FODMAP eating

[Analog6]

I just found out about this yesterday via a friend on a cat forum who has irritable bowel syndrome. She has been prescribed this diet.

On reading the info about it I was struck by how low carb it is and how similar to Primal. And it is something WE can all use, if a restaurant hassles you say you are following this for IBS - after all, that's a recognised 'condition', whereas some people really seem to resent a fat person trying to get thin.

And of course, it falls into the fructose/lactose intolerance areas which many low carbers find they had after they do low carb with little fruit for a while.

FODMAP is term coined by researchers at Monash University in Melbourne to describe a group of sugars that can be poorly absorbed, contributing to the onset of symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). The FODMAP acronym stands for:
Fermentable Oligo-saccharides Di-saccharides Mono-saccharides And Polyols
You can see why the acronym was needed…
So, these FODMAP sugars include:
Fructose – found in fruit, honey, juices.
Lactose – found in milk and milk products.
Sugar polyols such as sorbitol and mannitol – found in some fruits and vegetables and as artificial sweetner.
Fructans – found in wheat, rye, onions, garlic.
Galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS) – found in legumes such as chickpeas, kidney beans or baked beans.
When these sugars are poorly absorbed in the small intestine increased water can be drawn into the gut, which can result in diarrhoea in some people. For others, the sugars travel to the large intestine where they are fermented by bacteria, producing gas. This gas can lead to bloating, flatulence, pain and nausea. It can also cause bowel movement to slow down which can contribute to constipation.

A couple of sites that talk about it and the first one has recipes:
http://www.lowfodmap.com/
http://www.hungryhungryhippie.com/lets-talk-fodmaps/

[Sherrie]

That's the diet they use for fructose malabsorption, we have a thread on it if you want to read about it as it is pretty common. You can get a breath test done to test for your tolerance towards these sugars. Some low carb veggies have fructans.

[Venusdemilo35]

Just to add to this there is a really good book about this (IBS) called 'food intolerance and management' by dr Sue Shepard and dr Peter Gibson
I'm one of the very lucky people who suffer from severe IBS which I started to get after an extreme tummy bug a good 5 years ago :/ even my dr calls it my angry bowel

[Sherrie]

I just trialed it with my daughter for a couple of months but no good. I am thinking of testing amines when I feel up to another change. I did failsafe a long time ago with her but I was breastfeeding at the time so who knows if that complicated things.