Eating for Ibs: 175 Delicious, Nutritious, Low-Fat, Low-Residue Recipes to Stabilize the Touchiest Tummy

Customer Reviews

Uplifting, this book gave me back my life!!

Thanks to the Digestive Health magazine my husband brought home from his doctor's office, I found out about the Eating For IBS book and immediately raced to the bookstore to purchase it. I was diagnosed with IBS 5 years ago and all the doctors would say was eat a high fiber diet. Everything on that diet was mainly insoluble fiber. After reading this book I now know why that diet didn't help me. No one ever explained that soluble fiber is much easier on your system.

Now that I've been following the special diet recommended in this book I am 80% better after only 3 weeks. My husband is exstatic!! Prior to this I usually had 2 bad weeks every month! Not only do I feel better physically but also mentally.

This past week I purchased her other book "The First Year IBS" and have already begun to learn how to continue living with my IBS and keeping it under control.

"Eating For IBS" is the greatest book I've read in years! Heather Van Vorous is my hero!

Eliminate the pain and feel like yourself again

I found this book by doing an Internet search on IBS and have to tell you that her advice is sound and it works! I noticed a difference in just a few days and after one week, my stomach pain had gone. I haven't felt this good in a long time. I'm never hungry and I mean never hungry. I'm confident that the reason for this is that my digestive tract is absorbing vitamins and minerals from food that it didn't before. I don't have cravings. Just a day before I started this way of life, I had been eating fried foods, red meat on occasion, dairy and high fat foods that wreck havoc with one's digestion. The author is very much "hands on" and her advice is sound and backed by research. She never makes a statement that she doesn't back up with well-known research by medical professionals.

I can't say enough good things about her books and recipes as well. If you suffer from irritable bowel or if you are plagued with acid reflux, feelings of bloatedness, etc. you need to heed her advice. She is a patient expert and understands based on her own experience. Her books have been recommended by gastroenterologists for a good reason... the recommendations work.

Counterinuitive -- but brilliant

In these days of low-carb mania, it's a real mind-bender to consider that red meat, butter, whole eggs, raw veggies and whole wheat bread might be bad for you -- and that white rice, white bread, and white pasta might actually be good. But for IBS sufferers (at least those like me, with diarrhea-predominant symptoms and lots of gas/bloating) this can indeed be the case. Following Heather's basic strategies has provided wonderful relief in a matter of days -- after months of invasive tests, ineffective medications, and futile advice from docs. Her explanation of the differing effects of soluble and insoluble fiber on IBS sufferers is the key to this diet, and many will find that they can add back "forbidden" foods to some degree after getting their gut stabilized. Who would have thought that eating things in a specific order (like eating the starch before the salad!) could actually have an effect on gut spasms? But for me, that's exactly the case.

The author's sage advice about various fiber supplements and their individual characteristics would be worth the purchase price. (Reviewers who complained that her diet doesn't work for IBS with constipation must not be following her advice about incorporating fiber supplements; I don't see how they could possibly remain blocked up under the regime she outlines.) On top of that, the recipes are great. I love food and cooking and had despaired of ever having fun in the kitchen again -- always worried that what I was putting in my mouth was going to cause great suffering an hour or two later. Playing around with Heather's recipes has brought back the old thrill, and it's stuff the whole family can eat without suspecting it's some kind of special diet. The book is also packed with many interesting and tasty items you'd enjoy serving to guests.

If you're wondering about whether all these reviews can possibly be "for real," or if this is just some stupid and possibly dangerous fad diet -- take the chance and buy this book. The recommendations are healthful, the diet's not going to hurt you, and you have nothing to lose except the hours of suffering currently caused by your IBS.