This episode is part of my FODMAP mini-series looking at how to handle a negative reaction to the FODMAP diet reintroduction phase. Listen to them all.

Listen to hear how to retest after a positive FODMAP reaction to a challenge. I also share HOW Galacto-oligosaccharides will affect your gut.

Foods turn to moderate or high FODMAP at these levels:

Nuts

• Almonds - 10 nuts
• Hazelnuts - 10 nuts
• Flax seeds 15g (1 tbsp)
• Butternut squash – 60g (also Mannitol)
• Cassava – 180g

Beans   

• Pinto beans <28g (1.5 tbsp)
• Adzuki beans <40g (¼ cup)
• Black beans <45g (¼ cup)
• butter beans <60g
• borlotti beans <45g
• chickpeas, tinned, rinsed <80g (when these are dried, & boiled you can only eat <33g)
• cannellini beans <89g
• Lentils tinned, rinsed  <65g (brown)
• Lentils (puy) 30g is low, 90g is high
• Lentils (red) 23g is low 46g is moderate

If one of the high GOS foods has affected you, you can retest this FODMAP with a different food.

For help managing your IBS diet, including the low FODMAP diet, join the 3 month Gut Reset.

Links

• Group Gut Reset - https://www.goodnessme-nutrition.com/group-course-ibsc/
• 1:1 Gut Reset - https://www.goodnessme-nutrition.com/consultations/

Why is it so hard to find

your IBS food triggers?

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Even when you've eliminated FODMAPs

and identified a trigger during

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the reintroduction phase, it can

be difficult to work out what

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that means for day to day life.

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Can you ever eat that food again?

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That's exactly what I'll cover in

this episode of The Inside Knowledge.

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This episode is part of a mini series

where I cover each of the FODMAPs in turn,

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so you can either listen to them all, or

just the one that's most suited to you.

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You'll learn in each episode what

foods fall into each FODMAP category,

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how to tackle the rest of that

category once a food reaction has

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been identified, and when should you

retest, and how to proceed day to day.

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Hello, welcome to episode 27 about

the FODMAP reintroduction challenges.

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This one's all about galacto

oligosaccharides, normally

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just called GOS for short.

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The easiest way to think of them

is saccharide is just a sugar,

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and we get monosaccharides,

like glucose or fructose.

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An oligosaccharide is a

chain of two to ten...

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Monosaccharides could be the

same one repeated or different

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monosaccharides stuck together.

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That is an oligosaccharide.

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And then a galacto oligosaccharide

refers to the way that that

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oligosaccharide was created by

something called beta galactosidase.

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So that is basically what

galacto oligosaccharide means.

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Two main starches that we normally

talk about with this gos is raffinose

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and stachyose and these make up goss,

so this is the actual starch that

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is measured when people are measuring

how much galactooligosaccharide

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is in your FODMAP foods.

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When you think about what foods

these are, it's mostly nuts and

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These are the main groups to consider

when you've had a reaction to GOS.

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The highest nuts for GOS are almonds

and also hazelnuts, and you can only

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have about 10 nuts before they start

flipping into a high FODMAP portion.

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With beans, it's a little

bit more complicated.

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Generally, about one to two tablespoons

is considered low FODMAP and okay.

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But when you get over that, some beans

you can have a bit more of and won't

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be causing you to be high FODMAP.

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And some beans, it's a bit less.

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Like, for example, pinto beans.

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You can have only one and a

half tablespoons of beans before

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they become high FODMAP portion.

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And this is per meal.

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You also want to think, as I've said in

the other episodes in this mini series

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about FODMAP reintroductions, that

you don't stack these lots of little

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moderate or mini low FODMAP portions

together to create a high FODMAP meal.

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By contrast, chickpeas, when

they are tinned and rinsed, you

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can have up to 80 grams before

they become a high FODMAP meal.

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And cannellini beans is 89 grams,

it turns into a moderate portion.

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So this is a really good portion of beans.

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Something thing else to really highlight

to you here is the difference in

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what happens if you have a tinned

portion of beans compared to a

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portion of beans or lentils dried.

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When they've been sitting in the tin

they're in water, and some of the FODMAP

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content is leaching into the water.

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If you get your beans and as you

take them out you drain all the

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water away, rinse them under the tap.

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That is going to lower the

FODMAP content of those foods.

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So it's always worth doing if

you're sensitive to GOS as a FODMAP.

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Now, I'm going to go through some

of those beans, to be a bit more

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specific now, so you can really

judge which beans you can eat a

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bit more of by staying low FODMAP.

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I also wanted to say that it's really

important to try and create low levels

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of FODMAP containing foods in your

diet, even during the restrictive phase.

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So if you're going through the low

FODMAP diet now and you're restricting

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all the high FODMAP foods, you can still

have small portions of these beans,

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particularly butter beans, borlotti beans,

chickpeas, cannellini beans, and lentils.

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And so these are a little bit easier

for you to digest, particularly when

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they have been really well cooked and if

they came from a tin and you rinse them.

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So if I just go through all the different

beans now, these are the portions at

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which they become moderate to high FODMAP.

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So, pinto beans, less than 28 grams,

which is one and a half tablespoons.

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Adzuki beans, less than 40

grams, that's quarter of a cup.

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Black beans, less than 40

grams, quarter of a cup.

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Butter Beans, less than 60 grams.

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Borlotti Beans, less than 45 grams.

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And Chickpeas, less than 80 grams.

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Cannellini Beans, less than 89 grams.

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So that's quite good for

beans in some portions.

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You can still increase your fiber,

which is so helpful and so important

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when you are on the low FODMAP diet.

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Now, lentils, there's a lot of different

lentils if you have the tinned brown

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lentils, then you can go up to 65 grams

and that's still considered low FODMAP.

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With the puy, I don't know how you say

it, puy lentils, um, 30 grams is low

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and then 60 grams is high, so somewhere

in between that it's gonna be moderate.

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I can't find the exact data, but if you

stay under 30 grams, which is probably

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about two tablespoons again, that is okay.

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And then red lentils 23 grams

is low and 46 grams is moderate.

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So somewhere between 23 and 46 again,

you'll probably be all right with a couple

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of tablespoons of red . The big problem

normally with galacto oligosaccharides is

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that humans don't have the right enzymes

to break down these long chains of sugar.

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So remember I said oligosaccharides are

chains of monosaccharides stuck together.

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We don't...

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break them down very well, which

means that these travel to the

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large intestine where they are

rapidly fermented by gut microbes.

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The gut bacteria love them.

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Everyone has a different tolerance

to all the FODMAPs and in some

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studies they've shown that some

people can cope with around 12

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grams of galactooligosaccharides.

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per day, but if you increase that

up to 15 grams per day, it really

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increased the amount of gas, and that

is due to bacterial fermentation.

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As they're making this, as with the

other FODMAPs, bacteria are creating

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short chain fatty acids, and as a by

product, they will create some gas.

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The bacterial fermentation of

oligosaccharides also really

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increases the bacterial mass, which

increases the amount of stool.

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So it basically gives you more

poo, because a lot of the poo

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is actually dead bacteria.

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So the fermentation of the

food that we're eating, these

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beans and pulses and also nuts.

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will increase the amount of bulk and that

can increase your need to want to go.

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So it's very good for people

who have got constipation.

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The other reason that short chain

fatty acids are so important is

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that they lower the pH of our gut.

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So a more acidic large intestine

is a better place for friendly

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bacteria that we want more of like

lactobacilli and bifidobacteria.

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And these also suppress.

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Bad bacteria.

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So bad bacteria don't tend to want

to grow in an acidic environment,

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and so that's why we wanna create

more short chain fatty acids and

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make the large intestine more acidic.

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If you have had a reaction to beans or

nuts when you've tried them, is there

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a way you can still include the smaller

portions of some of the foods at a low

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FODMAP level, or potentially only eat them

on alternate days instead of every day?

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Because this is more of a large intestine

issue with gas production, you may

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find having them once or twice a week

is really fine, but if you were to

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eat high GOS containing foods every

day, you may need a little bit of time

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to adjust to it, as, like I said, it

increases your stool bulk, it IBS,

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You may find it's better to

have them more sporadically

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rather than on recurrent days.

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But I do suggest just adding two

tablespoons of beans or lentils, maybe

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to a curry, maybe just into a salad,

to help you train your gut microbes to

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better digest galacto oligosaccharides.

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There, I hope that's been helpful.

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I will end this session there.

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Stay tuned for the rest of the series.