What You Should Not Be Eating When You Have IBS

Irritable bowel syndrome affects roughly 20% of the population. The constant bloating, gas, cramping, and unpredictable bathroom urgency don't just wreck your digestion. They fuel anxiety, drain your energy, and keep you scanning every room for the nearest exit.

Your gut isn't broken because you're weak or dramatic. It's struggling because certain foods trigger inflammatory cascades and bacterial overgrowth that your intestinal lining can't handle anymore.

Here's what needs to go, and why.

Remove ALL Grains First

Yes, even the "healthy whole grains" the USDA and food pyramid told you to eat six servings of daily.

This includes: bulgur, whole wheat flour, oats, corn, popcorn, brown rice, rye, barley, farro, wild rice, buckwheat, triticale, millet, quinoa, and sorghum.

Why grains wreck your gut:

Most grains contain gluten and gliadin (proteins that trigger zonulin release in your intestinal wall). Zonulin blows open the tight juncti...

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A to Z Guide to the Foods that Contain Your Food Allergies

You've identified your food sensitivities. You're avoiding wheat, corn, dairy, soy, or eggs.

Then symptoms return, and you have no idea why.

The problem: these ingredients hide in packaged foods under different names. Modified food starch. Maltodextrin. Lecithin. Hydrolyzed vegetable protein. Natural flavoring.

You're eating your allergens without realizing it.

Here's a comprehensive reference guide to every place your trigger foods show up—including the hidden names manufacturers use to obscure their presence.

Why This Matters

Food manufacturers don't make allergen avoidance easy. The same product from two different brands can contain completely different ingredients derived from entirely different sources.

"Natural flavoring" might mean corn derivatives in one product and soy in another. "Modified food starch" could be wheat, corn, or p...

Food Allergy 101: The Basics of Food Allergies and Sensitivities

Exhausted after a full night's sleep? Constantly bloated? Digestive issues that won't resolve?

Your body might be reacting to what you're eating.

Food allergies and sensitivities don't always show up as hives or anaphylaxis. More often, they present as chronic low-grade symptoms that chip away at your energy, digestion, immune function, and overall health—without you realizing food is the culprit.

Here's what you need to know about how food sensitivities work and why they matter.

Two Types of Food Reactions

Food reactions fall into two distinct categories, and understanding the difference is critical for identifying what's affecting you.

Immediate Food Reactions (IgE-mediated)

These are classic food allergies. Your immune system recognizes a specific food (shellfish, peanuts, tree nuts) as a threat and launches an immediate response.

Symptoms appear within minutes to eight hours after eating the trigger food. Rea...

What Causes a Food Allergy

Food allergies and sensitivities are increasing at rates that don't match genetic timelines. Your genes didn't change in the last 30 years. Something else did.

Understanding what causes food allergies requires looking beyond "your immune system overreacts" and examining the specific breakdowns in digestion, gut barrier function, and immune regulation that create allergic responses.

Here's what's actually happening and why it matters.

The Mechanism: How Food Allergies Develop

A food allergy is an immune system response to a protein your body recognizes as a foreign invader.

About 70-80% of your immune system lives in your digestive tract. When food proteins trigger immune reactions in the gut, the response cascades throughout your entire system.

The breakdown process:

1. Incomplete digestion. When your stomach doesn't produce enough hydrochloric acid or your pancreas doesn't secrete adequate digestive enzymes, food proteins don't break down completely i
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