IBS D people, stress exacerbates their difficulty with food, I think for me food exacerbates my difficulty with stress and anxiety.

I've always been a stressed and anxious person and had a "sensitive stomach" before I got the stomach bug that ended in Post Infectious IBS. I drank coffee regularly, ate tons of fruits and veggies, ate way too much fast food, etc...but they never affected me more than anyone else. But stress would often cause some bathroom issues, especially if paired with any of the above.

I ate strictly BRAT diet food for the first month I was sick, then only white rice and bananas for the next 2 weeks, then added chicken cutlets in, yet I was still sick all the time. Some days I would practically starve and still be stuck in the bathroom with D. I stay away from the coffee and fast food and insoluble fiber foods now to be safe, but for all I know I could handle them just fine.

All I'm saying is that, FOR ME, food doesn't seem to be the biggest factor in my IBS as I've eliminated tons and had issues, or have eaten "bad food" and been totally fine.


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## goodmedicine (Mar 22, 2016)

I mean I wonder if the problem is with the reaction of the bowels to food entering the system and not necessarily to a PARTICULAR food? Hard to say, I know....everyone's reactions are different.

Stress is DEFINITELY a factor for me.


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## ImissTacoBell (Mar 15, 2016)

That's what I think it is for me. If my body is going to react, it doesn't matter if it's plain white rice or a bacon cheeseburger. But I know for others it's definitely the kinds of food they eat. I think there should be an additional subset of IBS that separates the two kinds of reactions so it's treated more properly.


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