IBS: Irritable Bowel in Shanghai

So lately, I’ve been having a lot of abdominal pain and sharp piercing feelings in my side. Ah, nostalgia. I thought my IBS decided to chill back in Canada when I got to China because, despite the first few days where I experienced quite a bit of stomach sickness (due to flying and time zone adjustments methinks), I’ve been eating anything and everything (except straight up milk, ice cream, and cheese) and I’ve felt fine… until now.

Approximately two weeks ago, I was rocking my usual pick up a breakfast wrap off the street: sausage, egg, Chinese ketchup, and a delightful croissant type wrap and 4893075 gallons of grease. Ah yisssss. Delicious let me tell you! Anyway, I was eating my breakfast wrap thing and I had some bread-ish thing for lunch and some bok choy, lalala, when all of a sudden (not during eating might I add), PIERCE! An invisible sword that could only be named one thing: Irritable Bowel Syndrome… or a demon. I was pretty certain I wasn’t possessed, so I thought AH DAMN IT and went on with my day. However, the day was rough and painful and I felt really weak and that I needed this bitch to pass. The next day, I was awoken by a mighty painful urge to use the bathroom. Without getting graphic, I was in pain… and it wasn’t subsiding. I spent roughly 4 days in severe pain, and tummy soreness lingered for weeks. I feel okay at the moment, but for a couple of weeks, I felt really rough and like I had IBS again. Jesus.

So I was in a state of pure pissed-off-ed-ness and just really bothered and depressed about not going all YOLO in China in terms of eating. I couldn’t! I had gained a bit of weight and I was indulging a little too much. My heart LOVED it. My intestines HATED it. Heart… I love you… but you don’t control everything and unfortunately my innerworkings are of utmost importance to my functionality, as well as my health and happiness!! I spent the day after the most painful piercing day on a diet of plain white rice and some soft vegetables. No more several cups of green tea. No more delightful snacks of dark chocolate bars or scallion pancakes. No more red meat, artificial flavors, fats, sugars, alcohol, caffeine, dairy products, cold water, insoluble fibre, wheat and grains. No more mothereffing anything. No more of what I had been eating and enjoying in China!

At first, I was bitter and weak; but then I started to think “No worries. I’ll go shopping, find some simple happy-tummy ingredients and figure out how to invent things that are delicious and not too hurtful." I decided to adopt a modified approach to eating with IBS. I wouldn’t cut red meat… I would just cut down on it. I would keep clear of dairy, but supplement my hourly intake of breads with something lighter and tummy-happier. For every cup of green tea, I’d have two glasses of water or two hot herbal teas. I just needed to be sensible. Also, instead of giving up my beloved chocolate, I decided that a small dark chocolate bar would be slowly eaten by me as a reward on the weekends after I cleaned the house. Followed shortly thereafter by yoga, water, and a hot herbal tea. See? This would work.

Step 1 of my dealing with IBS in China was going to be going to the hospital and speaking to a nutritionist in order to figure out just HOW to live and be happy and healthy and function at 100% in China. I decided to wait and see if I could modify my diet on my own and see if it worked without spending extra money and hunting for medical answers.

Step 1 instead became researching adaptations of things I love in order to suit my tummy and my heart. First on the list: Pancakes. Now I love me a stack of creamy, fluffy pancakes with mounds of syrup, but as soon as I finish a plate of this happy American diner breakfast treat, I immediately have to go to the bathroom and sit in pain and then be bloated and tummy-angry for the rest of the day. I discovered the beauty of this lovely little adaptation called banana pancakes. Bernard can’t stand the name because it’s essentially just egg and banana. And by essentially, I mean it’s egg and banana. OMG IT’S AMAZING!!!!

I’m the kind of person where psychological stuff impacts me. If I call egg and banana a pancake, then in my mind, it’s a pancake!!! I added peanut butter to it and oh my Christ!

Right? I know it doesn't look the best, but the taste? Mmmmm.

Naturally, Chef Wun upped me and this morning he made them with ginger brown sugar and crushed some oats to give them texture and made them round and pancake-ish, so now they are legitimately PANCAKES that I can eat! Whenever I’m craving sweet breakfast, I make up a batch of those with an orange, wash it down with a herbal tea and BAM… I forget I have a digestive condition.

Peanut butter is a Godsend. Let me tell you. I looked up some vegan snack recipes online (Vegan is dairy-free-meat-free and often times gluten-free so vegan shit makes my stomach happy… unless it’s raw vegetables…ouch). So I looked up some snack recipes and found lots of granola type things that include lots of peanut butter for binding instead of butter and oats instead of All-purpose flour. The recipe called for some dried fruit and raisin-like things like dates… which scared me at first… but here’s the thing about having an extremely sensitive stomach. When everything in the universe hurts you when you ingest it and you discover that eating a chair doesn’t hurt, you would eat a damn chair if you REALLY had it as bad as some people with stomach issues do! Needless to say, I’ve been eating dates every day for the past week.

I made two vegan “power snack” experiments. The first is a “peanut butter and jam” energy bar. It’s pretty much peanut butter, cranberries, dates, oats, (and I added pumpkin seeds BECAUSE WHY NOT), and there might be more, but I don’t remember. Anyway, I threw it all in a giant bowl and stirred until my arm hurt and then I froze it. Delicious. Absolutely delicious! Not exactly a bar like I was hoping… more like loose trail mix, but at the end of the day, it is delicious and LOOKS like it has chocolate in it! Psychologically, my body thinks it’s a treat when it’s really helping my digestive system.

Yum!

The process. Don't the dates look like chocolate... sort of?

The second experiment I made was a little more bold. It’s called “Spicy ginger pear balls”. 

I think the spice comes from the cinnamon and nutmeg which I didn’t have, so mine is a “ginger pear ball”. Sounds cool, eh? I even chopped the ginger myself! THAT'S an accomplishment. It called for a blending of the ginger and pear, but I don't have a blender, so I worked my knife magic. They aren’t the best, but they work when I have classes back-to-back and need a quick munch to keep my energy up and my head from hurting from lack of food. They are very strong and I totally didn’t make them right, but they are chalk full of stuff that’s good for you and that’s what it’s all about. If something is good for me and my digestion, I will pretty much force myself to love it.

Like a boss!

Sidebar: Tofu is now my favorite food since living in China. There are SO many ways to prepare tofu and so many different kinds, and the kind I buy is simply incredible. Sometimes I just sautee up some tofu and eat that for dinner. Delicious AND doesn’t hurt the tum-tum.

Now don’t get me wrong… I still have my pastry cravings and I do honor them from time to time, but I’ve been insanely conscious of when I eat, how I eat and how I feel before and after and during eating, so I’m pretty safe when I allow myself a chocolate croissant, for example.

Keeping a food diary has been a very self-loving experience for me. I think everyone should do it! It’s amazing the shit you won’t eat because you know you’ll have to write it down and read it out and not like it. It’s all about understanding your body. I can indulge in little things as long as I pay my body back somehow. Give a little, get a lot.

I really hope I continue on this path of exploring food in China and listening to my body in order to make necessary modifications. I hope I don’t have to modify everything! I really love Chinese buns and dumplings and soup noodles. I guess I can opt for the spinach and tofu bun instead of the meat. And I can always order a small bowl of soup noodles and eat it when I have lots of time instead of on the run. When I eat and how I eat has really impacted how I feel too. Bernard and I have taken to having long talks during meal time to help me slow down and not eat like I’m in prison. It’s so hard for me when I have delicious things in front of me!!! I just want to eat it as fast as I cannnnn!!!! I also tend to stop breathing sometimes when I eat. I don’t know why… I have issues, apparently…

But yes, in short, my condition has followed me and I cannot ignore it. I am not invincible in China and I cannot just pretend that I don’t have food allergies and sensitivities. HOWEVER, I will not hinder my experiences and avoid traveling because of my stupid ass gut. I will just modify when necessary. Hopefully by modifying smartly and keeping tabs on my tummy I’ll be able to occasionally indulge in a sweet ass breakfast wrap and odd pastry every now and then. Hopefully. J

Sarah’s words of wisdom: Listen to your body and compromise with it! It’s your temple. My tummy and I have a pretty amazing relationship, even when it’s an asshole.

With love,
Sarah Wunderbread-hurts-my-intenstines