"Answer to IBS is in the mind" - media coverage of new Chalder/Moss-Morris trial

Recipe (apols to moderators for being off-topic ):

Weigh out 50g currants, then roll them flat (squashed flies). Put aside.
Rub 25g butter (spreadable is fine) into 100g plain flour + pinch salt until fine and crumbly.
Add 25g caster sugar.
Add enough milk to bring it together into rollable consistency.
Roll out dough quite thinly.
Spread currants over one half and fold the other half on top.
Roll again.
Cut up into biscuits or biscuit strips or just one ginormous biscuit (marking breaks with pallet knife).
Put on silicon liner on baking tray. Prick with fork.
Brush with beaten egg white.
Bake at 180degs for 12 mins.
Allow to cool and eat. them. all.

 

Thank you for the recipe.

Sorry, it had never occured to me that garibaldi biscuits could be made, they've always come in a packet - it's like suggesting someone can make shredded wheat, and then finding out people do it, everyone does it.

So it's a 'low' fat sweet pastry with squished fruit?

180C normal or fan?

Define 'cool', what degree of burns are acceptable and it still be classified as 'cool'?

I am deficient many ingredients, I only have flour, milk and butter - no sugar or dried fruit (not strictly true but 'golden berries' are much, much bigger and stronger flavoured than raisins) - but I may try this, I have the technology, I just need the 'orrible black bits. I shouldn't, coz I don't eat biscuits, but a lot of the reason I don't is coz I don't buy biscuits coz when I do I eat nothing but biscuits until the biscuits run out.

Next you'll be telling me that people can make shortbread lol - please don't.

 

Go to a restaurant that serves them in the soup. Usually you have to ask the waiter for them separately. It kind of spoils the joke but preserves the restaurants reputation.

 

I do, she says smugly, quite delicious and very easy. I’d never considered making garibaldi biscuits, will give it a go soon.

Thanks for all the laughs, as well as everyone unpicking the paper. As soon as I saw the headline this morning I knew I could come over and learn more. Not at all surprised that the list of authors includes TC.

What is scary is that similar symptoms might also indicate bowel cancer—is there adequate testing to exclude other conditions before the diagnosis is made and offering CBT?

 

The other thing that came to mind when I saw the headlines was that so little is known about the gut. As research progresses we’ll understand better what might be causing such distressing symptoms and new treatments will, eventually, come to light.

 

Sadly this brought Bob to mind. This approach may have ominous consequences when everything is reduced to lowest common denominator.

 

Something from the NHS's Behind the Scenes that mentions problems with drop-out, but nothing else:

https://www.nhs.uk/news/lifestyle-a...ptoms-irritable-bowel-syndrome-reports-study/

 

This does seem to highlight the recent tactic for muddying the water re efficacy - don' t study the effectiveness of CBT as a standalone intervention.
That in itself may be significant.

 

There was the usual drivel on Radio 4 about mind body interaction or mind gut interaction.

But didn't we know that?

When the gut is irritated this affects the mind as tummy ache - didn't we all know that?
When the mind senses tummy ache it remembers not to eat large amounts of cooked cheese and so the gut does not get irritated again - didn't we all know that?

But as to whether or not thinking thoughts about 'IBS' makes the gut any better or even gives you less tummy ache - where did that come from?

 

To those who fail to control for biased reporting in their studies, the mind will appear like a powerful entity that can influence symptoms and course of an illness. After all, putting patients into a different state of mind seems to have all these effects on symptoms (as long as one uses questionnaires and avoids controlling for biased reporting).

 

Why is too much cooked cheese bad for an irritated gut? Is it because important digestive enzymes present in the cheese are destroyed by the heat during cooking? Or something else? And why is it always the most delicious foods that seem to cause the most problems? Just thinking about cooked cheese is making me hungry!

 

My understanding is that cooking whey-based cheeses, which are mostly casein protein, releases amines like tyramine. That can give you nightmares but I don't know what gives the tummy ache. All I know is that it can be unpleasant!

The best recipe I have found for tummy ache is a large piece of cooked halloumi, some of those greek spicy sausages, and a shish kebab or two with fresh chillies, all washed down with cheap retsina and half a dozen shots of ouzo.

 

Interesting! Thanks for the reply.

 

I find them a bit tough and I don't like the taste of rubber that much.

 

Congratulations, it seems you've found my level, of humor, today.

 

Regarding queesy stomach and cheese generally...I don’t think there is much to go or any compelling theories on this but various arguments have been proposed:

• Lactose (soft cheese mainly) but only for those that have the lactase problem (fewer than you would think)
• Total nutrient/calorie density ...I think from memory milk is one of the most efficient and nutrient rich sources of protein than meat or plant equivalents
• Histamine (dubious)

I’m in favour of the nutrient and calorie density argument,with a bit of attribution bias thrown in.

A cheese board (say 90g) 8 crackers and a glass of wine is around 730kcal. if this is eaten after a meal and you go to bed within 3-4 hrs of eating it ...that’s quite a load on the digestive system.

I suspect it’s this sort of occasion that sticks in people’s minds more than the 20g of grated cheese on a baked potato or in a sandwich during the day as part of a lower calorie portion and meal?

With regards to haloumi...I agree with comments already made....my son calls it squeaky cheese.

 

If any of you squashed fly junkies fancy going the whole hog:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eccles_cake

Wow, if they get the order wrong, you'd get to utter the line:

"Waiter, there isn't a fly in my soup".

At which point Alexei Sayle would probaby burst into the room.

 

Bloody hell, that's exactly what happens in my daily life!! How did you know?