6 mistakes you’re making to worsen your IBS

Your gut is a dynamic, responsive system deeply intertwined with your emotional health, immune defences, and overall vitality.

Yet, living with IBS often feels like an unsolvable battleground, with symptoms flaring unexpectedly despite your best efforts. Let’s uncover six common mistakes making your IBS worse, and, more importantly, how to break the cycle and find relief.

1. The seed oil sabotage

The modern health narrative has demonised animal fats while quietly inviting an enemy into our cupboards: seed oils. These industrial oils, soybean, canola, sunflower, and rapeseed, promise health but deliver chaos. Their high omega 6 content is a recipe for inflammation, especially in the gut. Omega-6 fats are chemically unstable, easily oxidised, and converted into inflammatory compounds that compromise gut integrity and trigger pain pathways.

Studies show these oils increase systemic inflammation, reduce short-chain fatty acids (essential for gut health), and disrupt the microbiome by fostering pathogenic bacteria. This imbalance heightens sensitivity, pain, and leaky gut.

Replacing seed oils with traditional fats, tallow, ghee, and butter is a reclamation of ancestral wisdom. These fats provide stability and nutrients that soothe the gut and rebuild its protective lining. Cooking with them is an act of nourishment, grounding your meals in foods that heal from within.

2. Overlooking vitamin E

More than 90% of IBS sufferers are deficient in vitamin E, a powerful antioxidant that acts as a shield against the oxidative damage caused by unstable fats like those found in seed oils. Vitamin E doesn’t just mop up free radicals,  it also blocks the conversion of omega-6 fats into inflammatory byproducts. Studies show its ability to prevent inflammatory bowel syndrome by reducing tissue damage and fostering a healthier gut microbiome.

For the most bioavailable forms of Vitamin E, look to the animal kingdom. Pastured eggs, with their vibrant orange yolks, are a potent source, reflecting the nutrient dense diet of the hens that laid them. Fatty fish like salmon and trout contribute this antioxidant, alongside their omega 3 richness, creating a harmonious blend of anti-inflammatory properties. Organ meats, especially liver, pack Vitamin E alongside a treasure trove of other essential nutrients, offering unmatched bioavailability.

3. Disrupting nature's clock 

Your gut is a rhythm keeper, syncing its processes with the rise and fall of the sun. When your circadian rhythm is disrupted, late night Netflix marathons, erratic eating times, or a lack of morning sunlight, your gut pays the price.

Digestive enzymes, bile production, and motility all follow a daily pattern, finely tuned to the natural world.

Without this rhythm, the gut becomes confused. Stomach acid wanes, motility slows, and undigested food sits, fermenting and feeding harmful bacteria. The result? Bloating, discomfort, and a cascade of dysbiosis. 

Aligning your life with nature’s clock is a gentle yet profound reset. Begin your mornings with sunlight to signal the day’s start, eat meals in harmony with daylight, and let the setting sun guide you into a restful evening. 

4. Avoiding the scraps

Once prised as culinary gold, bones, tendons, and collage -rich cuts have been sidelined in favour of convenience. Yet these “scraps” hold ancient, restorative wisdom for your gut. Collagen, abundant in these parts, breaks down into glycine, a gentle guardian of the gut lining. Glycine soothes inflammation, protects against irritants, and helps rebuild the walls of this delicate ecosystem.

Picture a warm, rich broth simmering for hours, coaxing nutrients from bones and connective tissues. Its gelatine forms a protective layer in the gut, sealing cracks and fostering the growth of beneficial bacteria. Tendons and cartilage, often overlooked, add glycosaminoglycans that dampen inflammation and aid tissue repair.

Cooking with these parts honours the animal and delivers profound healing. A bowl of slow- simmered bone broth is medicine, steeped in tradition and brimming with life giving nutrients.

5. Overloading on fibre and raw vegetables

The raw kale salads and fibre packed granola bars that dominate wellness culture may seem virtuous, but they can wreak havoc on sensitive guts. Insoluble fibre, while heralded as essential, acts like sandpaper in the digestive tract of those with IBS or inflammation. It irritates, inflames, and overstimulates the gut, leading to pain, bloating, and discomfort.

Raw vegetables often exacerbate the issue. Their tough cellulose walls are challenging to break down, fermenting in the gut and feeding harmful bacteria. Ancient wisdom favoured cooking: gentle steaming, roasting, and simmering transform these foods into digestible, gut friendly allies.

For those with gut issues, ease the load. Opt for slow-cooked vegetables, broths, and easily digestible carbs like ripe fruits and honey. 

6. Living in a state of fight or flight

Dr. Maté emphasises in his book When the Body Says No that the gut is an emotional sensor, intimately tied to our experiences and interpretations of the world around us. From the "gut-wrenching" anxiety of childhood to the visceral pain of adult trauma, the gut processes far more than food, it processes life itself. 

When this system is repeatedly overwhelmed by stress, the balance tips, fostering conditions like leaky gut, dysbiosis, and inflammatory bowel diseases. Stress activates the gut's intricate neuro-immune network, a system where nerve and immune cells are closely linked. 

Neuropeptides like substance P, which is heavily concentrated in the intestines, play a pivotal role in regulating inflammation. Under chronic stress, these molecules can overproduce inflammatory signals, triggering immune cells to release histamines and prostaglandins, which further inflame gut tissues. This constant state of heightened immune activity weakens the gut’s ability to protect itself, leaving it vulnerable to self-injury. 

Healing requires addressing the root of this imbalance: the emotional patterns and traumas that keep the body locked in a state of fight or flight. Somatic therapies, such as body-focused psychotherapy or somatic experiencing, can help release stored trauma. These practices allow the nervous system to reset, interrupting the stress-inflammation cycle.