# Shell Fish?



## Negalith (Mar 4, 2008)

My standard Intro…"I don’t know for sure if I have IBS or not (I hope so; it’s a lot better than the alternatives). I’m seeing some doctors now and they think so, though they haven’t settled on a diagnosis yet. Not looking forward to testing."My Question…I THINK that the foods I eat play a roll in how often I have diarrhea. I’ve noticed that I always have it an hour after eating shellfish (shrimp, crab, lobster). Movie theater popcorn often does it a couple hours later also. I’m just curious if it’s different foods or the same ones that get IBS sufferers. Do you think this is part of IBS, or a separate food allergy?


----------



## IBD/IBS Author (May 24, 2007)

What you're talking about it food SENSITIVITY not food ALLERGY - a food allergy causes a serious sometimes life threatening response by your body like hives, closing air passages, etc. that usually need immediate medical attention. Food sensitivity causes a less severe reaction like D.But, yes, food sensitivities are very common for IBSers, and what each person is sensitive to is as varied and individual as each person. I for one can eat shrimp but cannot even look at lobster or crab, it's just too rich and will set things off. Popcorn is simply harsh on any gut, but movie popcorn has tons of cr*p in it - plus the butter in both, popcorn and shellfish -could be your trigger. You just have to see what foods bother you and then stop eating them and see if that improves your IBS symptoms - if eliminating those foods helps then don't eat them. Try keeping a food diary for a couple of months - write down EVERYTHING that you eat and drink, then note how your gut reacts, how you feel emotionally and physically, etc. After a few weeks you can usually identify foods that set-off your gut or just generally make you feel bad. Good luck,Elizabeth


----------



## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Movie popcorn tends to be pretty heavily laden with fat. Shellfish can as well.Fatty/heavy/greasy/fried foods tend to be a common IBS trigger for diarrhea because a fatty meal makes the intestines more active than a lighter meal would. I know a lot of time Shellfish are fried or drowned in butter, so that could be part of the issue if it isn't just the shellfish themselves.Sometimes there doesn't seem to be any particular reason why any food triggers IBS. Pretty much every food on the planet bothers someone with IBS, and some people have some safe foods that would really bother most everyone else.Keeping a food journal is a good idea to see what bothers you, or if anything really is. Not all IBSers are food triggered, and for some people it is more a volume of food eaten or how fatty the meal as a whole is rather than any specific food. Also for some people it is timing. Not eating for too long then eating can be a bigger problem for some than eating regularly spaced meals.K.


----------

