Irritable bowel syndrome or colitis is a syndrome that afflicts up to 20% of the general population and carries with it a bad disposal of feces, swelling and pain in the abdomen. Knowing how to live with this condition is about adapting your dietary needs at present to ease these inconveniences in the bathroom and to enjoy a much better quality of life. From now on you will have to exclude common foods and start eating others with nutritional characteristics that are best suited to this medical condition. To learn how, on OneHowTo we are going to show you the recommended diet for irritable bowel syndrome that will be very beneficial to improve the symptoms of this syndrome.
How to eat with irritable bowel syndrome
Irritable bowel syndrome does not affect everyone equally or have the same triggers, so symptoms will differ between one and another patient. What you need to do is to evaluate each one of the foods that contribute to discomfort from irritable bowel syndrome to eliminate them as soon as possible from your diet. So you can prepare a daily schedule with the ingested foods to check which foods affect you to a greater or lesser extent.
Each individual has a different lifestyle which has to be adjusted to this new problem. And the best thing is to relieve some symptoms through prevention, so knowing your body well will help you detect the trouble-making foods and then exclude them from your new diet. These symptoms appear within 6 hours of eating the food.
Eat little and often, chewing your food properly. With every bite you should chew at least 20 times so the food reaches your stomach and is crushed adequately for your intestine. It is important that the amounts are small because a princely meal overloads the intestine and causes food to ferment leading to excess gas which in doing so, causes more pain in your colon. In addition, eating slowly will fill you up and, therefore, you will not overdo it.
Do not lie down immediately, just eat. It's not good for people with irritable bowels because lazing does not allow for good digestion. In case you have to lie down for a while, do it on your left side. It is shown that this position helps make it easier to digest food. You can adopt this position even when sleeping at night.
What foods to eat with irritable bowel syndrome
Beware of fiber! You have to know the two types that exist and consume only the most beneficial for your body in these circumstances:
- Soluble fiber (oats, legumes, brown rice, pasta, flour...) softens the stool and helps you to go to the bathroom without pain.
- Insoluble fiber (bran, bread...) acts as an irritant.
Choose well the foods with soluble fiber as to not bother your irritable colon even more. You can add some lovely fruits like banana, raspberry, melon, mango, orange, kiwi and watermelon to your diet for irritable bowels, as they have a lot of vitamin B which helps regulate the nervous system and the proper functioning of the digestive system.
Fruits with vitamin C also like banana, orange and red fruits help protect the body's tissues, but sometimes orange acid can go wrong, in that case, remove it from your diet.
Along with fruit, you must eat your veggies daily. In the case of vegetables like carrots and squash, you will benefit from the anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and regulatory properties in the intestinal tract. Drink plenty of water to help soften the stool because with constipation the condition is worse and it is easier to develop hemorrhoids, which would add to this issue with the irritable colon.
Only eat well cooked meat, opt for leaner cuts. It is recommended that you consume chicken and fish above all, as long as it is properly cooked. You can also incorporate some teas for irritable bowel that will help you feel better every day.
What foods to avoid with irritable bowel syndrome
Remove from your diet dairy products and wheat. We know that these are two very common foods have always been part of our daily diet, but if you want to avoid the discomforts of irritable bowel syndrome, it is best that remove them completely from your nutritional plan. You will feel so relieved by not eating them. They are very heavy products that really give our guts a kicking and that obviously does not help the problem at all.
If you want to keep dairy products, choose those without lactose since they do not cause gases that cause discomfort for the irritable colon. Eliminate spicy dishes and drinks with caffeine and those carbonated ones too. Also eliminate processed foods, which do not provide nutrients but rather saturated fats. Avoid at all costs the fatty foods, such as fried foods or some meats.
In this other OneHowTo article you can see what to eat if you have irritable bowel syndrome.
Example diet for irritable bowel syndrome
This would be a example diet for irritable bowel syndrome that you can modify to your liking as long as you know what food you should take to a greater or lesser extent. Lest you get bored, combine foods, but be clear that you should remove some so that digestion is much easier and you'll fight the symptoms of this syndrome.
Breakfast
A glass of soy or rice milk that can be accompanied each day by a different food, such as barley or 2 40g (1.4 oz) rice cakes, a handful of raspberries, corn flakes, etc.
Lunches
You can alternate every day, having rice cakes with mashed avocado, a sandwich of wholemeal bread with smoked salmon and apple, a Greek salad, rice salad with arugula and tuna canned soup served with a slice of whole wheat bread with hummus.
Snacks
A soy yogurt accompanied by a stick or sesame oatmeal cream. A mashed banana or any fruit that we've talked about here on OneHowTo, whole wheat toast, rice cakes.
Dinner
Baked chicken with soy sauce and vegetables, accompanied by basmati rice, omelettes with steamed vegetables, white fish fillet with mashed potatoes, chicken breast with sautéed vegetables, lamb chops with mashed peas, any puree vegetables with whole wheat bread, tuna or grilled salmon with spinach and rice.
This article is merely informative, oneHOWTO does not have the authority to prescribe any medical treatments or create a diagnosis. We invite you to visit your doctor if you have any type of condition or pain.
If you want to read similar articles to Recommended Diet for Irritable Bowel Syndrome, we recommend you visit our Diseases & secondary effects category.