Questions & Answers

Is White Rice OK For SIBO? Can I Eat White Rice If I Have SIBO?

Let’s talk about SIBO and let’s talk about different types of foods, particularly rice. Is rice okay to eat when you have SIBO? White rice in particular, so many people eat white rice around the world. If you go to Google and you type in foods suitable for SIBO, you can read all kinds of weird stuff online. I’ve just looked at a half a dozen websites and a lot of them all contradict each other. Some will say low FODMAPs are the way to go. Others will say low FODMAPs are not the way to go. There are many blogs online from various people with bowel problems, with small bowel problems and they’ve posted all kinds of information online. If you go to the internet, you’ll walk away very confused, thinking, well, I don’t really know if I’m allowed to eat rice or not.

Well, I can assure you it’s nothing to do, whether you’re allowed to have something or not. It’s whether it’s suitable for you or not. Just because you read something on the internet and it says that this food’s fine, and this is forbidden kind of thing, I would take that with a grain of salt. Now why would I say that? When I’m clearly flying in the face, you have opposition of a lot of people who say that these are the best foods for SIBO, and these are the worst foods for SIBO. Because my knowledge is based on my clinical experience in working with a lot of people and particularly people with gut problems for over 30 years. I’ve seen thousands of people with SIBO related problems. And then some people will be sitting there now saying, “That guy’s an idiot. He wouldn’t even know what SIBO is if he saw it right in the face.”

Well, I’ve seen plenty of SIBO cases I can assure you. And how do I know they were SIBO cases? Through testing. Through stool testing, but also through talking to the client and through working out what actually happened and led that person to get the problem that they did. I know what SIBO is. I can assure you, you don’t need antibiotics to clear this up. Even many naturopathic now in America are recommending antibiotics like Rifaximin, saying it’s safe and it’s this and it’s okay to use. And well, my experience with Rifaximin is not that case. I can assure you, some people do respond to Rifaximin, but I’ve seen lots and lots of people who got seriously aggravated when after taking this drug, because it is a drug. Natural medicines always work better for GI presentations. Always have, always will.

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It’s my opinion. I’m quite firm on that. I don’t see the place for really, for pharmaceuticals in the digestive tract. White rice is something you need to try. Now, many FODMAP people say, the low FODMAP people say, that small amounts of rice are acceptable. But other people very strong, opinionated people say, “All is forbidden because it will create problems.” But only you can be the judge of that. There are lots of different types of rice, even in white rice, there are several types of white rice, long grain and short grain, arborio, sushi rice, basmati rice, so many white types of rice. It’s up to you to try a very small amount. And how I suggest that you do that if you like rice, is even to mix a small amount of rice in with some other food that you’re cooking. You could be boiling something or steaming something, put a bit of rice in with that, even a teaspoon to start with to see how your gut handles that.

Instead of jumping straight into a whole plate full of rice with something on top, topping like a curry or whatever, would be the cook a tablespoon of that rice or cook a larger amount and then take some out the following day that’s cool and then mix that through your food to see how the gut handles it. If you start small, in small doses, generally things are going to be a lot easier for you to manage than if you jump right in. But my opinion on white rice is that it’s suitable for many people. Many people have no problem with white rice. Others will seriously aggravate on. A lot of it depends on the balance of the bacteria in your gut at the time. Remember, SIBO is a condition where we’re seeing too much bacteria in the gut where they shouldn’t be. They should be in other locations, particularly in the large intestine.

When we get these small bowel overgrowths, we can get a problem. The worst SIBO cases I’ve ever seen were people were on recurrent antibiotics, time and again, time and again, and then those people can sometimes find it can take a long, long time for their bowel to really respond. And those diets in particularly need to be very carefully exercised. Very cautious with diets, with people with seriously bad gut dysfunction from complete annihilation after antibiotics. Just be careful. But if that’s not you, then see how you go. Maybe start with a little bit more. And you need to play it by ear. If you aggravate, back off. Wait a few more weeks, try some more vegetables in your diet. A couple of small pieces of fruit here or there, plenty of water, lots of rest, bacteria start responding, put some Candida Restore into the diet. Some of the probiotic enzyme I’ve developed that will speed the healing up even faster.

But rice should be acceptable. Especially if you don’t mix, if you have the rice on your plate and use some commercial bottle kind of curry sauce that’s full of sugar and maltodextrins and junk like that. If you make your own things from scratch, like I do, you’ll have a lot less problem.