# i thought pasta was ok to eat for ibs D?



## ronr

i ate some paste last night with just butter and salt and pepper on it and just drank water.today around noon i was running to the bathroom with D why is this?was it the pasta?or the butter i put on it?im so tired of this there is not one thing i can eat at all.


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## smurf1

It's different for every person, but for me.....Pasta is at the top of my bad food list, and really sets off my IBS D symtoms. I think it has to do with my body's ability to break down complex carbohydrates. Bread, and sugar are problems for me as well.There is very little that is good about pasta, in my opinion, other than how good it tastes.Pasta has limited nutritional value. You gain weight when you eat too much of it. And it is difficult to digest.There are millions of folks out there that are eating pasta salad because they think it's "healthy". They have no idea.


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## bradthewanderer1

Pasta works well for me, I always had trouble with butter and pepper! I switched to just salt and olive oil. Like smurf said it depends on the person!


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## AlittleFaithHelps

Pasta is Safe! Its even listed under heather "stuff to eat when you cant anything" list. You could have a problem with pasta if you had celiacs disease, but i cant think of anything else. pasta has fiber and is very very low fat. it was probally the butter. buter has dairy proteins in it, plus is loaded with fat.


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## SteveE

I've found that sticking with whole wheat pasta is a good idea. I think what happens with white pasta is that even when you're IBS-D, it can temporarily "gum-up" the works causing a spasm or two which leads to the D (and often times cramping).Before you implicate one food, though, look at the whole picture. Did you drink a soft drink or other sugary beverage on that day? Was the pasta the only meal you had in several hours? Did you eat it in a rush? Sometimes it's not WHAT you consume, but HOW you consume it!Good luck,Steve


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## yodiss

I can not have butter or pasta. I always thought that pasta was a "safe" food, and I ate it all the time, but I found myself really really sick this summer from it. I had the LEAP test done, and it turns out that I can't have wheat at all. I have been following the program, and I don't take any medication anymore!!!!







-Suzin


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## smurf1

Christiana,I'm happy that pasta is safe for you, but it is a problem for many of us.......and we don't have Celiacs disease.Whether it is wheat pasta or semolina, it can be a problem for many IBS sufferers.As a complex carbohydrate, pasta can be difficult to break down. That is what triggers the IBS D symptoms. Pasta, bread and sugar can all have this effect on some IBS sufferers.As far as being high in fiber, that also can cause an increase in IBS D symptoms for some people.Pasta can also pack on the pounds. If you don't burn off all those carbohydrates, your body stores them as fat.Now I'm Italian, and I love pasta. I eat it, knowing that it may trigger my IBS, because it tastes so good. BUT.....I'm sorry. There is nothing special about pasta that makes it a required part of any diet.In the end, pasta is just flour, water and salt........


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## AlittleFaithHelps

smurf,


> quote: s far as being high in fiber, that also can cause an increase in IBS D symptoms for some people


You cant be any farther from the truth! Fiber is the one thing that does nothing but HELPS IBS-D, and pasta is 100% soulble fiber and should not be a problem for anyone with ibs. Heather says so and shes the expert here! If anyone has a problem with speghtti, then they have something else wrong with them. I would suggest a blood test. Semolina is a starch that may cause gas but will not trigger ibs symtoms and is a valuble part of a good diet.


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## smurf1

I'm sorry Christiana, but I still have to disagree.I don't want to knock Heather, because she has put out some great information in her books, and for this support group. BUT........ Heather, like everyone else, cannot build an all-inclusive list of foods that is safe for EVERYONE.Food sensitivities are unique to each individual. Foods that are safe for one individual, may trigger IBS symptoms in another.Believe it or not, starches like sugar, pasta and bread cause food sensitivities for some of us, and trigger IBS symptoms. This may be the reason so many IBS sufferers have reported reduction in their symptoms while on low-carb diets. Maybe eliminating the starches is reason. I personally, have spent a lot of time using elimination diets to determine what foods I am sensitive to and what foods are safe. Unfortunately for me, pasta is on my bad list. Not that I haven't tried...I've served pasta every way I can think of, in the hopes that it wasn't the pasta, but the sauce. I've tried pasta with tomato sauce, butter, olive oil, even peas. I've even had pasta with no butter, oil, or sauce at all! No luck. RECIPE: PASTA AND PEAS... 1. Boil the pasta in the water until it is just about done. 2. Add the peas to the boiling pasta for the final minute of boiling. 3. Drain the pasta and peas. 4. Add butter, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper as desired. It's good as a main course, or as a side dish. Try it!!!Like I said before, I love pasta. I would eat it every day if I could. I wish it didn't trigger my IBS symptoms, but it does.........I just make sure to keep my Imodium handy, because not eating pasta is out of the question.


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## Engine23

I have good luck with pasta but not wheat so I eat regular egg noodles or spaghetti


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## Kathleen M.

Starches other than rice do seem to bother some people.One person's safe food is anothers super-X colon clean out fuel







Starches are in some part resistant to digestion by us. For some people the increase in colon bacteria activity when you feed them a bunch of starch does seem to set of IBS symptoms (farting, bloating, cramps, diarrhea, etc).But there are others that it doesn't bother.If all wheat products (breads, pastas, and barley and rye too) seem to bother you it may be worth getting checked for Celiac disease which is gluten intolerance. Gluten if found in several of the grains (wheat barley and rye being the main ones).K.


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## EYEBSER2

Steve and smurf may well be right about your case. This is such an individualized situation, for both D's and C's. 22 years ago I was diagnosed as being allergic to wheat. That's right, allergic, not just sensitive. Not gluten just wheat. I ended up in the hospital a number of times before the culprit was found. After years of being on alternatives, rice and corn for the most part, I can say I've found wheat alternatives that suit and I can tolerate. In fact they are the old world wheats, Spelt and Kamut. Our new world wheat that most of us eat has 2 extra enzymes that the old world doesn't (as I understand it). That is what causes most of us problems. Most wheat sensitive individuals can tolerate spelt and kamut. You may want to try them. I eat spelt spaghetti pasta by VitaSpelt (the white is better tasting than the whole grain and in fact is hard to tell a difference from plain old standard off the grocery shelf spaghetti) and both spelt and kamut bread. You can't tell the difference in the breads other than they are more dense. I use spelt flour for things like waffles and baking and such. You may want to try these other forms if you are determined to eat pasta. And then there is the rice lazagna noodles that aren't to bad if in with enough other ingredients to make them palatable. Watch the fats please. I understand that both D's and C's have a problem with them!!!


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## AlittleFaithHelps

I respect your opinion and guidelines greatly. IBS is not a fully understood condition so I suppose anything goes, right?although pasta is good for many ibsers, I guess it just doesnt agree with some people. I can accept that. Get Better Soon.


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## Jan LEAP RD

As a dietitian and nutrition counselor to many IBS clients, I have to agree with Smurf.Individual tolerances DO vary. Wheat may be safe for one person but a culprit due to the wheat, the wheat bran, the starch OR the gluten to others. (Some people that test negative for celiac disease still find that a gluten free diet does them wonders. There are false negatives with celiac testing as well.)And, alternative pasta's made from corn, rice, buckwheat, etc. can be a nice solution. One that wasn't mentioned as an alternative is spaghetti squash. (I love it







, my hubby doesn't much care for it







.)


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