IBS-D - How I Healed My Gut Naturally
I want to start by saying that I went to doctors multiple times, and in the beginning they refused to do tests because I was still “young.” They dismissed me so many times. My symptoms started showing up when I was 14, and every year it became worse and worse.
For over 3 years of my life, I was basically shitting water a minimum of 5 times per day. I followed all the usual advice: don’t eat dairy, eat more fruit, eat more fiber, etc. Even when I completely removed dairy from my life, it still continued.
About 2 years ago, I started talking with a therapist about life issues, not just IBS, and he told me something that changed my life.
At that point, I couldn’t live a normal life. Sometimes I would puke and shit at the same time. I weighed 44 kg at 21 years old, and I’m 170 cm tall. I had no energy. Food became something I wanted to eat, but I knew my body wasn’t digesting it properly. Either I got diarrhea immediately, or the food felt so heavy in my stomach that I had to lie down because I couldn’t even stand up.
Then he asked me: “What did your ancestors eat?”
My ancestors ate a Mediterranean diet. Then he asked how much fiber I was eating, and he told me I was eating way too much fiber for my body. He said the body can only handle a certain amount, and the rest just passes through.
So I started experimenting and eventually put myself on a strict diet for about 6–7 months:
- All vegetables were cooked
- Only 1 fruit per day
- Breakfast was eggs and white bread
- No dairy at all
- No beans
- No seeds
- No avocado or other types of high fiber fruit or vegetables
I mostly ate carrots, bell peppers, bamboo shoots, corn, tomatoes, and some fermented foods like kimchi. I cooked mostly chicken, fish, and minced meat, along with pasta, rice, and sometimes potatoes.
No fried food. No breaded food. No ultra-processed food. No eating out at restaurants. No extra fiber or hard-to-digest vegetables like cucumber and kale. I also only used olive oil for cooking.
Honestly, this became my life. It wasn’t bad at all, but it was hard to commit to.
Today, things are very different. I can slowly eat feta cheese again. I can eat buffalo mozzarella again. I can eat vegetables again. I can eat parmesan again. I can even eat beans again. After around 9 months, I slowly started reintroducing foods that I hadn’t eaten for years.
Most importantly: I started pooping like a normal human being again.
I also started working out again, and today I weigh 55 kg.
I’m still sensitive to dairy, some beans, and kale, but I’m finally starting to feel normal again. It feels like this “friend” of mine called IBS-D is slowly fading away.
And last year, after years of being dismissed, I finally got diagnosed with IBS-D. They finally did stool tests and full blood work on me.
I just wanted to share this because for years I kept reading “eat more fiber,” “do this,” “do that,” but I honestly think keeping it simple helped me the most: no harsh foods, no heavily processed food, no fried food. I think I basically reset my stomach bacteria without any medication.