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Comment by thevagrant | Hacker News Reader

I'd add that it helps to also drop other processed foods. Avoid sugar, chocolate, soda, sugar free drinks. Use spices sparingly.

Eat home cooked meals, use large variety of vegetables and large portion of vegetables with meals. Add garlic to home cooked meals. Once feeling able, eat fruit regularly.

Improvements may take months to be noticeable. Once healed, bowel movement normalizes.

Solved my own gut issues that way. They'll flair if I go back to processed foods for any length of time.

Exercise is also a key component to keep inflammation at bay. Take up running or biking.

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Avoid sugar free drinks?

> Use spices sparingly.

> Add garlic to home cooked meals.

Those two things aren’t compatible.

Is there any science behind these declarations or is it mainly a rehash of what you happened to do when your issues went away?

Garlic is not a spice. It is an allium, in the same family as onions and leeks.

Not sure what definition of spice you're using, but Wikipedia calls it "a plant substance primarily used for flavoring food", which garlic definitely is.

I would define a spice as a non-nutritive plant substance used for flavoring and not consumed as an independent entity. Garlic is not non-nutritive, and it is consumed by many people as a whole food. Whole roasted heads of garlic are awesome.

Chilli peppers are also consumed as independent entities, but chilli powder is definitely a spice. Similarly ginger.

Why does it need to be non-nutritive? That would rule out things like ginger, many chili peppers, some plant greens like basil, even sesame seeds. I would consider all of the above spices, as well as garlic.

I would consider all of those to be vegetables, herbs, or other types of consumables, not spices. I would consider dried and ground chili peppers a spice, and fresh whole ones to be a vegetable.

That seems reasonable. But then to bring it back around full circle- would garlic then indeed be a spice, when used as an individual clove finely chopped in a larger dish for flavoring purposes (or garlic powder), by the same logic you're applying to peppers?

Not a big deal though. It sounds like you apply stricter categorical food definitions than I do, and that's fine. It's hard to draw exact lines.

My apologies - fresh ingredients like those would be fine in my case. I was unclear and meant processed spices in powdered form which seem to act as some kind of gut irritant (for me)

I guarantee you just about every spice eaten at the same bulk as a head of garlic would be 'nutritive.' Especially fresh.

Drinks sweetened with Stevia may be ok. I guess each person has to experiment. I've read that artificial sweeteners alter the gut flora in a bad way.

Spices - I meant dried form powdered spices. Yes n=1. I found this out when I read of cinnamon benzoate free diet used to treat other conditions.

I went from drinking a lot of coke / soda / fruit juice drinks to the natural progression of cutting back on sugar. I kept drinking sugar free versions of various drinks for a long time. I then cut them completely as they had a negative effect for me. If you drink one, it's not obvious and may not be an issue. Drinking those things every day... maybe some people are ok but eventually my body rejected that.

Water, tea, coffee are ok in my experience..

I am not claiming a cure, I added suggestions to include with the parent posters advice that I found helpful. As always work with your doctor and follow their advice.

> Drinks sweetened with Stevia may be ok. I guess each person has to experiment. I've read that artificial sweeteners alter the gut flora in a bad way.

I think the query around "sugar-free drinks" was that this phrase would normally include drinks like water that have no sugar or artificial sweeteners rather than just artificially sweetened drinks.

Warning - garlic and onions can be terrible for those with IBS triggered by FODMAPs.

That's true. I know someone who can eat fresh garlic but can't eat onions (explosive D). I don't know why - I suspect each person has different gut bacteria that can cause or trigger these problems.

This is about as confusing as it can get. Avoid sugars but also eat fruit regularly? Don't use spices but also add garlic?

It's not confusing. Refined sugar by itself or in processed foods is not healthy. Fruit has fiber and nutrients that are helpful for the body.

I listed things that helped me. Fresh garlic (I should have been specific) on a regular basis has been good in my case. Spices (specifically dried powder form - sorry this wasn't clear), in my case, they tend to be a gut irritant.

refined sugar is almost the exact same stuff that is in most fruits, just the balance between glucose and fructose is slight different. It makes no sense to recommend fruits while advising to not eat anything with refined sugars in it.

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