| You know if you have IBS, foods to avoid are the ones that stimulate your intestines into action. Stay away from foods that cause gas like cabbage, baked beans, broccoli, and cauliflower. Excess gas created by these foods will cause bloating and eating these foods will only make your symptoms worse.
If your irritable bowel syndrome is caused by some allergy or intolerance to the food you eat then it is best to eliminate your consumption of these foods. Changing the way you eat is very important in controlling the symptoms you are experiencing.
Maybe you have a wheat allergy or lactose intolerance you do not know you have. Cutting these foods from your diet may get rid of the symptoms you are experiencing all together and then nothing else would need to be done.
Change to soy or rice milk, you get just as many benefits or more from these types of "milk" and will not have the IBS symptoms associated with IBS foods to avoid like dairy products.
Steer clear of caffeinated beverages and alcohol. If your major IBS symptom is diarrhea, then the drying effects of caffeine and alcohol will only increase the chances that you will become dehydrated. Stick to drinking the recommended amount of water every day.
If you need to do the math to figure out what the recommended amount of water you should be drinking everyday is, just follow this one simple rule. You should drink half of your body weight in ounces of water every single day. So, let's say you weigh 180 lbs, you should be drinking 90 ounces of water every day. Divide 90 by 8 and that computes out to just over 11, 8 ounce glasses of water in a day.
Seems like a lot, I know, but you can start out by just drinking the standard 8, eight ounce glasses a day and working your way up. When you also figure that the average glass you have in your house is probably 14 to 16 ounces when you have a 'glass' of water, you are actually getting two for one. Also, the average person is awake for 16 hours a day so divide 11 by 16 and that means you should drink about 7 ounces of water an hour.
Stay away from carbonated drinks like pop and sparkling water. These will only add to the uncomfortable bloated feeling you have with irritable bowel syndrome by causing gas.
Fried and fatty foods, including those foods made with artificial fats, stimulate your intestines and the result will not be pretty, indigestion, cramping, diarrhea and flatulence can be very uncomfortable, not to mention embarrassing. Especially if you are out in public when your IBS flares up.
Try eating several small meals throughout the day to lessen the impact the food you eat has on your digestive tract and keep this list of IBS foods to avoid handy so you can refer to them when you need to figure out what is safe to eat when you go out. |