My doctor has just put me on the low FODMAP diet for a recent diagnosis of IBS and i am wondering if others have found it helps, and if so how long does it take to notice a difference?
I also have GERD/GORD and am being told to go on a low acid low inflammation diet as well and am also wondering if the low FODMAP diet covers this too?
I did 8 weeks of the low Fodmap trial when I was first diagnosed. I was in a sorry state then and gave up many of my favourite foods because I was desperate for something to help.
I did the 8 week diet strictly. Then I started the re-introduction phase, also strictly, to identify any thing that might be a trigger.
What I discovered was interesting. I found that many veggies that did suit me happened to be low Fodmap. But that also some high Fodmap veggies were fine for me. And...that ALL the low Fodmap veggies weren't friendly for my gut. Courgette was unfriendly if I ate more than an inch or two (peeled) Turnips...terrible...blueberries not so great, likewise oranges, and tomatoes were a definite no.
I also discovered other foods, like honey, gluten, avocado, butter, certain kinds of chocolate even milk chocolate, asparagus, broccoli!!, alcohol in moderation, coffee (one cup a day) tea (earl grey) and fizzy water, were also no problem for me. Those are all supposed to be problematic for IBS.
But that my main issue seemed to be with insoluble fibre. Yet not ALL insoluble fibre! Skins on anything veggie, etc. But I could eat lettuce!
Yet why cabbage and cauliflower didn't suit me, yet I could eat 3 brussels sprouts in one go, or broccoli in a full portion size...is a mystery
It took me quite a while to work all this out. That I had to tailor my diet to ME. That not all low Fodmaps were friendly. And a number of "high" ones were.
That the low Fodmap diet didn't cure me, but was worth trying and I came up with a number of "safe foods" from it.
So I would say that the low Fodmap list isn't always gospel truth....for YOU. You will have to test and experiment.
And with me, I found flare ups still happened even when on the low Fodmap trial, which I couldn't relate to food, because by that stage I'd already identified which "low" foods were okay and which weren't. Though many of the foods were better tolerated.
Thank you so much for replying! this is information is so helpful and answers most of my questions about the diet.
It sounds like you have done a great job with the low FODMAP diet in terms of sticking to it but most importantly working out what foods you can and can't have later on.
I am interested to know how you worked out which of the low FODMAP foods that were supposed to be ok, in fact were not for you? Did you just choose some of the low FODMAP foods and randomly eliminated them, or did you suspect certain ones were giving you problems?
Also i am finding that my food choices are very limited now that i have removed both gluten and lactose, so i am wondering if i will be low on any nutrients by the end of the 8 weeks. Did you have any issues with this?
I am actually looking forward to the possibility this diet will give me some relief, as like you i have been in a bad way with the discomfort, and it sounds like the diet does help a lot.
Thank you again for sharing your experience. Hopefully your symptoms are a lot better now after all your hard work with the diet.
It was easy for me to work out which of the low Fodmap foods didn't suit me. I have a pretty fast gut transit. In fact, I always did have even when my gut was healthy and pre-IBS by many years. My gut transit is about 16 hours. That timing is the same now.
So say for instance, if I ate turnips, then the following morning my gut was upset and very loose bowel movements plus wind. There would also be a sensation a bit like anxiety which accompanied the physical things.
And likewise with the foods that did suit me (say green beans or spinach etc) I would find that morning bm's were a bit better and my life felt calmer!
I would say if you have any kind of restricted diet, it might be a good idea to find a really good multivitamin and mineral supplement. I take one daily. Then you don't need to worry about missing out on vitamins from foods you can't tolerate (yet?)
But malabsorption can be a thing too. Then no matter what we put in, it isn't absorbed properly. I am pretty sure I don't have that from observing my general condition. But you could research it and get any checks you might need?
Don't be too scared of having to restrict your diet for a while to manage symptoms. Just make sure you have the back up of a good supplement to tide you over.
But ideally you should have a nutritionist/dietician on board. If you can get a referral from your doctor to a dietician, go for it.
Hi I was wondering if u have had a test done to see the gut transit time? I did a test and my time was 25 minutes
Wow, I have never heard of a fast transit time like that. I just did my own test a few times but I did that before IBS, just for curiosity. I tested it by eating beetroot for dinner (6pm) and seeing when I pooped purple. It was always the next morning about 15-16 hours later.
Hi Steve,Don't know where fodmap and gerd might overlap.
My experience with fodmap has been very positive.
People talk a out it being very restrictive especially when it comes to things they do not want to give up.
Looking at what most people eat I think you will find there's actually a small range of foods and generally a good amount of junk.
When the typical diet of wheat and dairy based foods is abandoned there's a huge choice,but not what you may habitually consume.
The Monash fodmap guide is good,it is not a one size fits all but aims to get your digestion to a quiet place from where you may then be able to identify foods that upset things. You learn to think more about everything you put in your mouth and read labels.
I'm prepared to forgo all sorts of stuff for the sake of a quiet and more predictable digestive system.
You may benefit from some kind of digestive enzyme supplement? And also some form of pro and pre biotic.
Cheers
That's very helpful thanks. I don't eat a lot of wheat and dairy so from what you're saying i think i might find it ok. I had wondered about taking a probiotic of some sorts. There's a dietician nearby who specialises in low FODMAP diets and gastric issues so now i'm thinking i might need to get my diet streamlined to suit both health issues i have. Thanks for your thoughts on this. Cheers!
Lucky to have someone nearby to consult.If you have a look at the Monash fodmap guidelines you'll get a pretty good idea of where to start.
I believe it provides a wider food choice in general than most people live on in anyway.
If you have a food/ nutrition approach to eating you should find it pretty easy to make a shift.
Cheers
I found it fairly helpful once I got to understand how it’s supposed to be used. It’s not a strict permanent diet. It’s designed to help you weed out the foods that trigger you. As above, I found onions, which are supposed to be high/bad, no problem. Iceberg lettuce was thought? Anything with high fructose syrup is a no go as well.
I would say the only problem I had was keeping track of it all. I found the numerous apps fairly poor and many of them had conflicting information on high/low fodmap.
Best of luck with it.
Good morning SurfacingSteve,
Not so much, I found it to be to restrictive and found I started to feel ill. The high fodmap items on the list I avoid as much as I can. A food diary is a good place to start because it is different for all of us, of course you have the main culprits. I have a friend who also has IBS and her triggers are different to mine, I cannot tolerate even the smallest amount ot illuln whereas its not an issue for her and she cannot have soya but It is never an issue for me, thankfully.
Good morning Kitten-whiskers,
Thanks for your perspective on the diet. So far i've been on it a week now and i am noticing an improvement. I suspect lactose was an issue for me but will see once the re-introduction phase begins i guess. It does seem restrictive as you mentioned, especially if i try and eat out, but i have found a place that sells Monash certified low FODMAP meals so i'm hoping those will make life easier. Thanks again for the reply.
Good luck, it does seem to help lots of people, sadly I am not one of them
low FODMAP has made a big difference to me. You have to stick to it. Also there’s an app I use that meal plans for me and educates me too. Lots of fun reading and tracking. It’s really good. I’m just in reintroduction phase testing a few things so far lactose is a no go. I never knew that. Kind of explains a few things about my flares. Also testing fructose I couldn’t tolerate the mango testing so retested and used honey. I was ok with honey. So win win on that. Tested gluten but although that seems ok I did feel bloated eating gluten bread as opposed to gluten free. Wish you luck. That app is called ibs coach. Works well on apple iPhone. Good luck and stick to it.
Thanks for the advice on the app, i've just installed it on my iPhone, looks good so far.
There isn't an overlap between the diet for GERD and the low FODMAP diet. However, low FODMAP may reduce gases building up in your system, which puts less pressure on the valve that sits between the stomach and the throat, reducing the leakage of stomach contents into the throat.
I can suffer from both GERD and IBS and when both were at their worst I bought some GERD diet books and then did my own cross reference to the low FODMAP diet.
I did find that low FODMAP helped. However, being on it long term made my IBS worse in the end. This is because there were many FODMAPs that I couldn't tolerate. Being extremely low FODMAP can reduce feed for your microbiome, reducing the diversity of gut bacteria. When gut bacteria is less diverse, it has less of a chance to keep bad bugs under control. It is this imbalance which can lead to IBS. So it is a viscous circle. Often when people start with IBS, it is because they have this imbalance already (e.g. due to existing dietary patterns, stress or food poisoning). What the low FODMAP diet does is reduce feed for the bad bacteria too. This is why symptoms reduce.
It would be far better to try a good probiotic in the first instance, such as Alflorex, which has been scientifically studied for IBS. This helps to fight off the bad bugs, bringing things more back in balance, thus reducing IBS symptoms. This then makes the body more tolerant to different foods. Once you can widen your diet, this increases bacterial diversity, so in the end your own body should be able to keep the bad bugs under control. For instance, I now only take Alflorex every third day instead of every day. This way, you might be able to eat more foods and only need to eliminate a smaller number using FODMAP elimination and reintroduction, which would be better for your overall health.
In my case, Alflorex didn't fix me entirely. There are some foods I still can't tolerate, but I can eat much broader spectrum of foods than I could eat before. Where IBS and food intolerances are concerned, I understand that your gut can hold a 'memory' of the original injury that caused IBS (such as food poisoning) and erroneously still regards some foods as a threat, reacting and giving symptoms. Until there is a treatment for this aspect of IBS, it is very difficult to recover from IBS entirely, since some food intolerances will remain.
Cross referencing the two diets does seem the way to go, thanks. I'm seeing a dietician tomorrow so i'm hopeful that they may be able to make this approach easier.
Yes, i wondered if long term use of the low FODMAP diet could cause issues. All my IBS symptoms began when i was given a strong course of antibiotics 3 months ago and then had the bowel prep for a colonoscopy about 3 weeks ago. Thanks for the advice on Alflorex, i look further into it.
I did the 8 week elimination stage of the Fodmap diet about 6 years ago under the guidance of a hospital dietician. I followed it religiously but it was too long a time as I found that when I moved on to the following Challenge stage I reacted badly to even the small start amounts of the test foods that I had been perfectly fine eating previously. The elimination stage time has been reduced in many NHS areas since then. It is at the Challenge stage that you find which of the FODMAPS affect you and also how much of them you can tolerate. I was given the 3 guidance booklets by the dietician and think I would have been at sea without them as they were very detailed. The idea is that if you react to one of the food groups you will react to them all. Not so as others here have said. It’s a great place to start but not foolproof and far from perfect and the criteria keeps changing from Monash too. Also of course we are all individuals and IBS is a syndrome so not the same for everyone. In addition a number of low fodmaps a day can add up to becoming quite a large one. Fructans were my main problem after the elimination diet and I hate most gluten-free flour based food especially bread. Eventually genuin, well fermented sourdough helped a bit but now I find I can eat a piece of normal non-seeded bread but I make sure I have no other food containing gluten the same day. Onion, garlic and leek remain problematic! Good luck, it does get easier!
I had heard the elimination phase had been reduced. I'm seeing a dietician tomorrow so hopefully i'll get some advice on how long to continue with it. I had noticed even before the diet that onion and garlic were problems for me too. Thanks for your perspective on this.
Hi, I too followed the low FODMAP diet on the advice of a dietitian. Like Luisa, some things worked and others didn’t. You really do have to work it out to suit you. That said, it is the best thing I’ve ever done for controlling my symptoms as I now know what my triggers are and I avoid them religiously.
To help GORD it’s important not to eat large meals, especially in the evening. I find alcohol and bread/ gluten to be my main triggers. I avoid acidic foods , fruits and juices and products containing vinegar as I have an oral allergy to them as well as the reflux. I also take Esomeprazole 20mg twice a day as my reflux was doing further damage to my lungs. My reflux happens mostly at night, so I sleep with 3 pillows as it’s a good idea not to lie flat.
I hope you are able to work out what is right for you. Doing the FODMAP was how I found what triggered my reflux as well as my IBS.
Stay safe and well.
Good advice regarding GORD thank you. I have found the two worst things for me are alcohol and potato chips especially together. They also upset my IBS too.
I'm also on Esomeprazole 20mg but once a day. My dr has me on it for 8 weeks. I'm 6 days in and starting to notice a difference. I notice that you said the acid was damaging your lungs. I have had a painful burning sensation in my lungs when i exercise and i'm wondering if the burning is somehow related to GORD? In your case have you had any noticeable lung symptoms?
Hi Steve, as well as asthma I have a condition called Bronchiectasis. My Respiratory Consultant says that GORD can cause damage to your lungs as the reflux usually happens at night, and you can aspirate a little of the stomach acid which damages the lining of the bronchioles. He sees a lot of patients who have both of these conditions. It might be worth checking this out with a Dr. Stay safe and well.
I found the Monash app helpful, do explore it, there is info hidden away and not immediately obvious, the food guide doesnt have everything and they name broad beans as fava beans ( for instance.)I find after a year that my gut has been able to tolerate small amounts of some of my triggers but I mostly steer clear of them. I dont eat out as much as I used to. As for GERD I find eliminating most fats has helped a lot. I can still eat hard cheeses and brie/camembert and occasional butter.
I have just installed the Monash app. I found my local dietician through it, and i have also found some ready-made low FODMAP certified meals to order online through it, so it looks great so far. One thing i noticed with the app is doing food searches can be problematic. You have to get the terminology right as you pointed out or you don't get a result. Thanks for the advice, i'm more hopeful for some improvement now.
not had a great success with fodmap but have continued to eliminate leeks garlic and onions where I can. Makes for a bland diet however ! Lactose free milk butter and cheese seems to be helping. But had a course of codeine and paracetamol recently as I think I have pneumonia. Stopped all the IBS -d symptoms but not sustainable. Glad to be constipated for a a few days !
If you've got an Indian store nearby, get some asafoetida. A little bit can be used to substitute for onion and garlic flavor in a lot of meals.
Look up Indian recipes without onion and garlic too. Certainly not bland.
This is awesome thank you! I have never heard of asafoetida but i've looked it up and i can buy it locally. Like you said it's a popular substitute for onion and garlic flavour.
You should know the stuff smells awful when you open the container. (foetid: smelling extremely unpleasant)
When you want to cook with it, warm a bit of fat (oil, butter, or ghee) in the pan. Add a tiny bit of asafoetida and sizzle a few seconds before you add the other ingredients.
Ah ok thanks, so i'm guessing that it tastes a lot better than it smells?
You'll find out... 😜
Sorry, couldn't help myself. I think you'll like it. Especially if you use a simple Indian recipe.
Haha funny! I'm interested in trying it now, there's an indian shop in town that sells all kinds of things i can't pronounce and they have this, so this weekend i think 
Go for it! Let me know how it works out.
I've had some great conversations with other shoppers at the Indian market. Tell them what food I like and get some great cooking ideas.
Hi When I was first diagnosed with IBS, I was told stress was a big part of my problem as well as food. I was told to go on a Fodmap diet. For the past 6 years, my diet has consisted of Toast for breakfast, sandwich for lunch and fish and rice for tea, I do add vegetables occasionally . I have now found out which veg I can eat. Garlic and spices are a BIG NO for me, I have lactose milk now but mostly drink fruit tea. Over the years I have had one different meal a week to see if it cause a flare up, which seems to have worked for me.
Hi, thanks for sharing your perspective on this. I have just been told similar by my new dietician. She said it's a combination of diet and stress for me too. This is helpful as i can work with that. I have been on the low FODMAP diet now for about ten days and already have noticed a significant improvement. My diet is actually similar to yours except that i replace lean chicken with fish and i also add some rolled oats with some half-ripe banana for breakfast. Like you garlic and onions are a big no. My dietician said that in three weeks she will help me to introduce certain foods again like lactose etc to see what was causing me problems. I also have acid reflux so have to also avoid foods that trigger that. Glad the diet has helped you too.
Low FODMAP diet
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