Any of you OCUK lot on a Fodmap diet?

Smiffy-UK · 8 Nov 2020 at 03:50

Hey, so I'm an ex chef of 16 years and I love to cook, every day, weekly homemade bread, stocks and well food prepared in advance, also buy bulk and get every last bit I can out of anything,

Just 4 weeks ago I got diagnosed with IBS pretty bad it effects my kidneys, strange I know, but all the tests came back I'm allergic to caffeine, wheat and anything high In fodmap. "Fermentable Oligo-, Di-, Mono-saccharides And Polyols".

I've been using gluten free flours now, spring onion tops, leek tops and chives for that onion flavour, and garlic oil for garlic flavour,

I would like to hear any other tips of any or ideas any of you may have? Since coming off caffeine, wheat and being on a low FODMAP diet I feel so much better.

Indigo · 8 Nov 2020 at 16:32

Can't help myself but do suffer from what I would call excessive bloating but haven't been clinically diagnosed with IBS. I really should look at what I eat more though.

What is in your diet now then and what is it that you've had to remove? I'm assuming from the spring onion / leek tops and garlic oil that both onions and garlic are off the cards?

Raikiri · 8 Nov 2020 at 16:42

I don't but my brother does. Asafoetida works well to replace onions/garlic, although be sparing as it's very pungent.

fwb2006 · 8 Nov 2020 at 20:04

Yup, diagnosed with IBSC about 3 years ago. I'm now pretty careful food wise, haven't knowingly cooked with or eaten onion. Big fan of garlic infused olive oil for that flavour when needed. I have the Monash app on my phone as it details everything you can eat along with quantities.

I take 2 mebeverine daily 1 before lunch and dinner. When I have a bad flair up I use buscopan mainly but sometimes use colpermin and ibuprofen when it's bad.

Best advice I can give is start a food diary and track everything, you'll quickly discover what triggers you and perhaps what you can eat which you thought you couldn't.

All the best

Somnambulist · 10 Nov 2020 at 09:47

IndigoGorilla said:
Can't help myself but do suffer from what I would call excessive bloating but haven't been clinically diagnosed with IBS. I really should look at what I eat more though.

FODMAP diets should be done in conjunction with a Registered Dietician - the idea is you have an elimination phase where you remove all foods on the list (and the dietician will help you with foods you can replace them with), then you slowly introduce one specific thing at a time, upping the dose a little at a time to see if that specific thing sets you off so that long-term you're only removing foods that your body doesn't agree with, rather than everything just because it falls under the FODMAP list.

Too many people gloss over the diet info, think it's just about eliminating stuff and never reintroduce anything leading to an unnecessarily limited and potentially nutritionally deficient diet.

I'd also recommend people ITT picking up Dr. Megan Rossi's book on gut health as it covers a lot of food-related issues and has some decision trees for safely figuring out what a specific issue might be and how one might go about alleviating it.