Irritable Bowel Syndrome is a growing gut affliction which has been associated strongly with diet. Now a Swedish study has revealed, it can be controlled simply by cutting sugar and starch from IBS sufferer’s diets. What could be easier?
It’s a rare thing, indeed, that any affliction – especially one with broadly-based causes such as those involving the gut microbiome – are found to be susceptible to such a simple treatment. But the num-bers produced by the latest Lund University survey are utterly convincing…
What is IBS?
According to the Mayo Clinic, “Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common disorder that affects the stomach and intestines, also called the gastrointestinal tract. Symptoms include cramping, abdom-inal pain, bloating, gas, and diarrhea or constipation, or both. IBS is a chronic condition that you’ll need to manage long term.”
What they did
“We launched this study in 2022 to compare SSRD and Low FODMAP [therapeutic diets],” says study spokesperaon Bodil Ohlsson. “One hundred and fifty-five patients diagnosed with IBS were included and randomly allocated to follow either SSRD or Low FODMAP for four weeks. They were not allowed to have been on a diet at the start of the trial, but rather ate ‘everything’.”
What they found
According to an abstract of the study report, IBS symptoms improved in 75-80 per cent of the patients which, according to Ohlsson, “was even better than we expected.” Sugar cravings also decreased the most in this group.
In addition, weight loss after four weeks was greater in the SSRD group. IBS patients [usually] weigh more on average than healthy people, Ohlsson adds.
The takeaway
“We wouldn’t really even call SSRD a diet. It’s how everyone should eat, not just those with IBS. And unlike Low FODMAP, SSRD is easy to understand and easier to follow,” Ohlsson advises.
“You can eat everything when you are invited to dinner, just less of certain things. If you rest your stomach for the rest of the week, you can indulge a little [on] one day!”
My take
That’s great news for IBS sufferers. And reducing sugars and starches can, other researchers have suggested, benefit folks suffering from related gut disorders.
Thanks to Nutrition Facts panels on most packaged foods in the developed world, it’s easy to find out how much added sugar and carbs any product contains.
If only making a major impact on other major systemic and auto-immune afflictions was as easy and simple as following an eating regime such as LowFODMAP… Imagine how much healthier – and happier – the world would be!
~ Maggie J.