Diets

[sophiaca07]

I am just curious to see what diets seem most beneficial to people on this website. I’m doing dairy free right now which seems to help but i’m wondering if there’s anything else I can do to make it even better. I’m underweight so FODMAP not appropriate.

Any sharing of personal experience with diet would be really appreciated thanks x

[userotc]

All cases are individualised/personal. Have you ever considered seeing a qualified Nutritional Therapists specialising in this area as they treat on an individual basis?

[xjrs]

Initially, here are my thoughts on being low weight:

Try to eat more food, more often with less meal spacing. Ordinarily I would recommend spacing out meals to help the MMC (migratory motor complex) to run. This sweeps food from the small intestine to the large intestine during fasting. However, this could be counter productive if you are trying to gain weight.

Eat carbohydrates that you are more able to tolerate such as:

White jasmine rice. This is pure calories and very easily digested. It gets completely digested in the small intestine leaving no residue for the colon. Note that some types of rice (such as Basmati) contain resistant starch some of which would be undigested and end up in your colon.

Low FODMAP and/or gluten free grains (if you are intolerant to wheat). This can include buckwheat pasta, gluten free pastas, quinoa and buckwheat flakes. Some of these are more fibrous than others, so you will need to test for your own tolerance. Some sufferers are more tolerant to oats than wheat, so porridge made with full fat or dairy free milks are good for breakfast and even as extra snack meals. Oat amazake is a form of highly digestible fermented oats. I mix this with buckwheat flakes and add in tolerated fruits as a snack.

Squash and pumpkin. There are different types of squash and pumpkin products listed on the Monash University FODMAP app with their various low FODMAP serving sizes.

Beans and pulses (thoroughly rinsed when canned) – see Monash University FODMAP app for low FODMAP quantities if necessary.

High fat varieties of dairy (e.g. hard cheeses) or lactose free dairy if necessary. Note that some sufferers will be intolerant to cheese due to the whey or casein protein content rather than lactose.

Semi-skimmed or whole milk or lactose free varieties.

Nuts. These can be ground in a coffee grinder to make them more digestible. Nuts add fibre, so gradually increase the amount.

Eggs.

Protein shakes as snacks.

Berry fruits (strawberries, blueberries and raspberries).

Healthy fats such as extra virgin olive oil. This could make you more loose, so start with 1 teaspoon working up to 3 tablespoons (1 tablespoon with each meal) per day depending on tolerance. Note there are 3 teaspoons in 1 tablespoon.

Maybe concentrate on getting your weight up first. Additionally, try a well studied probiotic such as Alflorex which has been studied for IBS, which may make you more tolerant to different foods.

Once you have increased weight and been taking a good probiotic which hopefully has helped your symptoms, then try FODMAP elimination and reintroduction to find any residual intolerances.

Beyond that and in the long run, the best diet for IBS and the microbiome is the Mediterranean diet.

Please DO NOT use Nutritional/Functional Therapists - they are not properly medically trained - they will rob you and make your symptoms worse. There are no good ones. This practice is not recognised by the medical community. I have personal experience of this (with more than one) and sorely regret it.

[Edgar77]

I have to be gluten free as I am celiac, but also have cut out lactose. I can tolerate a little. I have found the fod map diet very helpful. I have a list of good food and bad..

[Luisa22]

Any "diet" that might help has to be an individual thing with IBS. What suits one person with IBS probably won't help the next person.

I did the FODMAP diet strictly for 8 weeks initially. It didn't solve anything with me. I found some low Fodmap foods to not suit me at all. I also found what some people would call "triggers" like sugar, gluten, etc to be fine for me and no problem.

I only started to be able to balance out my IBS D a bit by experimenting with fibre, and realising I could not handle the amount of fibre I had been eating before. I cut it down and began to be able to control things a little bit...sometimes at least. As time has gone by I just listen to my body each day and adjust the mount of fibre daily and I am not generally doing too badly now. Still with some ups and downs, but things are more stable.

No, I cannot return to "5 a day" (yet). Usually only 3 portions of vegetables and sometimes only 2. And I struggle with fruit, but I eat quite healthily, gradually find I can introduce more foods.

Every time I am able to add one more vegetable to my diet, I am grateful. Sometimes a tweak is needed (like peeling the thing!!) to make it tolerable, but that's OK with me.

Nobody else could work out a diet that suits me. Only I can do that by following my own body and how it reacts to any food. It's always on a daily basis and I have adjusted to that.

What we are always told "we should eat" will never work for me. I have to find my own way through.

Fortunately I prepare my own food at home and never eat out.