IBS and which foods to be most careful of?

My dear Hafwen, I'm really sorry to hear that you have fallen prone to this beastie, but a veteran of 26 years in its thrall, maybe I can at least ease your perspectives a little.

Everyone will deal with this uniquely to themselves, so what I am saying is not prescriptive, merely descriptive.

When I first fell foul of it, with the most terrible bloating, spasming, and all sorts, it was first managed chemically -- antispasmodics, Gaviscon etc -- to get things manageable. When it is so acute, you'll do just anything to get out of the predicament. After a number of years relying on antispasmodics to bail me out -- as a stage performer my prof. lifestyle wasn't exactly helping -- I started to experiment with what I could manage by myself *without* intervention of the prescription meds, and after a period of 18months to 2yrs, I had worked out what I found was a significant pattern of circumstantial events from which I could draw conclusions.

!. and probably the most important of all: if one substantial meal gets you into trouble, then the two halves of it an hour apart will not. I.e. *never* "over eat", where the 'over' is *your* 'over', not some moralising notion of 'too much'.

2. when bloating and/or spasming coincide, sometimes violently, starve yourself completely at once for the period between the event and the next meal due. (Don't fuel the fire.) Then eat something light, next meal due, having missed one, that you *really* like. Mine is home made Jewish Penicillin -- the preparation fills the 'fasting' period with much salivating anticipation. That childish salivation is part of the 'medicine', also in purely digestive/constitutional terms.

3. watch for acids and in what form. I always adored my mother's shepherd's/cottage pie but it caused me terminal grief. Then I noticed that sometimes it didn't. Then I found out that sometimes she used fresh or tinned tomatoes, sometimes tomato paste. The paste was death to me. I.e. it's not just the acid, the concentration matters.

You will develop your own 'repertoire' of good-news/bad-news. Listen to your body's growls and purrs and *never rule anything out without investigating it properly* -- I did without an insane number of ingredients I loved for years, until I found out empirically that fear was diagnosing for me. Bad idea.

4. I'm besotted with Indian and Malay/Indonesian food -- the last mentioned part of my cultural background -- and I continue to 'fire eat' with the best of 'em. But not with certain acids in them, including tomatoes in certain forms. Adjust, but never just dogmatically discard. Again, you will get a repertoire of your own of what you can and cannot get away with.

Ultimately, when it counts, have -- my case, the 'wrong' form of 'tomato' -- whatever your 'tomato' turns out to be -- if it matters that much. The pleasure will outweigh the penalty and, this is important, with time some penalties may arrive anew, but many more simply go as you learn to stabilise yourself to comparative normality.

The only substance I cannot *possibly* ingest is real ale. Everything else, given time, has waxed and waned, and proved *seriously* manipulable.... ;-))

Do not despair, and until *proven* enemies, keep them thar Injuns coming to your table... :-))

(I've been meds free for 14 years)

Love, as always,

*N*/*R*x