Anyone else following low fodmap diet and having to go on a low fat\high fibre diet for high cholesterol

I got a gp referral to a dietician for the low fodmap diet in 2013 as a last resort. When I was just about getting some sort of control over my gut I was diagnosed as having high cholesterol (heart disease runs in my family ). The gp then just left message with my blood test results that I go on a low fat/high fibre diet. I've had to go back to the gp to explain twice that I can't the foodstuffs on the low fat\high fibre diet because it conflicts with what I can eat on the low fodmap diet, that my diet is already very restrictive and loads of fibre really aggravate my gut. None of the gps I have seen no anything about the low fodmap diet. It is called the low fodmap diet, not the fodmap diet. I know gps are very short on time but to just put a patient on a very restrictive diet when they are already on another one, without even seeing them, and not seemingly understanding how IBS restricts what you do and the stress it causes. Very good article in Saturday's Daily Mail about how IBS affects people and how little help there is.

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I feel for you and the only thing I can suggest is for you is to make sure that you don't eat too much fat and also see if you can tolerate the spread (I.e. like margarine) that is designed to reduce your cholesteral. Also, if you are able, exercise.

I totally agree with you that there are a lot of doctors that know nothing about the FODMAP diet whatsoever and they seem to think that IBS is just some 'minor' (I don't think so!!) you have to live with.

I'll have a look at the article from Saturday's Daily Mail as I haven't seen it.

Hope you manage to sort out your diet to help both conditions.

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Thanks, the article is called 'Cost of doctors not taking IBS seriously' by Dr Max so you could get it on-line. I hardly eat any fat, I can have a very limited amount of olive oil or rapeseed oil and I can have a cholesterol lowering teaspoon of Benecol spread that is if I don't have a Benecol yoghurt and a Benecol yoghurt drink - and a restricted amount of fat free or low fat dairy product. When you have to follow very restrictive diets you know that you have to eat and you have to be very selective about what you can eat or otherwise you suffer.

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Thank you and I found the article, read it and posted it on Facebook, it's about time that the condition is taken seriously. I don't eat a lot of fat either, most of mine comes just from milk as I am no longer eating yogurts because of the Lactose and the cost of the Lactose free yogurts or any others that are Lactose free as extortionate.

I am lucky in that I am not aware that I have anything else apart from IBS.

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Following my post below, I have just come across this on the healthy eating part of this forum, you might find it interesting.

healthunlocked.com/healthye...

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Thanks, when I first started the low fat\high fibre diet I did lower my cholesterol by eating porridge with soya milk and more vegetables but at a price, my IBS just flared up big time. All the carbs were wheat products which I cannot tolerate and I knew I had to eat but it just made me not want to eat food (that I could eat\tolerate on the low fodmap diet) unpalatable. It seems lowering cholesterol is a very contentious issue

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I now buy my porridge from Aldis which is organic and gluten free as I see from this forum that although the low FODMAP diet allows oats not everyone can eat them. I haven't had any problems with the oats I eat and of course I use mainly water to make the porridge and a little Lactose free milk. I cannot tolerate many fruits or vegetables and 2 days this week I've ended up in pain because I've been eating fruit even though what I have eaten is allowed on the low FODMAP diet - I've just eaten too much at once. You kind of think what's the point in eating it then so that's another thing to go without.

Therefore, I am totally with you re disinterest in food. Today though I did have a small piece of dark chocolate with my lunch as I cannot eat the fruit.

[casares8]

I have exactly the same problem. In fact i put a posting about it recently. I tried to tell the doctor that my diet is restrictive enough with certain things that i cannot eat, without going on low cholesterol as well! Like you i find i cannot tolerate a lot of fibre, even though i have constipation. And i try and follow some of the fodmap diet, though not completely. He was very dismissive at first saying i need to lower my cholesterol. Went back a few weeks later with a letter from the gastro which indicated my low weight, put me on the scales and then said i need to eat certain things again! Back and forth. No one seems to know. I am sure my high cholesterol is something to do with my ibs, and low weight, not processing food properly in my body. I dont eat much fat at all.

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The dietician that I saw, for the low fodmap diet, said that I was badly absorbing my food so there was no point in my eating certain foodstuffs when I couldn't digest them properly. I am finding that eating such restrictive diets has made me completely disinterested in food and very anxious that if I do eat am I going to have another IBS flare up which can last upto 10 days. One of the gps I saw told me, and she said she never tells patients to do this, to start eating chocolate and chips to get my cholesterol up so I could then be put on statins for high cholesterol. My gut seems to swing one way to another and is so unpredictable that it really does restrict what I can do . I hardly eat any fat and I think I read somewhere that fat makes food more easy to digest

[MiniMum97]

I would just try to cut out sugar and cut down on refined carbs for a while and see how this impacts your cholesterol. This is easier to do on low FODMAP than high fibre. Also use lots of extra virgin olive oil (aim for three tbsps a day). Then see if it's having any affect at next test. The link between saturated fat and cholesterol in blood is contentious and it's now thought to be more complicated than that which is why some people don't respond to a low fat diet.

Bowel problems suggest poor gut bacteria and there is research coming out suggesting that gut bacteria affect how you process fat. Try doing things to improve your gut bacteria such as probiotics (VSL, symprove or alflorex) and add fermented foods like kefir, kombucha, kimchi, sourdough bread - take this slowly.

Try to eat as many different colours of food as possible within the constraints of low FODMAP.

Low FODMAP should not be followed forever, have you tried to reintroduce?

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I don't eat any sugary foodstuff or refined carbs. I make my own spelt bread (in a bread machine) as spelt is easier for me to digest than wheat. I only use a light olive oil and rapeseed oil for dressings and cooking, I don't like the strong flavout of virgin. I have tried different types of kefir which didn't improve my IBS and also was not helping to lower my cholesterol but as a treat I do eat sourdough bread, I haven't heard of tried the other two you mentioned. I am going to try taking symprove for 12 weeks, I haven't heard of alflorex - is that the same as VSL#3? and am even wondering about cognitive behavioural therapy. I have tried hypnotherapy and acupuncure for my IBS with no luck, as my IBS is making me very anxious.