I was diagnosed with Constipation dominant IBS (irritable bowel syndrome). I am unable to tolerate large amounts of fiberous foods. Meaning, if I eat a large salad, lots of fruit, or any fiberous food it GREATLY aggravates it. It's not just the size of meals, whether it's 3 or 6 I cannot tolerate any raw fruit or vegatble matter. (I can hardly help with cooked! )- How am I supposed to be raw if I can't tolerate such essional(sp?) foods?

Your transition may have to be slower than people who don't have your condition. Start out with the foods you can eat, including the cooked ones, and increase the raw slowly and allow your body to heal.

By the way, what raw foods and what cooked foods are you able to tolerate at this point. Perhaps we could point out things with your current foods that would help your body heal faster.

I have been able to tolerate all cooked food, except vegetable matter. Canner fruit only causes a minimal impact. Raw bananas are the only exception, but any more then 1 in a sitting gives me gastrointestinal issues. Currently I am eating a lot of whole grain bread, meet, (fish mostly) and small amounts of canned fruit. Peanut butter is a staple as well. I have tried to slowly incorporate raw vegetables, but if I go any higher than the small of a salad, the IBS leaves me uncomfortable for days.

Thank you!

Before we start, first I recommend reading David Klein's "Self Healing Colitis & Chrohn's". The symptoms in these diseases are very similar to IBS.

Perhaps increase the volume of cooked whole foods while decreasing the volumes of cooked processed foods. So steamed vegetables and streamed root vegetables.

Cut out wheat entirely. Find some whole grains that work for you, say like quinoa.

Cut out meat and animal products (meat, eggs, dairy). These foods lead to lowered health and disease.

Are you able to eat raw almond butter instead of peanut butter? This is a much healthier option.

Increase organic where possible.

If you can eat cooked fruit, the cook your own fruit rather than eating it from a can.

Perhaps with these small changes, and increasing the habits that increase health, ie, more exercise, rest and sleep, breathing fresh air, getting regular sunshine, reducing stress, worry, and anxiety, etc. Do these habit will increase your health, and your digestion ought to increase. And at some point, you will be able to eat more raw foods.

"whole grain bread, meet, (fish mostly) and small amounts of canned fruit. Peanut butter"
wow, when i was suffering from ibs these foods would have killed me!

i ate a 100% raw diet straight off with morning smoothies, giant salads, wheatgrass juice and tons of fruit. after two months i did a 7 day master cleanse fast followed by a colonic and my ibs magically disappeared never to reappear.

i wonder if juices and smoothies might work better for you, i think food combining is really important as well. the fasting and colonic were very helpful for me.

good luck to you!

I agree with Bryan and his excellent points. Don't concentrate on what you CAN'T do. You can't judge your health by your current state. Find the fruits or raw things...in whatever form....that you CAN tolerate....and incorporate these items very slowly. Regular juicing.....strained of fiber...is also helpful to some for occasional cleansing.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

i think fresh raw plant fiber is a "regular" persons best friend. Have you ever looked at the mush cooking makes out of a carrot ? Also, theres no fiber in meat. So how can a SAD diet keep a person moving ? It seems to me that constipation is not so much a problem of to much fiber but rather a lack of it. But then I'm not a Doctor so what do I know about my own body ?

Any digestive issue can be handled 100% raw. The key is simply DO NOT eat what irritates and EAT what doesn't irritate. Find that mix, take ALL guru's with a grain of salt and above all else be PATIENT, PATIENT, PATIENT. You need to create your own style of eating, if you live off of only 2 foods for a period of time, so be it. It takes time to rebuild and get to that even road. Most people average a year to get stable, everyone varies to a large degree also.

David Kleins book is good for IBD related, but be careful since many of his guidelines are actually IBS trigger foods. Hopefully the second edition of his book got it right.

It can be and is hell to those who truly suffer and many misdiagnose themselves with IBS unfortunately too.

I wish you the best :O)

Coco:

So colonics was a big help with your gut I take it, after 2 months of a stable diet... And the master cleanse (which I have heard is mild in some ways, lemon juice / cayenne / water..., but still I have not tried it myself, so I can not say, and it depends on the individual). I myself have quite the history, I don't even know where to begin, but about 4-5 years ago, "doctors" who put me on NSAIDs after rib complaints, a couple months of that and my diet + many other factors, and soon enough I had ulcerative colitis manifesting, and a couple months later a hospitalization for massive diverticulitis. It has been years and I have been vegetarian around 1 year, and started vectoring towards 80/10/10 2 months or so ago, but have not gone long periods yet due to a few different factors. So I ate cooked food for a week or so staying at a temple and on the road, I have an appointment tomorrow and for colonics, after 3-4 days of being on all fruit, a bit of gut pain (not much) and lots of bowel movements, wondering what your opinion on colonics in this immediate case is. I quit allopathic medicine for my gut about a year ago.

Really I am showing a slight piece of the puzzle, just a ray from the image.
But anyone with colonics experience + IBS/IBD would be interested to know how much caution is necessary, I have not had bleeding for years, only when the condition first started, also have not had diverticular flare as far as I know for many months, if thats what that pain was.... Not sure what causes the pain now, cleansing out with fruit. I need intestinal cleansing, many kinds of cleansing, have many things to heal from, but yet this is only part of what occupies me, on the physical levels.

Forgive the scattered late night post.

Thanks.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/19/2008 05:52AM by SatCitAnanda.

Shylight I am so sorry. I was told in iridology I had IBS. Which is crap because I feel fine. Now I know what it is. I am so sorry. I hope you beat this.

In my opinion colonics are very useful in water fasting to remove toxins from the colon but they are not as useful when eating because once the colon is emptied out the food just sits there until either the next colonic or there is enough food built up in the colon to move it through the colon. The natural way of moving the food using persistalsis ( [www.merriam-webster.com] ) does a great job of "wisking" out the contents of the colon like a broom sweeping out the debris provided there is a good quality and quantity of fiber to keep the contents of the colon moving.

SatCitAnanda yes, colonic helped me very much but i did not have such a severe case as yours.
have you considered consulting a homeopath or a naturopath? you may find some help there.
i would focus on what will work to help you now, raw can always come in the future.
best of luck to you!