Simple Strategies for Food Sensitivities and IBS

Untreated digestion issues can have devastating effects.

Do you burp? Belch? Bloating comes and goes? Nausea? Indigestion? Intestinal spasms? Here’s the simple reality: If left untreated, digestion issues can have devastating effects on your quality of life. 

And those symptoms are just what you can see and feel—the rest of what’s happening (leaky gut) can have a long-lasting health impact. 

IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) is not actually an autoimmune condition, but a growing number of people suffer from it. You can have both an inflammatory bowel disease like ulcerative colitis and Crohn's in addition to irritable bowel syndrome. 

IBS is a common disorder affecting the large intestine. Unlike inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), IBS does not appear to cause changes in bowel tissue or increase your risk of colorectal cancer. It does affect the bowels, though. 

IBS has four basic categories based on bowel symptoms: IBS-D (diarrhea), IBS-C (constipation), IBS-M (mixed bowels), and IBS-U (unclassified). These symptoms can be triggered by things like food, stress, and hormonal changes. 

STUDY on IBS

Harvard performed a study where they took 36 patients with irritable bowel syndrome whose treatment protocols failed for at least a year. These patients had tried everything without success. The patients were compliant with the recommendations, yet nothing worked. 

This study used a technique called confocal endomicroscopy, which is like electron microscopy inside the gut, so they could see the individual cells in real time.

They put a camera down there, injected a dye into the patient's veins so that it would go right past the gut, and then gave patients either wheat, soy, dairy, or yeast. Then they waited to see what happened to the dye. What they observed was kind of a mini-explosion, and the white dye was coming out into the gut itself.

If left untreated, pervasive digestion issues like IBS, IBD, and SIBO can have devastating effects on your quality of life. 

This is what happened when they exposed people to wheat, dairy, yeast, or soy within five minutes of exposure. Cells started gaping open; they could see intestinal permeability as it was happening.

The scientists at Harvard wrote that the white dye was evident to everyone in the room. The gaping of the cells was obvious to everyone in attendance. Everybody saw the same thing—that foods are a common trigger to irritable bowel syndrome and to the inflammation that comes. They also started to piece together what inflammatory bowel diseases developed because of certain foods. It makes you question whether most of the people with Crohn's or colitis had symptoms that at first were associated with irritable bowel syndrome and then just got worse and worse. 

Food Sensitivities and IBS

You have to find out why the gut is irritable, and there are so many different reasons why the gut can be irritated. Don't accept irritable bowel syndrome as a diagnosis. Find out why your gut is irritable. It's so important. It may be a food that's going down. It may be the microbiome itself that's way out of balance. It may be environmental. It could be mold in the house. There is no single cause for IBS. 

Food is so important. There's not one diet for all of us, and that's why it's really important to work with an expert. Maybe the autoimmune paleo protocol is going to work for you, or a low FODMAP, or a low lectin diet, or maybe more of a plant-based vegetarian type diet. But food is definitely primary in getting well.

There's not one diet for all of us, and that's why it's really important to work with an expert.

The best way is to work with a functional medicine practitioner who can help figure that out for you. But if you're on your own, I'd say the first rule of thumb is eat God-made foods and not manmade foods. Then remove wheat, dairy, and sugar and see what happens. That's a really good starting place.

Some Simple Strategies 

1. A food sensitivity test can help guide and prioritize an elimination diet.
2. A gluten- and wheat-free diet is almost always indicated to protect and heal intestinal tight junctions.
3. Avoid alcohol and caffeine.
4. Remove dairy and sugar, as they can be very inflammatory.
5. Avoid excessive pesticide residues by choosing organic produce, coffee, and meat.
6. Use caution with all plastics, particularly plastics containing BPA that are exposed to heat.

There could be just a handful of foods that are triggering inflammation for some people. Definitely find someone to work with to help pin down your specific triggers. If you want to tackle it yourself, start on the elimination diet.

Whether you have IBD, IBS, or both, testing and managing symptoms can go a long way in living a higher quality of life and minimizing symptoms. Foods and protocols may vary from individual to individual. The key is to listen to your body, begin to make associations between what is going on in your diet or life at the time, make adjustments, and test to measure your improvement over time.

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