# Food Trigger Advice...



## thomtron (May 27, 2009)

HeyI'm new to the website, I found it as I was researching IBS as I have recently been diagnosed with alternating C+D.Basically I was looking for some advice on what triggers other people have, as I'm having a really hard time trying to figure it out!! I have had a lot of my symptoms for a few years but didn't really think much of it as it didn't impact that much on my life, but recently with the amount of stress I have been under it has got so much worse. Painfully so that I am having to take time of work on a semi-regular basis :-( My main trigger seems to be any pasta dish - it normally passes straight through without even being digested :-S, but is it the pasta or the sauce or whats in the sauce thats causing the problem?The Dr thought I might have an allergy to wheat, and as it turns out I do have an intollerance, but following my exclusion diet I have been trying different recipe ideas and am still having problems, despite the lack of wheat! Like, last night I made an aubergine lasagne using slices of aubergine instead of pasta. I made the tomato sauce with canned tomatos, onion, garlic, courgettes and yellow pepper. In place of a white sauce [no wheat flour for me] I used ricotta and spinach. Lush!! Then when I had a small portion for lunch at work just now it instantly made my stomach hurt and caused an atack of IBS.I have never had this kind of problem before with these and other food types and all of my symptoms, the more they are diagnosed, appear to be getting worse; I'm convinced its some kind of negative placebo affect. The Dr tells me I have this problem and it presents itself...I mean, what is the triger from this dish? Is it the tomatos, or the aubergine? The Courgette or the onion? I have tried so many different exclusions but nothing seems to stand out. I'm a trained chef, I know how to cook properly! I'm used to eating a wide array of amazing dishes and cuisines, but I am finding increacingly my digestion can only tollerate more and more bland food!! I can't live like this [I'm not suicidal!] I need to have flavour and variety in my diet, if only for the sake of cooking it! Food is my life but it seems that it is being taken away from me by my IBS...Any advice...?


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Every single food on the planet has been listed as a trigger by someone. There isn't a good way to know which of even the common triggers bother you. Keeping a log and seeing if something consistently causes problems is about the only way to really figure it out.Which food you eat may not be the cause of your symptoms. If you get the same symptoms on every single diet you try that indicates which food you eat has nothing to do with your IBS. IBS often is an over-response to the normal processes every human's colon goes through. Sometimes how you eat is more important than what you eat.Small, frequent, lower fat meals tend to cause a smaller "move it along" increase in colon activity than large or greasy/rich meals especially if you waited more than 8 hours to eat. Many people find 300-400 calories at a time every 3 hours or so helps reduce the after eating colon activity burst.Often a big sign that additional food intolerances (besides the wheat one you know of) aren't your trigger is when sometimes you eat something and get no response and other times you get a big response. The other thing is have you checked for all the food additives that contain wheat? Sometimes the wheat sneaks in and people with celiac disease often can't tolerate any gluten at all (it isn't in just wheat, either. Barley, rye and sometimes other foods that are processed in the same plant as wheat are all problematic).It may be worth looking at how much fat you added to the meal (was it full fat ricotta vs skim ricotta) if you go over the amount of fat you normally tolerate in a meal that can be problem and a lot of times we make things less bland by adding more fat.


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## stace_3034 (Jul 6, 2009)

Hi,I'm not sure I can help with the trigger foods, as everyone is different, and it seems like the only way to find out what your own triggers are is by doing some sort of elimination diet.I just thought I'd comment on the part where you said you'd eaten your meal for dinner, and when you had the same thing for lunch the next day you had an IBS attack. I read on a website just recently, that eating too much of the same thing can be bad for IBS. So maybe the fact that you ate this meal twice in a row was a bit much for you?


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## Ems1984 (Sep 4, 2009)

hey stace where did you read about eating the same food too much can trigger IBS? Ive noticed sometimes that i can eat the same thing twice and have two very different reactions...


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## SneakerPimp (Jan 14, 2008)

Me too, ems. For Thanksgiving dinner I had a fairly small plate of chicken, cranberry sauce, garlic mashed potatos and green beans. It took me FOREVER to eat it. When I finally finished it, I was fine for awhile, then felt nauseous, but no IBS symptoms. The next day, I had a leftover sandwich at work. I was 3/4 of the way through when I had to make a run for it to the bathroom. No idea why it was so different!I had to give up pasta dishes altogether. Don't know if it's the pasta itself or just the sauce.


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## Thai (Aug 22, 2007)

Different quantities of food can make a difference.For instance some gravy on the garlic mashed with turkey was just fine.Hot turkey sandwiches with the same gravy and turkey, not so fine...Way more gravy than the first meal and this is what I am putting it down too.A little bit OKA whole lot, not so OK


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## SneakerPimp (Jan 14, 2008)

Thai said:


> Way more gravy than the first meal and this is what I am putting it down too.A little bit OKA whole lot, not so OK


For you or for me?And where in Ontario are/were you? I live in Montreal.


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## Thai (Aug 22, 2007)

That was my experience and it ticks me off cuz the one thing I look forward to after a turkey dinner is hot turkey sandwiches.My point was that sometimes we can indulge in a small amount of some food and be OK, but a large amount of that food spells disaster.And by the same token, what we eat one day may not be a problem, but eat it again next week, and the consequences can be far different.North of Toronto


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## overitnow (Nov 25, 2001)

Tomatoes and eggplants (and peppers and potatoes) are all part of the "nightshade" family, which are highly reactive for some of us. I used to be awful with tomatoes and D (and there was always an "odd," bloated feeling in my stomach from french fries) so you might want to look at that a little closer. While my bowels and digestion are no longer a problem, this summer I fell into the passionate embrace of way more fresh tomatoes than I ought, and have been paying the price with a stubborn eczema breakout that is taking me weeks to resolve. (A severe case of that years and years ago first alerted my to my food sensitivities.) I think that our bowels are just one of the ways in which these sensitivities display. One of the things I found handy, at least for developing guidelines, was to get a general food sensitivity test through a naturopath. As a general screen, it is a lot easier than trying to track your reactions through a diary,Mark


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## Rubin10 (Aug 26, 2007)

I cannot imagine eating onion, garlic and anything with tomato. To me it is a Molotof cocktail.My doctor told me forget about onion and garlic for the rest of my life.Please record what foods trigger attacks. I've had IBS C for 9 years. and learned that the ONLYreliable remedy is a strict IBS diet. that works for me. Good luck and may God give you patience.


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## overitnow (Nov 25, 2001)

I had D every day for about 4000 days in a row. Some things seemed to make it worse or more immediate; but it was always unrelenting, no matter what I ate. Sometimes you have to find the underlying reasons--what were you doing the first day D struck?, that kind of thing--and treat them, or at least try all of the remedies others have used to find what works for you. It is not easy because there are so many possible causes and so many possible treatments; but living without it will make the effort so worthwhile. After all, you are going to have to get up and go to work anyway, you might as well be trying a digestive enzyme or something else while you go about your business.Mark


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