Help With IBS, What My Doctor Couldn't Do

Written by Sara Valencia

June 6, 2025

When I was younger, I was considered the girl with the best snacks. I had a cabinet in my kitchen filled with chips and candy, cookies and muffins. You could name anything and I bet you I had it.

A lot of the food I consumed when I was younger was pretty much fast food or always packaged. I enjoyed eating Lunchables with a Kool-Aid juice pack with a bag of chips on the side for lunch. It was either that or I ordered lunch at my school. When I did order lunch, I’d get the loaded nachos, pizza, chicken nuggets with fries, or sometimes a hamburger but always paired it with a sugary drink.

Man did I love eating that food. It was not only delicious but also incredibly convenient! My mom would always get the Chef Boyardee canned ravioli or pasta. It was so easy in the morning to open a can, heat it, throw it in a thermos, and done, now I’ve got a quick lunch ready. 

That's where the issues started. Everything I ate was quick. I never put thought into my food, I only grabbed what was quick and called it a day.

Since I ate these types of foods so much, the things my mom used to cook were never appealing to me. Dinners my mom used to make were things like chicken, fish, asparagus, simple salads, beef, soup, etc. I never enjoyed eating dinner, and I think it's because my taste buds were so accustomed to the junk I used to eat daily, real food was just terrible.

All that younger me knew was that that food tasted good and I liked it. Around the end of middle school and the beginning of high school was when I started paying attention to my body and realized that I really wasn't feeling well eating these foods.

I found myself constantly hungry, full face of acne, constipated, and bloated all the time. I was always uncomfortable and unhappy with the way I felt. I went to my doctor hoping to find some clarification. What he told me I had was irritable bowel syndrome, also known as IBS. What he meant by that was I don’t know what you have, but try this pill, which didn’t work.  

This is when I started to make a change in my food choices. I learned that what I used to eat wasn't helping my body, it was only hurting it. A lot of packaged and already prepared food sold at grocery stores typically doesn’t have a lot of nutritional value. These types of foods are heavily processed and refined, that way they can last on the shelves for months. Of course, at the time, I couldn't just make this huge change in one day, it took several months to get accustomed to the new changes.

For example, instead of having a huge bowl of cinnamon toast crunch cereal for breakfast, I would start having a little less, and have some eggs and fruit. For lunch, instead of having pizza or hamburgers every day, I'd opt for the chicken and salad, or a sandwich with veggies and dip on the side. Then for my drink, I started to change it from Gatorade to orange juice or milk.

Once I started to become more aware of the foods I consumed, I got to see how my body reacted to them and learn what foods triggered the awful symptoms I was having. In addition to this, I also noticed how I started to enjoy the foods my mom prepared. All the homemade dishes she would make every night that I never enjoyed, started to taste incredible and I truly started to appreciate them more.

With time, I developed this understanding of food and a growing passion to learn more about it. After healing my body, I came to the conclusion that food is medicine. I have learned to respect food and how to eat properly and choose the right food that will nourish my body.

I cherish this experience I had because it has brought me to where I am today. Everything I have learned has prompted me to pursue a career in Nutritional Science in hopes that one day I can influence the lives of others and help them find health and happiness through food, just as I did.

Even though my food choices are far from what they used to be, I do occasionally enjoy pizza and pasta, hamburgers, and fries. What I can take away from this experience is that life is about balance. While I prioritize my health with food, it's important that I also nourish my soul as well.

Before, my life had no balance, I ate whatever I wanted and dealt with the consequences after. Now that I have become more aware of how food affects my body, I eat foods that leave me satiated and feeling great! I believe in the 80/20 method. It’s not a strict diet, just a mindset. You try to eat nourishing, whole foods about 80% of the time, and leave room for treats and fun foods the other 20%. This way I can eat like this for a lifetime.