Does eating low calorie foods help IBS?

Calorie counting is almost soul destroying, although now one can buy foods with the calories printed on them, also the amount of fat, salt and sugar in each product. Low calorie foods also have a reputation for being bland or boring, although this need not be the case at all.

Like many people, I have tried strictly controlled diets and variations of those. There are a great many different *diets* around, Atkins, the South Beach Diet, Weightwatchers, and almost all are aimed at weight loss or weight control. Some, such as diabetics have to avoid certain foods.

Fish, without any added cream or butter-based sauce is low in fat, but oily fish such as salmon and mackerel are high in Omega 3 oils, of which more shortly. As for the *ballast* foods, such as potatoes, rice, pasta, none of those by themselves are fattening, it all depends what we add to them. If you mash potatoes with butter and milk, you will add fat to them with the butter. If you boil a potato and eat it, you will get starch and carbohydrates, but little fat.However, the body does need some fat.

Omega 3
In a recent experiment, patients on intravenous drips had Omega 3 fish oil added to their intake. If a patient cannot eat, the contents of their *diet* via drip are carefully balanced to ensure they get all the nutrients they require. Fat is always added, but in this particular instance, the fat was replaced with fish oils and a remarkable difference was noticed: the patients give the fish oils recovered both physically and mentally far more quickly than those given the normal fat.

Some oils contain good nutrients and in Mediterranean countries, fresh bread is often dipped into olive oil and eaten, whereas in the UK, for instance, we would add butter or margarine. The Mediterranean diet, is of course a popular one, and does not consist only of pizza or pasta, but fresh vegetables, fish and olive oil both as to cook with and as a dressing.

Pastries
People eating low calorie foods try to avoid pastries, cakes, pies and biscuits or cookies, due to the amount of fat in them, Butter, lard and sugar is extensively used in making pastry casings and in cakes and cookies.

Some IBS sufferers do find that a diet which generally avoids fatty or greasy foods can help their symptoms. I myself avoid fried food, but not because it has ever triggered IBS, rather it affects my bile-ducts and always caused me indigestion and made my stomach feel more acidic. I will bake or grill food, not fry it.But of the healthy and low calorie foods people incorporate into their diet, there may be some which actually trigger IBS. I have found that I cannot eat peppers, broccoli and cauliflower. It took years to realize that I could not eat those particular vegetables. That is why it is important, if you suffer IBS, to make a note of what you eat and gradually work out if something in your diet aggravates the symptoms.

Denial
I believe that a healthy diet is important, but that it can be counterproductive to deny yourself some treats at times. One biscuit, some chocolate or ice-cream is not going to do a person harm unless they are on a very strict diet advised by a health-care professional, are following a slimming regimen, or have to follow a diet tailored for certain conditions such as diabetes. In this article, however, I am dealing only with diets a person with IBS might follow.

Grazing
One of my GP's recommended 'grazing' that is, eat little and often, perhaps once every two hours rather that three meals per day. One 'grazing' meal might be toast or cereal, another, an apple or some grapes, another soup, another crispbread or a yogurt, and another some meat or fish with a main meal. This kind of diet is probably easier to follow if one is at home, as few people in a work environment have the time to snack so much, unless they can pack a lunch box with several small food items, but the doctor recommended it for my IBS.