By David Liu, PHD

Sunday Dec 23, 2012 (foodconsumer.org) -- A study published in Journal of Gastrointestinal Liver Diseases suggests that eating certain foods may increase risk of irritable bowel syndrome.

I. Chirila from University of Medicine and Pharmacy "Grigore T.Popa" in Iasi, Romania and colleagues conducted the study and found those who more frequently ate canned food were nearly 24 times as likely to develop irritable bowel syndrome as those who ate little canned foods.

The researchers also found eating high amounts of processed meat, pulses, whole cereals, confectionery, fruit compotes, and herb teas was associated with 4.7, 4.0, 8.7, 5.7, 7.4 and 4.0 fold increased risk of irritable bowel syndrome, respectively.

The study involved 193 Romanian participants with 80 male and 113 female aged at the mean age of 5.8 years of  whom 19 percent were diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome.

The researchers also found that irritable bowel syndrome was more likely found in participants with older ages and those who had history of digestive diseases.