Q: If you have diarrhea or constipation from IBS, eat soluble fiber. This dissolves in water and forms a thick gel in your large intestine which can slow down diarrhea. Soluble fiber also relieves constipation by making it easier to pass stools, reducing pain. The amount of fiber you need depends on your age and sex. The Institute of Medicine has specific guidelines for daily fiber intake. It's roughly about 25 g for adult women and 38 g for adult men. To get soluble fiber in your diet, eat: Oatmeal Barley Okra Legumes: garbanzo beans, lentils, soybeans Grits Nuts and seeds Fruits: apples, pears, berries If you mainly have constipation from IBS, gradually increase insoluble fiber (which doesn't dissolve in water). Slowly increase the amount of fiber in your diet by 2 to 3 grams a week, until you eat 25 to 60 grams a day. If you increase fiber too quickly, you may have gas. Fiber will support the bacteria in your gut which improves bowel function. To get insoluble fiber from your diet, eat: Whole grains (unprocessed): these contain both soluble and insoluble fiber Carrots Zucchini Celery Flaxseed Lentils Probiotics and prebiotics feed and support healthy gut bacteria. They can also protect your gut from harmful bacteria that irritates your bowels. Since it's hard to gauge how many Colony Forming Units of probiotics (CFUs) are in foods, eat a variety of foods known to contain probiotics and prebiotics. To get probiotics in your diet, eat leafy green vegetables (kale, spinach, Swiss chard, spinach, beet greens, collard greens, mustard greens), broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage. To get prebiotics, eat: Chicory root Jerusalem artichoke Dandelion greens Leeks Asparagus Wheat bran Baked wheat flour Bananas Look for a supplement that has many different strains of bacteria (but at least has L. acidophilus, L. Fermentum, L. rhamnosus, B. longum, and B. bifidum). Some supplements include a yeast, Saccharomyces, which protects gut bacteria. It doesn't matter whether you take a liquid, capsule, tablet, or supplement powder. Just take a supplement that has a controlled release so that it doesn't dissolve in your stomach acid. The brands Florastor and Align are often recommended by health care professionals. Check the expiration date and make sure the supplement has at least 25 billion Colony Forming Units (CFUs). Adults should get 10 to 20 billion CFUs a day from a supplement. Look for a USP Verified seal which means that a non-profit lab has checked the supplement for the bacteria it lists on the label. Fermented foods can support and replenish the microbes in your gut. Choose unpasteurized products because pasteurization destroys the "good" bacteria (probiotics). While there are no scientific or government recommended guidelines for how much unpasteurized fermented food you should eat, researchers are urging global food guides to start including them. In the meantime, eat: Tempeh: fermented soybeans Kimchi: fermented Korean cabbage Miso: fermented barley paste Sauerkraut: fermented cabbage Yogurt: fermented milk with active probiotic bacteria Kefir: fermented milk Kombucha: black or green fermented tea with added fruit and spices
A: Eat more soluble fiber. Include insoluble fiber. Eat probiotics and prebiotics. Choose a probiotic supplement. Add unpasteurized fermented foods to your diet.

Q: Direct most of the water to open areas rather than those containing plants you're worried about protecting. The smell of moist soil will help attract snails to your garden, where you'll have traps waiting for them. You want your trap to be deep enough to make it tough for snails to escape once they're inside, but not so large they're difficult to put in place. Bowls and saucers with steep sides make good bases, as do the kinds of plastic containers that products like yogurt and ice cream are sold in. For example, you could use a tuna or catfood can, both of which are great options for traps. If you're interested in a heavier-duty solution, you can buy lidded snail traps from most gardening centers for as little as $10. Use a hand trowel to make a depression in the soil deep enough to anchor your makeshift trap. That way, when a snail comes along, it will tumble right into the container rather than being forced to climb the side. Shallow containers will obviously be easier to bury, and won't be as disturbing to the soil in your garden. Avoid sinking the edging of the container flush with the soil. This can cause other beneficial insects like beetles and lacewings to fall in by accident. Pour the beer to just below the top of the trap. Then, leave the trap to sit in one of the central areas of your garden overnight. Snails that come close to get a taste will find themselves swimming in the liquid with no way out. Any type of beer will do the trick, but cheaper varieties will probably be best, since you'll just be throwing it away when you're done. You can also use a mixture of yeast and honey if you don't happen to have any beer on hand. It's actually the yeast that snails find so alluring, rather than anything in the beer itself. Each trap will only be effective for luring snails from a distance of about 3 feet (0.91m). It may therefore be necessary to use more than one if you're combating an extensive infestation, or your garden is spread out and covers a lot of ground. Be sure to empty and refill your trap every day or every few days until you've got the problem under control. After polishing off a grapefruit with your breakfast, leave half of the hollowed-out fruit in an open area near your prized plants. Snails love citrus, and will clamor inside to get a taste. Once enough snails have collected inside the rinds, you can then simply remove them from you garden and dispose of them. This easy trapping method will also work with other types of citrus, but grapefruits tend to work best because of their large size.
A:
Hose down your garden in the afternoon or evening. Select a shallow container to serve as a trap. Bury the container so that the lip sits just about soil level. Fill the container with beer. Place several individual traps throughout your garden to trap them. Deposit grapefruit rinds throughout your garden.