Do you suffer from diarrhea? For many people it’s the bane of their lives.
This week we’re taking a look at what causes it and how you can stop it with Diarrhea. 5 food groups to avoid. (If you missed my post on Constipation check it out here.)
I was watching telly the other night when an ad for a capsule to stop diarrhea came on. It got me thinking about how awful it must be to 
have chronic diarrhea that’s so bad that the first thing you do when you go to a new restaurant, office, shopping centre, park etc is to check out where the nearest toilets are.
If you suffer from a sore tummy, feel bloated, have cramps and never feel that you’ve passed enough, then read on to find out what’s causing it and what to eat to stop it.
What causes diarrhea?
There are many causes of chronic diarrhea, the most common is inflammation of the large intestine known as colitis. This takes on many forms including irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), ulcerative colities (UC) and Crohn’s Disease (CD).
It can also be caused by infectious diseases such as Giardia lamblia, following acute viral, bacterial, or parasitic infections. These diseases are normally treated with antibiotics, but in most cases such as IBS, IBD, UC and Crohn’s, doctors can never find the root cause of the colitis.
As Dr. John McDougall says:
The main reason chronic colitis is rarely healed is because almost all practicing doctors believe that the foods we eat have little or nothing to do with the health of our intestine (or for that matter our entire body). They cannot imagine that what remains for hours and sometimes days in contact with the lining of our intestinal tract could have a thing to do with its health.
This misunderstanding is as preposterous as a doctor believing that what people breathed had no affect on their lung health or that substances that contact a patient’s skins rarely caused skin disease.
If your colitis never goes away despite the drugs you’re taking then look at what you’re eating. Typical western diets are full of foods that cause you to feel unwell on a daily basis, here are the top 5 culprits that you need to cut from your diet as soon as possible to stop your diarrhea.
Diarrhea. 5 Food Groups To Avoid.
- Animal protein
- Animal fats
- Vegetable fats
- Refined carbohydrates
- Dairy
And if you find that you still have the colitis then try cutting out wheat as you may find you have an intolerance to it.
Why you should cut out these 5 foods
The typical western diet that these foods contribute to are high in fat, indigestible milk sugar (lactose), low in dietary fiber, carbohydrates and plant chemicals (phytochemicals) and have been shown to do nothing for you but to make you ill. Many studies have been conducted to understand the link between what you eat and these diseases, I’ve listed a number of them at the end of this post for you to check out if you want to. For example, in 58% of IBS cases, people have been shown to be intolerant to milk wheat and eggs, fiber has been shown to significantly improve the symptoms of people suffering from IBS and probiotics, the friendly intestinal bacteria have been shown to successfully treat IBS too.
What you should eat
Plant based whole food! Eating unprocessed foods such as starches, fruits and vegetables cause lots of healthy bacteria to grow in the intestine that love to gorge on plant sugars called oligosaccharides, that are found in the starches, vegetables, and fruits. In studies it’s been shown that this healthy bacteria will stop your abdominal pain.
Studies have also shown that people who eat lots of refined carbs and not enough fruit veg are more likely to get Crohn’s Disease and animal products that naturally have a lot of sulfur containing amino acids have been shown to cause IBD as they promote the production in the bowel of hydrogen sulfide that’s been found to be toxic to the cells of the colon.
If you have Crohn’s Disease you’ll notice a huge benefit in cutting out fat from your diet. Your liver won’t produce as much bile as it would if you did and as you know, bile’s your problem as your ileum, which would normally re-absorb the bile, is often damaged and so it can’t reabsorb it, which means that it runs into your large intestine where it causes havoc for you in the form of irritation and discharge.
If you eat plant based whole foods you’ll help to bind and neutralise lots of the bile acids. Plus the fibre will also absorb lots of the free water in your poo.
So, if you want healthy intestines and bowels eat the good stuff and your insides will thank you for it every single day.
How long does it take to work?
Try it for four months to see how you get on. You should see an improvement after 7 days.
Why don’t you give it a try and let me know how you get on? It could be the cure you’ve been waiting for!
Sign-up today to receive my newsletter straight to your inbox every week.
We value your privacy and would never spam you
References:
1) Zar S. Food hypersensitivity and irritable bowel syndrome. Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2001 Apr;15(4):439-49.
2) Niec AM. Are adverse food reactions linked to irritable bowel syndrome?
Am J Gastroenterol. 1998 Nov;93(11):2184-90.
3) Jones VA. Food intolerance: a major factor in the pathogenesis of irritable bowel syndrome. Lancet. 1982 Nov 20;2(8308):1115-7.
4) Nanda R. Food intolerance and the irritable bowel syndrome. Gut. 1989 Aug;30(8):1099-104.
5) Manning AP. Wheat fibre and irritable bowel syndrome. A controlled trial. Lancet. 1977 Aug 27;2(8035):417-8.
6) Lambert JP. The value of prescribed ‘high-fibre’ diets for the treatment of the irritable bowel syndrome. Eur J Clin Nutr. 1991 Dec;45(12):601-9.
7) Parisi GC. High-fiber diet supplementation in patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS): a multicenter, randomized, open trial comparison between wheat bran diet and partially hydrolyzed guar gum (PHGG). Dig Dis Sci. 2002 Aug;47(8):1697-704.
8) Niedzielin K. A controlled, double-blind, randomized study on the efficacy of Lactobacillus plantarum 299V in patients with irritable bowel syndrome. Eur J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2001 Oct;13(10):1143-7.
9) Bazzocchi G. Intestinal microflora and oral bacteriotherapy in irritable bowel syndrome. Dig Liver Dis. 2002 Sep;34 Suppl 2:S48-53.
10) Gionchetti P. Oral bacteriotherapy as maintenance treatment in patients with chronic pouchitis: a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Gastroenterology. 2000 Aug;119(2):305-9.
11) Karlinger K. The epidemiology and the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease. Eur J Radiol. 2000 Sep;35(3):154-67.
12) Tragnone A. Dietary habits as risk factors for inflammatory bowel disease.
Eur J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 1995 Jan;7(1):47-51.
13) Wright R. Circulating antibodies to dietary proteins in ulcerative colitis. Br Med J 2:142-44, 1965.
14) Mahmud N. The urban diet and Crohn’s disease: is there a relationship? Eur J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2001 Feb;13(2):93-5.
15) Brandes JW. Sugar free diet: a new perspective in the treatment of Crohn disease? Randomized, control study] Z Gastroenterol. 1981 Jan;19(1):1-12.
16) Samuelsson SM. Risk factors for extensive ulcerative colitis and ulcerative proctitis: a population based case-control study. Gut. 1991 Dec;32(12):1526-30.
17) A case-control study of ulcerative colitis in relation to dietary and other factors in Japan. The Epidemiology Group of the Research Committee of Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Japan. J Gastroenterol. 1995 Nov;30 Suppl 8:9-12.
18) Magee E. A nutritional component to inflammatory bowel disease: the contribution of meat to fecal sulfide excretion. Nutrition. 1999 Mar;15(3):244-6.
19) Levine J. Fecal hydrogen sulfide production in ulcerative colitis. Am J Gastroenterol. 1998 Jan;93(1):83-7.
20) Roediger W. Sulphide impairment of substrate oxidation in rat colonocytes: a biochemical basis for ulcerative colitis? Clin Sci (Lond). 1993 Nov;85(5):623-7.
21) J Pennington. Bowes & Church’s Food Values of Portions Commonly Used. 17th Ed. Lippincott. Philadelphia- New York. 1998.
22) Giaffer MH. Controlled trial of polymeric versus elemental diet in treatment of active Crohn’s disease. Lancet. 1990 Apr 7;335(8693):816-9.
23) Riordan AM. Treatment of active Crohn’s disease by exclusion diet: East Anglian multicentre controlled trial. Lancet. 1993 Nov 6;342(8880):1131-4.
24) Jones VA. Crohn’s disease: maintenance of remission by diet. Lancet. 1985 Jul 27;2(8448):177-80.
25) Candy S. The value of an elimination diet in the management of patients with ulcerative colitis. S Afr Med J. 1995 Nov;85(11):1176-9.
26) Wright R. A controlled therapeutic trial of various diets in ulcerative colitis. Br Med J 1965;22:138-41.
27) Workman EM. Diet in the management of Crohn’s disease. Hum Nutr Appl Nutr. 1984 Dec;38(6):469-73.
28) Heaton KW. Treatment of Crohn’s disease with an unrefined-carbohydrate, fibre-rich diet. Br Med J. 1979 Sep 29;2(6193):764-6.
29) Truelove, S. Ulcerative colitis provoked by milk. Br Med J 1:154, 1961.
30) Wright, R. A controlled therapeutic trial of various diets in ulcerative colitis. Br Med J 2:138, 1965.