When Food Moves From Friend to Foe: Why Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Matters in Irritable Bowel Syndrome

It is not uncommon to encounter patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) who report "I can only eat 5 foods now," "I have to organize my eating around my symptoms," "I no longer can eat with my family." For these patients, food may have once been a friend, something that they saw as pleasurable and certainly not something that engendered fear. However, IBS can make food a foe; eating becomes burdensome, requiring significant time, mental energy, and effort.