# Diets are killing us?



## Guest (Mar 18, 2002)

Recently, I decided to look into nutritional information to see what I could find out. I'm always tired, I'm slightly overweight, I never feel rested, etc. I've also noticed that our society as a whole seems to be getting fatter (in the US), we tend to over eat (compared to other cultures), we have more illness, we seem to be having a epidemic of diabetes, and the list goes on.So, diet and exercise is what doctors are always preaching. I personally know I don't eat right and the only exercise I get is chasing the kids around the house. So I started reading about nutrition. What are we supposed to be eating, if we eat properly will we have more energy, etc. All the weight loss products swear we will, so why not check it out.I started reading "The Zone" and I am amazed at what I'm reading. So I want to try adjusting my diet and see if I don't feel better, have more energy, less allergies, etc. I'm just wondering if any IBS sufferers out there have tried adjusting their diets to help their IBS? Personally, I'm beginning to think that our American diets are killing us and that all these symptoms we're having are actually our body responding to all the toxins we're loading in it every day. Perhaps if we start feeding it properly it will start working properly. Just like my car. I take good care of it and it runs well. Perhaps I should put as much thought into the food I eat as I do into my car maitenance.Any ideas? Anyone tried this? Anyone tried to cut back on carbohydrates? Anyone found the perfect foods that we should be eating?


----------



## mich2002 (Jan 14, 2002)

Hi Susan I totally agree and its not only the foods we eat its the stress burning the candle at both ends thing as well. Although the fried fatty preservative loaded sugar extreme 'fake' food which is so popular cant be good for us. just wanted to point out that there are many people on this BB who are not American and culturally eat differently - while I agree the typical US diet doesnt sound healthy - I have always eaten well (loads of fruit/ veg/ grains, protein very limited take out) and still developed this problem - so dont think changing your diet will be a miracle cure but it will definately help and you may just feel better all over for it


----------



## Jupiter119 (Aug 8, 2001)

HiDiet does help BUT mine was very good with no nutritional deficiencies (I was tested) before I got IBD in the form of ulcerative colitis. People say they can't understand why I ended up like this as I dodn't eat many processed food, cooked all meals at home from scratch, etc. I did eat a lot of carbs & little protein so perhaps that's why but I think stress plays a major part too. I'm a worrier & often anxious... not good for the immune system!


----------



## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

I agree that changing the diet can help with IBS symptoms BUT you will find plenty of people who eat really healthy, all organic, no preservative aka "perfect" diets that get IBS all the same.While careful food preparation can help limit food poisoning incidents, food poisoning and other GI illnesse are heavily implicated for starting IBS in people and they happen to everyone regardless of how healthy, organic, whole food, etc your diet is.AND paradoxically many people with IBS find the very things that are promoted for healthy eating may be some of their biggest triggers. Some people have very hard time with fruits and veggies and high fiber whole grains...it varies depending on your triggers...and so end up eating diets that make most fans of organic, healthy eating run screaming into the soybean fields







Limiting starchy foods may help some people with IBS as starches other than rice are not completely digested and feed the colonic bacteria. People with IBS can get symptoms from normal levels of gas production from these bacteria so limiting starches (which most of the low-carb diets have you avoid) can make the symptoms better.FWIW the Zone, Atkins, etc diets are fairly controvertial and are often not in line with what mainstream nutrional advice says you should eat.K.


----------



## Guest (Mar 25, 2002)

Well that's not what I wanted to hear. I was hoping someone would say...hey you know...eating right will fix the problem. I don't eat my veggies. The only veggie I eat regularly is potatoes. Ironically when I can eat nothing else, I can always cook instant potatoes and feel fine. "The Zone" says instant potatoes are one of the worst foods to eat. So I'm SO confused.I usually stick to a bland diet. I believe I am a "super-taster" and I don't like the taste of many foods and have avoided them. I wonder, however, if this is not somehow my bodies way to handle itself and that maybe I should just leave well enough alone? I started eating Pizza in high school (before I wouldn't touch the stuff) and after getting married started eating more Mexican food which I would avoid prior to marriage. Although at times the Mexican food doesn't bother me, I try to stay with bland choices and when I get stuck with something really spicy, I'm miserable.Does anyone think that our bodies actually will guide us to what our body needs? I set a goal to go to a whole foods market this week and see what they've got and make an attempt at adding vegetables (those green and yellow ones I can't stand) into my diet. But now I'm not so sure it will make any difference.Another unrelated question is antibiotics. I recently developed a sinus infection and was given Biaxin XL. My husband is still mad at me. It is a two pills at once dose pack and I took the first two pills and woke him up screaming in the middle of the night because I was so bad. Then I refused to take any more antibiotics. Biaxin always makes me nauseous but I'd rather have the sinus infection than endure the Biaxin. So I refused to take any more of it and I spent the last two days in bed leaving hubby to deal with the three kids. He's pretty mad at me. Doesn't understand that IBS is really an illness and that I can't control it no matter how much I'd like to. So I'm wondering, does anyone else have trouble taking antibiotics? DO you just refuse to take them? Are there some that we can handle? Should I just keep taking the stuff and suffer?Thanks. It's so nice to know that I'm not alone with this. My attack was so bad two days ago that I thought I was going to die. I felt like I was going to pass out and I was burning up. For the last two days I've been afraid to eat anything. If nothing goes in, I can't have a problem. It's a terrible feeling being afraid to eat.I really appreciate all you folks out there.


----------



## Jupiter119 (Aug 8, 2001)

Hire diet I've found GREAT help from the info' about soluble fibre on the 'ask the specialist' forum (diet section) from Heather Van Vorus.See www.firstyearibs.com/day3learn.htmlFollowing the guidelines stated here has really helped me a lot. I don't have IBS but UC which can involve many toilet trips, pain,cramps, blood, etc.Re. antibiotics, I've not touched them for over 6 yrs. Doctors in the Uk tend not to offer them much now.


----------



## Lissa1 (Apr 22, 2002)

Susan, I do believe that our bodies sometimes tell us what to eat. I've always tolerated starch better than meat -- even as a kid, I'd eat a few bites of steak and then just eat potato or bread till I was full.Also, the Zone may be right for some people but wrong for others. Folks with IBS may have different food requirements than those without.I try to listen to my body. Mostly it wants bland food, in small, frequent amounts. Every now and then I crave FLAVOR and so I eat something a little spicier. I'm reading Heather von Vorous's book & am trying to cut back on fats; other than that, I'm mostly in line with her suggestions.Good luck!


----------



## IBSBECCA (May 14, 2002)

Hi, My names Becky and i'm new at all this,,,,i suffered many many years with IBS and FMS and im 30 now, and was just recently put on a Gluten free gliadin free dairy free diet,,, what a Boo boo that was!I needed fiber and wasnt getting any because i had to cut mostly everything out,,, so, my body retaliated, and my stools were bloody and tarry, gas was worse and was running to bathroom every half hour,,,, anyways, i felt better other than not getting any fiber, but, i would eat a veggie or fruit that was off the IBS list. I was a mess, still am, i have NO clue what to eat now,,, i have a eating problem with potatoes and other carb comfort foods, most veggies are gassy, dairy bothers me, and was stuck on a no gluten diet? what CAN i eat,,,,,,, LOL


----------



## Mike NoLomotil (Jun 6, 2000)

Some very telling comments from different recent posts on the "diet board" include&#8230;  __________________________________ "I was hoping someone would say...hey you know...eating right will fix the problem." __________________________________For many people it will&#8230;that is, not fix "the problem" of the underlying disease, whatever it may be, BUT it will fix "the immediate problem" of "the symptoms" which disrupt our lives. Trouble is everyone has a different pattern of foods or chemicals in foods that can provoke symptoms, and everyone has a different combination of the various mechanisms which can generate symptoms once "activated". So far at least 8 different ways the immune cells of different types can malfunction and cause symptoms are known. So far. _________________________________"&#8230; CAN i eat,,,,,,," _________________________________The optimum diet for any given person, the diet that reduces or eliminates symptoms as much as is possible with dietary modification for that person, is unique. The instructions that are given by doctors, dieticians, and in books are of necessity based on statistical probabilities gained from watching some large number of patients selected by whatever criteria that practitioner or author applied to patient population, and then develops a set of recommended strategies and lists of foods and chemicals and eating patterns etc which can be applied in a trail and error basis from the approach of what is statistically probable, then next possible, then finally infrequently implicated but worth a try.This is of necessity been the only way to approach it in the past, since only about 8% of the overall population of people who are told their sym[toms are "IBS" have true food allergies, and the rest have some combination of multiple factors which generate symptoms.The largest subpopulation which can benefit directly from dietary manipulation beyond the rudiments of "eat more fiber" and "eat low fat" and Eat small meals" and "watch for 'triggers'" is the 70% or so of people told they have IBS and who have a diarrheic component to their condition&#8230;either constantly or episodically.This population, years of observation and now recent in-body experiments show, suffer (for reasons which are also multiple and variable) loss of oral tolerance to certain foods or chemicals in foods which manifests itself as the symptoms we associate with IBS.It is very hard to isolate every thing that a specific person has lost tolerance to because allergy as we have come to know it, which causes fast onset of symptoms in spite of the tiniest exposure (thus making allergy and false-allergy easy to spot with methods used to find "triggers&#8221







, is usually not the major problem. There are other immune cells involved which react slowly, and the effects build with dose-exposure-time relationships (delayed onset and dose dependency) so observation as it is taught misses most of the offending foods or chemicals since it APEARS TO EVERYONE that there is NO PATTERN. There is a pattern but it is much more complex than the checkerboard pattern of "food goes in, diarrhea comes out" that the masses have grown accustomed to looking for. _____________________________________________________"It seems like I just can't eat anything&#8230;" _____________________________________________________The most common experience of the person who has been trying to follow the "look for triggers" advice and is slowly but surely seeming to not be able to eat anything. Sometimes this is the total dissociation of apparent cause-effect in the observations and sometimes it is progressively worsening loss of tolerance&#8230;another thing they said does not happen, but does in some people you know what to look at. _______________________________________"I am to the point now where I eat absolutely NOTHING&#8230;." ________________________________________It is usually at about this time that people have reached the realization that what they are doing is not working and thus they may be open to ideas which will be new, or run contrary to the old beliefs and dogma that pervade medicines approach to this problem.This is a good time to add (2) other books to ones library, then when reading also review the experiences of others who have experienced the benefits of a Disease Management Program approach, a multi-modality approach, to the IBS symptoms and treatment options and see if there is some parallel to their own situation.IBS: A DOCTORS PLAN FOR CHRONIC DIGESTIVE TROUBLESBy Gerard Guillory, M.D.; Vanessa Ameen, M.D.; Paul Donovan, M.D.; Jack Martin, Ph.D. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-h...9085785-1742301 "FOOD ALLERGIES AND FOOD INTOLERANCE: THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO THEIR IDENTIFICTION AND TREATMENT", Professor Jonathan Brostoff , M.D.. Allergy, Immunology and Environmental Medicine, Kings' College, London http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/089...6487508-3420903 Then it might be helpful to read through, top to bottom, some of these threads which reflect extensive discussions of approaching IBS symptom reduction from an integrative approach to multiple therapies and based on new and unique methods of isolating as many of the personal sources of symptom provocation as possible, and dealing where need be with the effects of stress and anxiety as symptom generating mechanisms as well, integrated with optimal dietry therapy: http://www.ibsgroup.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php...ic;f=1;t=026240 http://www.ibsgroup.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php...ic;f=1;t=027553 http://www.ibsgroup.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php...ic;f=1;t=026885 http://www.ibsgroup.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php...ic;f=1;t=027465 http://www.ibsgroup.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php...ic;f=1;t=027557 http://www.ibsgroup.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php...ic;f=1;t=027549 If one reads the books, the rationale for much of what is discussed, and the results that people attain, becomes more clear.But one need not despair in 2002 s there are ways to find what you can and cannot eat which are more effective than those that have been used up until now, simply because the tools available have been recently expanded and will be becoming more widely available over the next year or two.Eat well. Think well. Be well.MNL


----------



## smurf1 (Oct 23, 2001)

FOREGONE CONCLUSION: (A) The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans. (







On the other hand, the French eat a lot of fat and also suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans. © The Japanese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans. (D) The Italians drink excessive amounts of red wine and also suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans (E) Conclusion: Eat & drink what you like. It's speaking English that kills you.


----------



## carolauren (Mar 14, 2002)

LOL


----------

