My IBS Flare Up Was Caused By WHAT?!

I discovered that I have IBS back when I was in my early twenties. If you don’t know what IBS is, it’s an agonizing stomach issue, which seems to affect sufferers differently and to varying degrees. Flare-ups are difficult, if not darn near impossible, to predict. Triggers vary greatly among sufferers as well. The worst thing is there is no cure. You simply have to learn to sort of live around your IBS. There are now some medications available on the market, but I prefer to treat my IBS holistically. It’s what’s worked for me over the years so I’ll stick with that.

So…what has worked for me? Well, one MAJOR change I made was eliminating gluten from my diet. I won’t pretend to completely understand the ins and outs of how gluten is processed in the body. I’ll only say that, once I stopped eating gluten, I went from having biweekly IBS flare ups to having a flare up maybe once every six months or so. In other words, the difference for me was like night and day.

Recently, when I began having terrible IBS symptoms out of the blue, I was perplexed. I was faithfully eating a gluten-free diet. I don’t overeat fiber too many days in a row (another known issue for me). No more GMOs or premade, processed foods. What the heck was it? Well after finally narrowing down the one thing I was “eating” a light bulb went off. Could it be??

After consulting my good friend Google (via IBS message boards, of course) I was relieved and a bit shocked to find that it was the sugar free gum I had only recently started chewing. It just so happened to be Orbit in my case, but it certainly could have been any sugar free gum. It has something to do with the sugar alcohols that are released in the stomach.

Sugar alcohols aren’t actually sugar and they aren’t alcohol. There are FOUR sugar substitute chemicals commonly found in sugar free gum:  maltitol, mannitol, sorbitol and xylitol. These are the sugar alcohols, which are really non-sugar carbs. These are the culprits that can wreak havoc on your digestive system because they actually have a laxative effect in the stomach. I know! Some people are more sensitive than others (people with certain stomach issues like IBS, for instance).

I was shocked, since I consider myself so cautious about everything I eat (chew) and drink. Needless to say, I immediately omitted the Orbit and bam…problem solved. I've since gone back to my trusty peppermint candy (non-sugar free) and all is well - side note: peppermint is amazing for settling an upset tummy!

I hope you found value in this information. It took me a few days of agony to figure out what was going on and I was dumbfounded when I discovered that a little piece of gum was tearing up my tummy. Hopefully, my experience will help you too! As always, comments are welcome below.