Are Fruits And Vegetables Ok For Ibs Diet Plan?

If you have irritable bowel syndrome, or IBS, you're probably familiar with the cramping and other intestinal symptoms that can follow many meals. Diet plays a huge role in both causing and controlling IBS symptoms, according to the University of Arizona. Although some people may notice that particular fruits and vegetables make their condition worse, you should include a wide variety of fruits and vegetables in your IBS diet plan.

Condition

You may be diagnosed with IBS if you have a group of symptoms, including abdominal pain or discomfort, bloating, intestinal gas, diarrhea and constipation, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Technically, if you have IBS, you don't have a disease. Instead, you have a functional disorder in your digestive system, meaning your digestive system fails to process food properly. Medicine hasn't identified a cause for IBS.

Diet Basics

Most treatments for IBS involve changing your diet, according to Penn State College of Medicine. Mild cases of IBS often respond to a low-fat, high fiber diet, which should include lots of fruits, vegetables and healthy whole grains. If you have IBS, there's no medical reason not to eat as many fruits and vegetables as you wish.

Trigger Foods

However, some people with IBS may find that particular types of fruits and vegetables may trigger worse symptoms, according to Penn State Medical School. For example, cabbage and beans seem to cause IBS symptoms in many people. In others, fructose, found in most fruits, may cause cramping, bloating, diarrhea or constipation.

Elimination Diet

If you want to determine which fruits and vegetables cause problems for you, your physician may recommend you keep a diary of everything you eat over the course of several weeks, according to Penn State Medical School. This diary, when coupled with a log of your symptoms over the same time period, may allow you to identify specific fruits and vegetables that seem to cause problems repeatedly.

Considerations

If you have problems with gas, consider cutting back on cruciferous vegetables, which include the known trigger cabbage, along with broccoli and cauliflower. You may also look at your consumption of fruit juices that contain a large amount of fructose, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center. Otherwise, other foods such as caffeine, alcohol and chocolate are much more likely to cause IBS symptoms than fruits and vegetables. Actually, ramping up your consumption of fruits and vegetables may help you control your IBS.