Re: Big ol' question

True about the grains - the first thing I thought when I read that you have IBS & eat oats, pasta & bread was, "gluten intolerance". It goes unrecognised in so many people because celiac disease is presumed to be rare and symptoms come in different forms, but IBS is a big clue. If you went vegetarian you'd probably be eating even more gluten grains which (I believe) is why a lot of vegetarian/vegan folks are in poor health - their diet is based on gluten grains which is the very thing they're intolerant to.

(By the way, I think IBS is a ridiculous name for a condition, and just something doctors have come up with when they have no clue what's wrong with a patient. It's just a label, it tells you nothing about the root cause.)

You might want to try cutting out all grains as Ayehasherayeh suggested, but it's not strictly necessary to see if gluten is your problem. First try eliminating ALL wheat, rye, barley & oats from your diet (and I mean ALL, because they - especially wheat - are hidden in all kinds of processed foods) and see if that helps. I expect it will. You can still eat the gluten-free grains rice, quinoa, millet, amaranth and buckwheat. At the same time make an effort to include a decent portion of veggies/fruits at every mealtime. Learn to cook veggies so that they're tasty to eat, too - that certainly encouraged me to eat more of them! Good luck getting better. Tweet