How to Treat Irritable Bowel Syndrome With Your Diet

Video Transcript

"With irritable bowel, you know if you are trying to treat it with diet, you have to be thinking about what type of fiber you are eating. The type of fiber makes all the difference. For example, if you are eating oat fibers, which are what we call soluble fiber or apple fiber that actually helps the condition. Because it is a smooth fiber that moves through the intestine, and does not cause any irritation. On the other hand there are fiber rich foods that can cause irritation like nut fibers, and popcorn that actually makes the irritation worse. So one has to be really careful about the type of fiber, and focus on the soluble, and actually eliminate some of the insoluble. Even wheat bran can be irritating. So a lot of people are told by their doctor, "oh I need to increase my fiber for this irritable bowel." They end up getting these wheat bran cereals like Fiber One, and it actually makes it worse. So you always want to focus on what we call the soluble fibers like the oat, like the apple, and get away from the wheat fiber, the popcorn, and the nuts. In addition to that irritable bowel can also be made worse by the type of fat in a diet. Certain fats what we call the omega-6, which are often your vegetable fats like corn oil, canola oil can actually cause more inflammation and make it worse. On the other hand fish oil will do the opposite. The omega-3 fats reduce inflammation. So the type of fat in the diet can also be a factor for making it worse or better."