Introduction Hi there! I'm Rebecca, and for most of my 20s I've suffered from IBS-D: Irritable Bowel Syndrome - Diarrhea. It sounds a lot better as an acronym, doesn't it? I'd often use those four letters or sometimes I would simply tell people I have a "digestive disorder" to avoid saying "irritable," "bowel," or "diarrhea." But that's the truth: I had diarrhea every day for nearly a decade. "Every day" is certainly a shocker, but the word that jumps out to me now is "had." That's right, I don't have IBS any more! I'm through to the light at the end of the tunnel and have regular bowel movements like I did as a child. It was a long journey, though. During the earlier part of my time with IBS, I did have hope that I could change my health around. I would bring it into focus, day after day, but soon another year would go by with daily diarrhea. And another. And another. It got to the point where I could no longer imagine myself without this condition. Was this going to be my reality forever? In the pages to follow you'll read my story—from being a midwestern kid in the '90s to spending some of my 20s living abroad in Spain, South Korea, and France—through the lens of my digestive health. I'm sharing this journey freely and publicly in the hopes that you will feel less alone, be encouraged to advocate for yourself when interacting with health professionals, perhaps discover some new ideas to try, and see that big transformation happens one day at a time. Before we dive in, here's a quick disclaimer just so it's super clear: I am not a medical professional and the information in this e-book is not meant to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Sound good? Okay, here we go! 1 Contents Part One: The Beginning......................................................................................................... 4 Childhood Diet…………………………………………………………………………………………… 4 Bagels and Cream Cheese……………....…………………………………………………...…………. 5 Eating in College………………………………………………………………………………….……… 5 Spain ……………………………………………………………………………………………..….……… 7 Senior Year: Enough Is Enough….....………………………………………………………………… 8 Meeting the Gastroenterologist …………………………………………………………………...….. 9 Taking on IBS……………………………………………………………………………………………. 10 Eastern Medicine in Korea……………………………………………………………………………. 11 Part Two: Have Your Health........................................................................................ 12 The 4-Hour Body……………………………………………………………………………………….. 12 Unexpected Inspiration to Overcome My IBS ……………………...……………………………. 15 What Does It Mean to Be Healthy?...……………………………………………………………….. 16 Gradually Eating "New" Foods……………………………………………………………………..… 19 Taking Probiotics Daily………………………………………………………………………………... 21 Whole Foods: Reductionism vs. Wholeism ………………………………………………………... 23 Struggles of Eating WFPB with Friends Who Don't…………………………………………….. 24 Health Supplements: Take Them or Not?……………...………………………………………….. 25 IBS-D Troubles While Traveling……………...……………………………………………………... 28 Why I Stopped Taking Probiotics………………………………………………………………….... 29 Living Without a Microwave…………………………………………………………………………. 31 Prebiotics …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 33 Cultivate Gratitude: Living Without………………………………………………………………... 36 Health Checkpoint: Rebecca, June 2014 …………..…………………………………………….... 38 Eating for IBS……………………………………………………………………………………………. 40 The Low FODMAP Diet………………………………………………………………………………. 44 Korean Eastern Medicine Experience………………………………………………………………. 48 Food Over Medicine: The Conversation That Could Change Your Life………………….... 51 During Low Times, Find One Positive ……………………...……………………………………... 57 2 November Health Updates……………………………………………………………………………. 58 James Clear: 18 Superb Posts for Better Health…………………………………………………. 60 Where Do Vegetarians and Vegans Get Their Protein?……………………………………….... 62 The Importance of Gratitude ……………………………………………………………………….... 64 Swanson Soil-Based Organisms: A Worthy Supplement? …………………..…………………. 65 Fed Up: It's Time to Get Real About Our Food………………………………………………….. 68 The Omnivore's Dilemma……………………………………………………………………………... 72 Sticking with Dietary Restrictions Over the Holidays………………………………………….. 76 2015 Health Resolutions ……………………………………………………..………………………. 79 Part Three: The Recovery Closing ​Have Your Health​ and Moving to France …………………………...………………….... 81 Personal Sabbatical…………………………………………………………………………………….... 82 Conservation Corps…………………………………………………………………………………….. 83 Going (Almost) Vegan……………………………………………………………………………….... 84 Conclusion................................................................................................................................................. 86 Health Journey Influences.................................................................................................. 88 About the Author......................................................................................................................... 89 3 Part One: The Beginning Childhood Diet I grew up in a family of six and we ate typical American food. Fridays were TV-dinner nights, and we kids would always be so excited to pick out our blue children's TV dinners from the grocery store. If mine had a chocolate brownie in one of the smaller three compartments, that was the best! Saturday mornings were "Donut Days," and the first kid to wake up had their pick of donut for Saturday morning cartoons. My mom made “casserole with the funny noodles” a lot (rice with a can of Campbell's cream of mushroom/chicken, topped with crunchy La Choy chow mein noodles), along with macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, and spaghetti. It wasn't out of the norm for my parents to order pizza for delivery, or to go to McDonald's, Arby's, or Subway if we were out and about in the van. Cold lunch for school was always a PB&J with carrot sticks (packed ourselves) and on Tuesdays we'd also get to bring along a "Tuesday Treat" (a Little Debbie/Hostess snack). The fruits/veggies I was regularly exposed to as a child were carrots, apples, bananas, corn, potatoes, and broccoli. 4 Bagels and Cream Cheese In high school I ate hot lunch more often than not, which would usually be french fries and pizza. My freshman year (2004) I was still a cello player in my state’s youth symphony orchestra. Every Saturday morning on our way to rehearsal we stopped at Kwik-Trip for bagels, as I had the three previous years I was in this orchestra with my sister. I either ate my bagel in the van on the way to rehearsal, or spread on the cream cheese and dug in once I got there. My sister’s rehearsal began an hour before mine, so I would always have some time to hang out and eat my bagel breakfast. At some point that year my stomach started feeling upset before my rehearsals, which sent me to the bathroom. Soon I was spending much of that pre-rehearsal hour in the bathroom—in discomfort. This continued for weeks. I must have shared this information with my mother, because she suggested that perhaps I was becoming lactose intolerant, and the cream cheese was upsetting my stomach. I researched this and found out many people do become lactose intolerant later in life, as the ability to digest lactose is actually a mutation from "the norm." I ditched the cream cheese and things were all right as far as I can remember. When I had a physical that summer (or it could have been years later when I joined cross country my senior year, who knows), I mentioned to my doctor that we thought I might be lactose intolerant. So my doctor printed out a two-page informational handout about lactose intolerance—information I’d already found myself on the internet—and sent me on my way. No test, nothing. For a period of time I took Lactaid chewable tablets when eating dairy, but eventually I switched to soy milk and stopped eating ice cream—though pizza was something I still ate. Eating in College Freshman year of college I began an office job in a department of the university. One of my coworkers kept a candy dish full of jolly ranchers in our office. One of my first days of work, I ate one. Immediately afterwards I didn't feel so well in my stomach and subsequently spent some time in the bathroom. Another afternoon or two the same thing happened after eating a jolly rancher in the office, so I attributed it to the hard candy and stopped eating it. During those first two years of college, many more foods began to upset my stomach. Peanut 5 butter and jelly sandwiches made me feel a certain way. If I had any candy with milk chocolate, I was instantly in the bathroom with diarrhea. Tortilla chips. Plain noodles with butter and parmesan at Noodles and Company. The list goes on. So I began to drink Pepto Bismol. I had it so often that I would drink straight from the bottle, and kept a stock of extra bottles in my dorm-room closet. This was how I thought the system worked: If you have an ailment (diarrhea), you take a medicine (like Pepto Bismol) to get rid of the symptoms. While living in the dorms I would sometimes eat canned food (like Spaghettios) microwaved in my room, otherwise I was at the dining hall, which I thought had a nice variety of good meals. When I lived off campus my sophomore year, my cupboards were usually stocked with cans, and my freezer with pre-made meals. These were the same habits of my roommate; I hadn't been exposed to any other way of grocery shopping and cooking. By this time I was completely used to needing to rush to bathrooms during the day. I spent so much time making uncomfortable noises in stalls, that I would often think about how all bathrooms