# Where do I start?



## jenjo (Oct 4, 2011)

I have been researching IBS and diet and there is so much conflicting information out there. What have you all found to be the best ways to start determining what foods bother you and how to go about a diet plan? I guess one of the first things to do would be to keep a food/symptom journal which I started yesterday, but how do I eat in the meantime. I know that dairy products bother me and of course high-fat but I'd like to determine if there are other foods that bother me. The FODMAP diet is intriguing, but seems so restrictive that I'm hesitant to try it. I just started trying to increase fiber because of a book I read, but although it's only been 2 days, I feel worse already. I'm either going about it too quickly or this is not the right thing for me to do. Thanks for any info you might be able to give me.


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

I'd keep a diary for about a week or so eating the way you have been eating, to get a baseline.Fiber can bother some people, but help others (which is why you get a lot of conflicting IBS diet information as it is like that for most things).A lot will depend if you tend to have more diarrhea, more constipation, or are mostly bothered by gas volume. More fiber generally tends to mean more gassy foods (rice is the lowest gas of the grains, but some people do better on a low starch diet where fiber is mostly from cooked veggies).So a lot of people find something like rice with a low fat protein like skinless chicken or turkey or lean fish with some cooked veggies is a pretty good base diet and then see what other foods you tolerate or at least don't make you worse than the base.


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## berribum (Nov 29, 2008)

i have had ibs for 10 years noe tried everything. low fat, high fibre stuff from health shop, calcium tabs, hypnopherapy the lot. i started FODMAP diet on mon, with much success fingers crossed./ i reckon that my trusty "safe" foods were actually my worse foods.i dont think it is that resricted. i cant get to see a dietitian as cant afford private and cant be refferred as the dont do that diet. Im just following it as best i can got the diet list off of here i think also printed another off but they were conflicting each other so just following one and see how it goes.The sheets i printed off doesnt say DONT have these foods it just tells you wat is low FODMAP. hope you get on ok and understabd all this as i only just got out of bed xx


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