Sadly, food is a common trigger for some digestive symptoms when it comes to IBS and IBD. Limiting those trigger foods can often improve your symptoms to sensitive people, as well as help your quality of life.
For anyone who has ever gone to the Dr with digestive problems the first diet recommended for a TIME is the low-FODMAP diet. Here's how it works, and why you should try it.
What are FODMAPs?
FODMAP stands for fermentable oligo-, di-, mono- saccharides, and polyols. That's a whole lot of words to basically explain they are groups of carbs that born to trigger digestive symptoms like gas, bloating, and stomach pain. FODMAPs are found in so many types of food and some foods contain more than one type.
The main food sources of the four groups include:
Oligosaccharides: Legumes, wheat, Rye, garlic, opinions, and a few other various fruits and veggies.
Disaccharides: (lactose) Milk, cheese, yogurt, and really anything lactose if we are being honest.
Monosaccharides: (Fructose) Figs, Mangoes, honey, and many sweeteners.
Polyols: (naturally occurring sugar alcohols) Blackberries, various stone fruits, mushrooms, and many additives in gum, and mints.
Benefits of the low-FODMAP diet
Trust me there are a ton of them, and it's why your body and your doctor are pleading with you to start this. I personally have had to follow this diet to break down which foods were causing my body to stay in a flare. Along with stress management, and medical intervention.
The most common benefits are
Reduced digestive issues like reflux, gas, urgency, bloating, and stomach pain.
Increased quality of life. Many people find they have more energy, especially if they suffer from IBS.
This diet isn't for everyone, and there are VERY limited studies with children. Making sure it's a decision you and your doctor have talked about is vital to a healthy transition.
If you have IBS consider this diet if you:
1) Have continuing gut symptoms
2) Haven't responded to natural stress management
3) Haven't responded to the first line of dietary advice.
What is the first line of dietary advice?
- restricting alcohol, caffeine, spicy food, and other common or known triggers for you.
**It's a little different for IBD please follow your medical guidance as well as your body. This diet is GREAT for tracking down those pesky triggers, and helping to manage flares.**
How does the low-FODMAP diet work?
Stage 1: Restriction (about 3-8 weeks)
The most strict part of the diet is here. You want to restrict ALL high-FODMAP foods. If you're not quite sure what those are, read this article. This area is up to you and your body you are looking for relief of symptoms. Once you have hit that point it's time to progress to step 2.
Stage 2: Reintroduction
This stage is all about documentation and finding which foods are causing you problems. You will test specific foods one by one for three days each recording what happens.
It's recommended to not go through this on your own, however, there are many ways to get help now that are less expensive than a doctor or a dietitian. This app is one of those. Click here
Also during this part, you need to keep going on the low-FODMAP diet throughout. Even if you can tolerate certain high-FODMAP foods you must continue to restrict until stage 3.
Stage 3: Personalization
Congrats you've made it to the stage that's all about you. In stage 2 you figured out foods your body struggles with and foods that it can handle. Now you get to personalize your diet, avoiding trigger foods as much as possible. While with IBS symptoms may be debilitating they will not cause lasting damage like IBD. However, for a quality of life, it's best that you try spending less time in your triggers and more in food your body loves.
Over time it gets easier and easier, and a low-FODMAP diet can be flavourful and ever-changing if that's your style of eating.
If you're not ready to do low-FODMAP
There are plenty of other areas to start first, it just takes a little dedication and time. However, the quickest way to find your trigger foods is some type of elimination or restriction diet.
Supplements I have found that help the gut:
Elite - This tasty drink helps with cortisol (your stress hormone) and therefore helps with stress relief and eventually brings down your body's overall stress levels which in turn helps ease digestive issues. Get elite here
Healthy Protein - It's important to make sure how much sugar is in your protein, and how often you are consuming it. Too much sugar hurts your digestive tract. This protein I have found mixes easily with water fills you up and it also has pre AND probiotics for healthy gut flora. Get PureNourish here
Greens drink - For me personally it's hard since losing part of my colon, and some organs to break down the fiber of veggies. However, I found this drink that is vanilla a flavor and happens to also contain over 2 pounds of vegetables and microgreens with each dose. It's easier and cheaper on my body. Get Giving Greens Here.
Hormone Balancing drops - This is for all the people who are also looking to manage their weight, get more energy, or for the females who can tell their hormones are out of whack! These balancing drops work! I have CT 's to prove the shrinking of my visceral fat. Losing and controlling visceral fat helps to naturally reduce inflammation around your organs. By doing so, those of us with IBD can get some relief from our terrible daily symptoms.
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*** For those of us with IBD (Crohn's or UC) this is not a fix, cure, or a way to heal the gut. This is only to help identify and dodge trigger foods. Please always follow the guidance of trained professionals.**
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