Irritable Bowel Syndrome: This Diet Can Help You With Everyday Stomach Pain

A study has found that the Mediterranean diet helps treat irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

 

The Mediterranean diet consists of plant-based foods such as vegetables, fruits, nuts, and beans, as well as fish, small amounts of red meat, and chicken; olive oil, a monounsaturated fatty acid, is primarily used as a cooking oil.

 

A research team led by Professor Heidi Staudacher at the Food and Mood Center at Deakin University in Australia conducted a study to investigate the effects of the Mediterranean diet on the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome.

To this end, the research team divided 59 patients with irritable bowel syndrome into two groups: 29 patients (experimental group) were instructed to follow a Mediterranean diet for six weeks, while 30 patients (control group) were instructed to eat as usual. Subsequently, the irritable bowel syndrome severity assessment scores (IBS-SSS) of the experimental and control groups were compared before and after the experiment.

The study results showed that 83% of the group following a Mediterranean diet saw a decrease in their irritable bowel syndrome severity scores, compared to only 37% of the control group.

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Gastrointestinal symptoms were also found to be milder in the experimental group than in the control group.

 

At the end of the experiment, depressive symptoms also decreased in the experimental group compared to the control group. Patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) often have mental health problems such as depression and anxiety. This is because signal transmission pathways are known to exist between the gut and the brain. Therefore, if the mental health of IBS patients improves, their gut health may also improve.

 

Irritable bowel syndrome is an intractable gastrointestinal disorder characterized by chronic and recurrent abdominal pain, diarrhea, or constipation.

It is known that the cause is unknown and a complete cure is difficult.

 

The research team said, "The overall results show that the Mediterranean diet could be a new way to alleviate symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome."

 

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My husband has a very sensitive stomach.

Mediterranean diet..

It is a small amount of red meat.

I like both meat and fish so much...

 

I guess I need to cut down on meat (red meat).