Hi everyone You guys have been so helpful with my own stuff....now I'm asking on behalf of my parents, who are starting to be interested (finally! after five years of my trying to convince them!!!!) in the Zone diet. PROBLEM: My mom, 73 yrs old, probably has irritable bowel syndrome; she can't tolerate many foods. There was a time she couldn't tolerate milk, switched over to soy milk, but is returning to regular milk again. She's has this unknown problem with pains in her stomach for years. Also, she can't tolerate too much roughage - this is due to her age probably, she thinks. She'd like to try this approach, but want a really simple approach; nothing too complicated. My dad, 73 too, has high blood pressure sometimes, exercises a great deal - two hours a day - to bring his blood pressure down and also these exercises are medically prescribed to keep him flexible. He doesn't have to take a lot of medicine, though, because he's been very proactive in exercising to keep his blood pressure down as much as possible. He, too, has a great deal of difficulty tolerating roughage. And...you know what the problem is, don't you? The zone diet requires eating a lot of roughage! We're talking about three cups of broccilli, etc. They certainly won't eat that way!!!! So, what foods can they eat that doesn't upset their stomaches? Dad eats a big mound of mashed potatoes....he needs a reasonably tasty, not-too-hard-to-digest substitute for mashed potatoes. He's a very meat-and-potato man. Mom likes to try new things, though.... Any specific suggestions re: how to modify the Zone diet so the roughage doesn't upset their stomaches, but they still don't have elevated insulin levels due to the GI of the food they eat? THANKS. Alexy/AlexyHan/Sandra.

[Hi Alexi, quote="alexyhan"]Hi everyone You guys have been so helpful with my own stuff....now I'm asking on behalf of my parents, who are starting to be interested (finally! after five years of my trying to convince them!!!!) in the Zone diet. PROBLEM: My mom, 73 yrs old, probably has irritable bowel syndrome; she can't tolerate many foods. There was a time she couldn't tolerate milk, switched over to soy milk, but is returning to regular milk again. She's has this unknown problem with pains in her stomach for years. Also, she can't tolerate too much roughage - this is due to her age probably, she thinks. She'd like to try this approach, but want a really simple approach; nothing too complicated. My dad, 73 too, has high blood pressure sometimes, exercises a great deal - two hours a day - to bring his blood pressure down and also these exercises are medically prescribed to keep him flexible. He doesn't have to take a lot of medicine, though, because he's been very proactive in exercising to keep his blood pressure down as much as possible. He, too, has a great deal of difficulty tolerating roughage. And...you know what the problem is, don't you? The zone diet requires eating a lot of roughage! We're talking about three cups of broccilli, etc. They certainly won't eat that way!!!! So, what foods can they eat that doesn't upset their stomaches? Dad eats a big mound of mashed potatoes....he needs a reasonably tasty, not-too-hard-to-digest substitute for mashed potatoes. He's a very meat-and-potato man. Mom likes to try new things, though.... Any specific suggestions re: how to modify the Zone diet so the roughage doesn't upset their stomaches, but they still don't have elevated insulin levels due to the GI of the food they eat? THANKS. Alexy/AlexyHan/Sandra.[/quote] your questions are good and complex , 2 choices. 1 ..Post in ask Dr, Sears 2..Post in ask anne-marie in anne-marie.ca decide on the answer. I sure hope Dr. Sears gets back to answering his own questions because the latest replys have been blatently WRONG?? White Light

Appreciate it!

Hi! I was reading your post and it sounded very familiar to my own situation. I have been trying to get my parents (in their 60's) to follow the zone diet for a while now. My mother had the same stomach problems as what you describe your mother having, which made it quite difficult for her to eat all the vegetables needed in the zone. First, we took care of her stomach problems. Which was easier than most think. She followed a program that within a week started to help her, and she was able to stop all prescriptions for stomach medicines, (nexium, etc..). In the past she had seen several doctors for treating her IBS and other stomach ailments and most just stuck her on another medicine. Luckily, we were able to find a program that made sense and treated the cause, not just the symptoms. Now that her intestines are strong again, she can eat just about anything, yes, even milk and diary products! She used to complain that she could never eat all the vegtables I would suggest for her to eat, now she loads up on them and has lost 10 pounds. My next goal is to get both parents to break their habit of coffee and dessert everynight after dinner! Wish me luck! :wink: crumbelina

Can you elaborate, I wonder? My mom really struggling. Thanks Sandra

Hi! You can read the program for yourself at http://www.drdahlman.com/treatment.htm# The doctor that wrote this program has treated over 1500 IBS patients, you can down load this program for free and Dr. Dahlman also answers questions by email or you may call him for a brief question free of charge. I just happened to stumble across his site one day when I was looking for info on IBS, for myself as well as for my mom. After reading his program which was 15 pages long, I could see he knew what he was talking about (more than any doctors I had visited!) So before starting my mom on the program, I began it for myself with amazing results! Since then my mom has had her own amazing results and I must say (being in her 60's) she wasn't able to follow the program as precisely as I was and she still received all the benefits. I think everyone should read this program, it taught me so much about the digestive system. Especially about all the antacids that people use and why they are so bad for us. It really is a great article and I hope you are able to help your parents with it. crumbelina :P

I checked out the URL and he's pretty convincing, but it's much too long an article, not reader-friendly, and also it looks kind of questionable, partly because of the appearance, partly because he's selling pills, it seems; he's profiting from this...I have a hard time enough trying to get mom to consider zone food without yet another thing to try to convince her about.... how long has your mom been well, i.e., without IRS, I wonder? can you tell me a bit more about her experiences, how long it took her to overcome her IRS, etc? Alexy

i don't mean to sound critical, sorry if i appear that way...honestly it does sound as if the program has had a dramatic impact and that's really cool...i'd love to hear more about it, so that eventually i could, perhaps, introduce my mom to it...who knows? Alexy

Hi Alexy! I can certainly understand where you would question a doctor who sells products! Actually I had the same reaction at first. I thought here we go again, just someone trying to make money off of me! But while reading the article I noticed that this doctor listed the items he thought necessary to treat IBS, he listed full names and amounts to take daily and mentioned that you can pick these up at just about any health store, that it need not be bought from him. He states that you can be his patient (which costs money) or you can "go it alone" and he would provide the exact same program that he uses for his patients. Still, I was very skeptical at the beginning, but if you have ever had to deal with intestinal problems you would understand why I bought the products and got started. I was determined not to live my life the same way my mom had been living for many many years. Even my husband said "I can't believe you're falling for this gimmick!" When I first visited a gastroenterologist for my own problems (the same one my mom had been seeing, it was becoming a family thing!) she stated that we all have to live with intestinal problems from time to time, unfortunately IBS has no cure, and nerves and stress play a big part in this. Boy was she wrong! It was one of the easiest, best things I have ever done! I started the program in April and after about 1-2 weeks I started to notice results. Since that time, I have had only one slight episode of IBS, after eating too much cheesecake! :P Too soon into the program. Sorry for such a long post! :shock: As for my mom, she saw what great results I was having and I think that is what convinced her to try it. We used to talk everyday and compare notes on what what we ate that day that could have caused our stomach problem for the day. Then she noticed I wasn't having problems anymore and she became quite interested. She stopped all stomach medicine from day one of treatment and within one or two weeks she started to see improvement, but with intestinal problems it takes time to rebuild unhealthy intestinal tissue, but once this is done the intestines can handle just about anything, stress, spicy foods, dairy etc... Treatment takes about one month and although my mom was trying to follow "a somewhat zone kind of diet" we decided it was better for her to treat her IBS and not worry about healthy eating for the time being. To combine two different programs at one time would have been too difficult for her and after having had my own intestinal problems, I knew how important it was to deal with that first. Then she would be free to eat all kinds of healthy fruits and veggies with no problems! And finally!! Dr. Dalhman has been a dream come true, he has answered all of the questions I have emailed him, (some replies even came on holidays!) , and since I haven't bought any products after the first month, I can only assume that the reason he provides this service is because he cares. At first people thought I was crazy having an online doctor (so did I at first!), but now many of my mothers friends are asking for the program! Maybe you could try asking your parents if they could imagine for a minute living without intestinal problems and how much that would mean to them and take it from there! Hope this helps.....sorry for the ramblings! crumbelina :P

Thank you so much for going into detail re: your own experiences plus your mom's experiences re: IRS...very helpful, I copied your email and sent it on to my mom. We'll have to see..but it does sound very promising, and if the pills are readily available in other places, and if the information the doctor is offering is free, then it does rather change one's perspective of it, doesn't it? :-) THANKS Alexy