Is fiber good for me? It depends…

There is more to know about fiber than you think!

If you have an inflammatory bowel condition it can be complicated and you could do yourself more harm than good.

We all think about fiber being good for constipation, which it is, but there is more to the story. What compounds this problem is that your doctor usually does not understand this and recommends fiber to anyone with any kind of bowel problem.

A doctor should never prescribe fiber if there is evidence of IBS, Colitis, Ulcerative Colitis or Crohn’s, as it will make it worse. This is one of the misunderstandings about fiber.

If you give fiber to someone who has chronic constipation – that’s a good thing. Give it to someone with IBD – that’s a bad thing.

Holistic Treatment For IBS

So you're looking for a holistic treatment for IBS that works. I'm assuming that because you are looking for a more natural treatment for your irritable bowel condition, that you have tried everything your gastroenterologist has suggested.

Did this include...

• Colonoscopy — the most common response is ‘didn’t see anything—looks normal, or looks a little inflamed in there.’

• ‘Here is a prescription for——. There isn’t anything else I can do for you.’

• ‘But come back and see me in a month.’ (Didn’t you just say there was nothing you could do?)

• ‘Hey doc before I leave any recommendations about diet?’ ‘Sure-eat a high fiber diet.’ Which is the exact opposite of what to eat.

So, I am sure you have been there & done that.

Or did you hear about the newest "natural" medical treatment (this is scary, you can’t make this stuff up)? Fecal transplantation (or bacteriotherapy) is the transfer of stool from a healthy donor into the gastrointestinal tract for the purpose of treating recurrent C. difficile colitis, and now they are using it for IBS, Colitis, Ulcerative Colitis, and Crohn’s Disease. And by ‘healthy donor' they mean void of any disease. If they had any idea what they were doing they would mean that the stool was populated with healthy probiotic bacteria. Then again they will tell you that it is sterile, but in the process of sterilization, they would kill anything that was good in it! For the life of me, I cannot figure out why you wouldn't just swallow a probiotic capsule.

Lastly–you will get some people who think they are smart who will say something like—‘you have to do it rectally because orally the bacteria won’t survive the acidity of the digestive tract.’ Wrong – Wrong – Wrong. Any good probiotic is coated in a way that protects it! If this theory of Fecal Transplant is valid does this mean that women for millennia have been nursing their babies on the wrong end?

Science just can’t trust nature.

Here are some other supposed Holistic Diets that don’t work (if your definition of ‘work’ is to be healed or cured.) Most of you have tried at least one of these but still have a problem.

These are diets that will not cure IBS, although they may make you a little more comfortable:

Fodmap: this is an unnecessarily complicated manipulation of certain carbohydrate foods that have specific molecular configurations. What I love about this one is they throw all of this theory at you and give you some guidelines and then say ‘everyone is different so you will need to experiment for yourself.’ Get your microscope ready!

Gluten Free: These people sometimes find that if they stop eating foods that contain gluten their symptoms, such as gas, bloating, and diarrhea go away, but they have no idea why.

Dairy Free: what happens when you slip up and have a smidgen of ice cream or some pizza?

Elimination Diet: this is the culmination of all of the above. You get to the point where all you can consume is white rice and water—on a good day.

There are a zillion more ‘holistic diets’ just like these. What do they all have in common? They all play the blame game, it’s the food’s fault, they are just juggling and manipulating foods. None of them work because food does not work. You cannot eat your way into or out of IBS.

Food has nothing to do with being the cause or the cure!

However, there is one valid rule regarding food and IBS: Eat a Low Fiber Diet.

• No Raw Fruit

• No Raw Vegs

• No Nuts

• No Seeds

• No Corn

Why? Because these are ‘rough’ and will further damage and irritate an already damaged and irritated colon.

It seems counterintuitive, doesn’t it? You have to temporarily eat ‘unhealthy’ to get healthy.

The Real Diet for Inflammatory Bowel Conditions

The #1 thing that you need to know is that you cannot eat your way into or out of any inflammatory bowel condition. It’s not about food. You could eat the worst possible diet and it would not give you IBS. The same can be said about eating only organic food — that will not heal your Colitis or Crohn’s.

But YES, eating a certain way can make your life less miserable until you get this problem fixed.

It is very, very simple. Just 2 things you need to do.

1. The 1st rule of eating when you have an IBD is to eat a low fiber diet. This means no raw fruit, no raw vegs, no nuts, no seeds and no corn. Eating this way is temporary and doing just this can reduce your symptoms by 50%. But don’t fool yourself by thinking that you are healed. You aren’t. You just are not aggravating the source of the symptoms as much.

2. The 2nd rule is to temporarily avoid any other foods that you are absolutely sure to aggravate your problems. I emphasize this because almost all of you are juggling foods based on what you have seen online or what a friend has told you worked for them. That is just theory. The only thing that matters is how your body reacts to any foods. Otherwise you are unnecessarily denying yourself foods that you could be enjoying. Other than the fibrous foods the most common to cause problems are dairy, wheat and soy. This is because they are complex foods and require more stomach acids to digest. One of the secrets of treating IBD is knowing that in addition to fiber aggravating the bowel tissue it is your acids that actually eat-erode the bowel wall.

That’s it. There is no more to it. The real diet for inflammatory bowel conditions is not what to eat but what not to eat and this is temporary.

Remember that it is not really about food – you cannot eat your way into or out of IBD. But you can make it a more comfortable ride.