Quote: I was way too scared to cheat til I was stable! But recently I have cheated a lot and different types of isolated cheating has given different results. Keep it rare and stick to my cheating "rules" and you hopefully will be OK, it has worked for me. I haven't gotten the "doubled over" abdominal pain that I had constantly before I stabilised since. Note that I have only had red meat once when I couldn't get out of it (friend made dinner and all choices were incredibly unsafe) and it did bring on some D and cramping..
My cheating "rules" are as follows;
1. NEVER cheat on an empty stomach
2. Don't overdo the cheat eg a steak with fries and cheese sauce! Have a piece of steak or some fries with your normal safe meal. Right. I cheat regularly in very small amounts. But Heather mentions this in her writings so I never considered not doing it. I will have 1T. of cheese or 2 bites of dessert or 2 bites of steak and that sort of thing. But on a full stomach and with a LOW FAT meal and not too often either.
3. beware alcohol cheating- this is my most frequent cheat and I only do it when it is sooo worth it...it WILL give you C/D and stomach ache if you overdo it and with some drinks even if you only have half a glass (beer is bad )
4. Each cheat will have side effects- like wind, urgency etc so be prepared for whatever it is. accidental cheats (when I don't realize what is in something etc) give me D usually.
5. Don't cheat constantly or you will destabilise
-------------------- IBS-A for 20 years with terrible bloating and gas. On the diet since April 2004. Remember this from Heather's information pages:
"You absolutely must eat insoluble fiber foods, and as much as safely possible, but within the IBS dietary guidelines. Treat insoluble fiber foods with suitable caution, and you'll be able to enjoy a wide variety of them, in very healthy quantities, without problem." Please eat IF foods!