In this episode of Inside Knowledge, Anna Mapson takes on the Low FODMAP Diet, a potential game-changer for those with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).

What you'll learn:

1. What Are FODMAPs? And why do they affect your digestion?

2. The Low FODMAP Diet Phases - elimination, reintroduction, and establishing a new long-term diet.

3. Who Should and Shouldn't Try the Low FODMAP Diet? caution for those with a history of eating disorders and the need for a holistic approach to digestive health.

4. Tips for Getting Started - practical tips, like focusing on naturally low FODMAP foods and planning meals in advance.

5. The Complexity of FODMAPs why individual responses vary.

6. Considerations Beyond FODMAPs - other food based triggers for IBS

Stay tuned for the next episode where I'll go deeper into the important process of reintroducing FODMAPs.

Remember, always consult a healthcare professional before making significant dietary changes.

>>> DOWNLOAD >>> Free Quick Start Low FODMAP guide - https://www.goodnessme-nutrition.com/low-fodmap-starter-pack/

Links

• https://www.goodnessme-nutrition.com/fodmap/a-beginners-guide-to-the-low-fodmap-diet/
• https://www.goodnessme-nutrition.com/ibs/when-the-low-fodmap-diet-doesnt-work/

EMAIL - Get the free weekly Inside Knowledge emails - https://mailchi.mp/goodnessme-nutrition.com/h6acndd1bs

Work with me

• 3 month Gut Reset - https://www.goodnessme-nutrition.com/consultations/
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Ready for your gut reset? 🌍 I work with clients worldwide, providing remote consultations and a wealth of educational resources for IBS and SIBO.

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The information in this podcast is not medical advice and is not designed to treat, diagnose or provide personalised health advice. This podcast content is information only and any changes you make are at the user's own risk. Please consult with your doctor or healthcare provider before implementing any new treatment.

Why is it so hard to follow the FODMAP

diet, especially when there is so

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much information available online?

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Actually, the more information there

is, it can make it more confusing.

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The low FODMAP diet was developed

to help people with IBS.

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And most research shows it helps

about three out of four people

6

better manage digestive symptoms.

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But it is not an intuitive diet to follow

on your own and it can be very confusing.

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So this is what I'm going

to be talking about in this

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episode of The Inside Knowledge.

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You'll learn what are FODMAPs,

when to try this diet and

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when not to, and how to start.

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And you'll also find out some of my

top tips on making the guidelines

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as easy as possible to follow.

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And welcome to episode 17 of the

Inside Knowledge for People with

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I B S, with me, Anna Mapson.

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Today we are going to dive into

the low FODMAP diet for I B Ss.

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I want to explain to you what it

is, how to do it, and whether it

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could be a good option for you.

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It's been developed specifically

for people with I B s and around

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75 percent of people will see

some kind of benefit from it.

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Now, if you have never heard of the low

FODMAP diet, it's basically an acronym.

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It stands for Fermentable

Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides,

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Monosaccharides and polyols.

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Those are the various letters and they

are each different types of starch.

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They're basically short chain

carbohydrates which are found in food.

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They can't be well digested

by humans and they're often

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broken down by our gut bacteria.

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This is a good thing.

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We want to feed our good beneficial

bacteria, but for some people with IBS

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these particular carbohydrates can draw

water into the bowel which creates loose

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stools or Because of the fermentation

process it can create excessive gas.

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So if you've never thought about what

these foods might actually involve Let us

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just go through a list of them and see.

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So oligosaccharides, this includes

two key subsections, really.

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There's galacto oligosaccharides,

which is often found in nuts and

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seeds, beans and lentils, almonds,

chickpeas, those are all high goss foods.

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And then also in that first

oligosaccharides, we've got, uh, fructans.

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And these are long chains of fructose

modules that are linked together.

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This is found in foods like wheat,

onions, garlic, grapefruit, courgette.

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If you haven't listened to my episode

about gluten and fructans, I did mention

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a bit about that last week, episode 16.

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So you go back and listen to a summary

of fructans but just as an example,

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those are some of the foods included

in the oligosaccharide category.

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Then we've got the D, the

disaccharides, that's lactose,

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which is found in dairy foods.

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The monosaccharides, that's a single

saccharide, and the disaccharide,

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obviously two saccharides stuck together.

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Um, but this includes fructose in,

so monosaccharides category includes

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fructose, which is in tomatoes, mango.

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red pepper, grapes, and

some stone fruits as well.

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And then we've got the and for the

A, and then the P is polyols, which

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includes sorbitol, xylitol, mannitol.

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Sorbitol foods include

sweet corn, avocado, um,

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blackberries, and white cabbage.

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And the mannitol section includes

butternut squash, cauliflower,

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mushrooms, celery, and fennel.

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So What you might see from this

list of foods I've just Drawn out is

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that they're all healthy good foods.

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Like these are not food you want to

restrict long term So the process of

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the low FODMAP diet is not to restrict

these foods in the long term the way

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you approach the diet is to Follow

this low FODMAP elimination phase for

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somewhere between two to six weeks.

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This is to see if you feel better

without these fermentable carbohydrates.

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So if you feel better, you get less

bloating, maybe less diarrhea, less gas.

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That's a good sign and it

means you can continue.

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The reason it's up to six weeks is that

sometimes people find it takes a little

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bit longer to see improvements and you

probably would want to go up to at least

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two weeks and I find sometimes if you

have a bit of a slip up and you eat

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something high FODMAP you didn't realize.

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You might want to do another week,

or you might want to do a little

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bit more in order just just to

help you get a good baseline.

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That's what the first phase is all about.

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Establishing a good baseline and

reminding yourself of what good

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digestion should actually feel like.

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Then the important bit, the most

important bit that most people don't

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get to is the reintroduction phase.

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You wanna do a careful reintroduction of

higher FODMAP foods whilst monitoring.

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All your symptoms.

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This phase can take a really long time

because there is a specific way to

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do it with suggested extended periods

of reintroduction and increasing

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amounts and you need a bit of time

in between each trial to wash out

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and make sure that you are resetting.

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Most people do not go

through this process.

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Properly and they say I tried the low

FODMAP diet didn't work and I still

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don't know what my triggers are and that's

because of the reintroduction phase.

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Anyway, the final phase is your new

diet, which is a longer term eating plan.

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So including as many of the high FODMAP

foods as you can manage and excluding

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anything that triggered your symptoms

during that reintroduction phase.

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So who should not be

doing the low FODMAP diet?

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Well, firstly, if you haven't actually

got a diagnosis of IBS, I don't suggest

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starting with this low FODMAP diet.

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It's not the first thing that I would

try anyway, because it is complicated.

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, the first thing to do would be to

go to your doctor and understand if

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there's any medical tests you need and

make sure you get checked out before

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launching into a restrictive diet.

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If you haven't looked at the...

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Basics yet.

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I would also start there.

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If you haven't yet addressed, how

you're eating, looking at slowing

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down to eat, chewing, all the basics,

spacing out your meals, making sure

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you're getting a good nourished diet

full of protein, fats and carbs.

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Maybe if you haven't looked at other

factors that can really influence

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digestion, like alcohol intake,

caffeine intake, whether you've

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got sleep, is there any medication

that's upsetting your digestion?

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How is stress affecting you?

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These are all things I would start

with first, because these are like

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the baseline things that you can

do without the restrictive diet.

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And then the other time I would be very

cautious of starting a low FODMAP diet is

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if you have a history of disordered eating

or diagnosed eating disorder, if you have.

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an existing eating disorder, then you

should be working with somebody who

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understands your condition anyway.

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But if you have maybe a history of an

eating disorder, like it was in your

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teens and now you're in your 40s, there

is still a chance that following lots

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of diet rules could be quite triggering.

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And so, I think it's worth investigating,

maybe if you have a therapist talking

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that through, if you have a practitioner

you work with in terms of nutrition,

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making sure they fully understand

how that eating disorder has affected

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your current approach to eating.

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Because if you're following a lot of

rules, sometimes it can bring back some

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of those thoughts about controlling.

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If you've now listened to this

and thought, actually I do want

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to give it a go, it's worth a try,

here are some tips to get started.

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First of all, I would Start by

thinking about what you can eat.

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So really focusing on foods that you can

eat freely that are low FODMAP foods.

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These include things like rocket,

spinach, green beans, collard

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greens, olives, parsnips, papaya,

rhubarb, kiwi, green bananas.

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Oranges.

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You can eat lots of these as

well as things like potatoes.

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Protein does not have any of these

starches in it, so you can eat as

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much meat, fish, eggs as you like.

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and the low FODMAP diet is not a

caloric restrictive diet, so it's

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not meant for you to lose weight.

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The important thing is that you don't

get too hungry because that can also.

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Triggered IBS symptoms sometimes,

so you want to make sure that

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you know what you can eat lots of

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And then the next step is to identify

which foods are allowed in moderate

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amounts but You can't eat too much of

them, so you can have a small amount.

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This would be things like, a quarter of

an avocado is okay, but when you get to

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half an avocado, that becomes high FODMAP.

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This is why the diet is highly confusing.

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You will read blogs that say, Yes,

you can eat peppers, peppers are fine.

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Then you'll read another blog

that says, Don't eat peppers.

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They are high FODMAP.

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And this is because bell peppers,

there are different colors.

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There's red, yellow, orange, and green.

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And each of them has a different FODMAP

rating for the size of the portion that

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is allowable under the diet guidelines.

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So for example, with red peppers, you

can only have about 40 grams before it

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tips into a higher, moderate FODMAP.

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Whereas with green peppers, you can

have up to like 60 or 70 grams, I think.

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Before it becomes higher FODMAP.

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So you can have a lot more for

your portion because of the

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amount of fructose in the fruit.

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So it is all dependent on portion

sizing, and this is why it's good

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to understand what you can eat

lots of without worrying too much.

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And then what foods you

can eat in small portions.

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The other thing to know is that

this diet is not gluten free.

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It is not dairy free, but it does.

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Limit your intake of wheat due to the

high fructans and milk and high lactose

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foods such as yogurt and creamy cheeses.

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So you can have around 40 grams of hard

cheese, for example, which is not too bad

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a portion if you want to have a sandwich

or if you want to grate some cheese

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on your dinner or something like that.

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It's doable, but it's not.

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a huge portion.

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So if you're used to eating a

lot of cheese, you may find this,

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you know, just understanding what

40 grams of cheese looks like.

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And then my last tip on getting started

would be to make a plan of two to

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three versions in your head or on some

paper of breakfast, lunch and dinner.

170

You want to know two to three things

that you can eat for breakfast.

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Maybe a nice weekend one that might

be a bit more tasty and time consuming

172

and something else that's really

quick that you know you can prepare

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the night before or that you can do

quickly in the morning before work

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or taking the kids out, whatever.

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And then do the same for your lunch

and your dinner so that you've

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just got a couple of options that

you Understand how to make them

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and you understand what to do.

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The final thing to remember in terms

of like quick tips for getting going

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is that this phase of restriction

is only for two to three weeks.

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It is not forever.

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If you can just get through this week,

the first week is probably the hardest.

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And once you've established.

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A little bit of a routine,

you'll feel a bit more confident.

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I'm going to record a part two of

this podcast, specifically about the

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reintroduction phase, because that is

one of the most tricky parts of the diet,

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and I want to give it sufficient time.

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But, whilst you're in this low

FODMAP phase, the first bit, where

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you're just cutting everything out,

a couple of things to help you.

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One would be...

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Thinking about FODMAP stacking.

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If you have more than one portion of

a moderate FODMAP in a meal, and you

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add it to another portion of another

moderate FODMAP meal, it could make it a

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high FODMAP meal without you realising.

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So, as an example, two

tablespoons of apple is about

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moderately high for sorbitol.

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The same as a quarter of an

avocado, or half an avocado, might

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be moderately high with sorbitol.

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If you're adding these together in

the same meal, you could end up with a

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higher FODMAP meal without realising it.

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So this is one of the traps that

people can fall into, is putting a meal

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together including lots of small or

moderate portions that actually then

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will add up to be a higher FODMAP meal.

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This is where keeping as much

diversity in your diet as possible

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is really, really helpful.

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You also need to be aware that some foods

do contain more than one type of FODMAP.

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So, like apples, I just mentioned, have

got sorbitol and fructose, and cashew

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nuts have got gauze and fructans.

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And this can make it more confusing

when you're trying to work out

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what you've actually eaten that

might have triggered your symptoms.

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You must also remember

that you are not a machine.

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You may not react to foods in

the same way that a machine did

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when the foods were classified

in terms of their FODMAP content.

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The Monash University in Australia

is where the FODMAP diet was created,

214

and the way they measure the amount of

FODMAPs in food is by some standardized

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processes that shows the amount of sugar

in grams per hundred grams, and they look

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at the particular sugars, like fructose

and lactose and that sort of thing.

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And whilst they do try and pick a

selection of foods, like I think they

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have five different supermarkets or

five green grocers and they pool it

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all together, or they might, you know,

choose the main brands that are available

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on the market, they are choosing

things that are from the Australian

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market mostly, and there can be some

difference in when the food was picked.

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So if we think about tomatoes, they can

taste completely different if they are

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slightly underripe and they've been kept

in the fridge or if they've been out

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in the sun, getting all ripe and juicy.

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It depends on the variety that's used.

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It depends on the climate

that the food was grown in.

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The season that the food was grown

in, whether it was force grown

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under polytunnels or naturally

grown because it's the season.

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How long the food has been

stored before it was tested.

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So all of these things you can see

can affect the potential to have

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higher FODMAPs in a food that may be

classified as low to moderate FODMAP,

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but may still give you a reaction.

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And that is because You can't

standardize everything that you eat

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and compare it to something that has

been tested in a lab in Australia.

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Now that doesn't mean it's not accurate.

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They have done so much work into

how these FODMAPs affect your gut

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and what particular cutoff point is

thought to induce symptoms in people.

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So there is so much

research behind this diet.

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However, It may be an individual

response to a certain food that

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could still trigger your symptoms.

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And this is down to individual

genetics, your own digestive processes,

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maybe other health conditions, your

mental state when you're eating.

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All of these things could have some

impact on your ability to digest your

244

food and that's why there is some trial

and error expected in the low FODMAP even

245

if you follow the diet to the letter.

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It is not an exact science, and I know

that can feel very frustrating when

247

you are trying so hard, but you're

not seeing any of the improvement.

248

The other thing to remember is

that it might not be FODMAPs in

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the food that is the issue for you.

250

There are other kind of triggers in

foods that can set off IBS like symptoms,

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including histamine, salicylates, which

is in things like oranges, berries,

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sweet potato, broccoli, almonds, and tea.

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Alcohol intake, that can be a real

trigger if you are drinking a lot of

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alcohol alongside the low FODMAP diet.

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Sometimes dairy, and it can be like a

dairy allergy that's been undiagnosed,

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or maybe you just can't even tolerate

small portions of the lactose.

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it could be a problem

with gluten intolerance.

258

Other things in foods like soy and

corn or other allergens that are known

259

to be a problem for people like eggs.

260

And this is where the sulfur content of

food may be an issue for some people.

261

So if you find that things like

onions and garlic and processed

262

meats, that kind of thing, are all

triggering for you, consider whether

263

sulfur might be a problem as well.

264

I just listed those things out, that's

not an exhaustive list of other things

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that could, but it's a Common list of

things that I will cycle through in

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my mind when working with somebody who

says the low FODMAP diet doesn't work.

267

Other issues that are worth

considering, if you feel like the

268

low FODMAP diet doesn't work for

you, is to think about gut bacteria.

269

This is really important because these

are the things that are helping to

270

break down the fiber in your diet.

271

If you have a lack of the beneficial

bacteria, or you have an overgrowth

272

of pathogenic or like bad bacteria,

or maybe some particular strains

273

are overgrowing out of control

in your small or large intestine.

274

These can affect your ability to

process fibres and you may find

275

you're reacting significantly

to carbohydrates in your food.

276

Then the last two things that you

should be aware of is maybe you've got

277

a problem with gut motility, so that

migrating motor complex that comes

278

to sweep out your small intestine.

279

That should be happening.

280

And if it doesn't, it may lead to

an increase in bacteria overgrowing

281

in your small intestine that can

impair your digestive enzymes.

282

So motility in terms of fast transit

time or a slow transit time can really

283

affect your ability to digest the

food and can lead to IBS symptoms.

284

So whether you've got fast or slow

transit time, some of that, yes, is

285

affected by diet, but it might also be

affected by nervous system issues, by,

286

a lack of maybe movement if you're not

actually doing any exercise, that can

287

lead to slow digestion, for example.

288

And then finally, the visceral

hypersensitivity that's so common, so

289

that gut brain connection, thinking

about your gut's nervous system, you

290

may be experiencing heightened sensation

of pain, , and Experiencing more

291

sensations of gas and movement within

your body than other people could.

292

And it might not have anything

to do with the FODMAP, so it

293

might be almost like your gut's

nervous system, that is the key.

294

And in that case, you should work

on your vagus nerve, um, other

295

nerve system support in terms

of managing anxiety and stress.

296

And also be aware of how hypervigilant

you are, which can be a bit of a

297

conundrum when you are doing this diet

in order to focus on your symptoms.

298

And yet, if you're someone who's sort of

symptom obsessed, it can be pretty tricky.

299

I'm going to leave it

here for this episode.

300

The next episode will all be about

how to do that reintroduction, what

301

you'd be looking for, what kind of

things you can do in order to know

302

whether FODMAPs are your trigger and

if they are which particular ones.

303

So do join me next time for a bit more

on the FODMAP reintroduction process.

304

See you then.

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Goodbye.