Is anyone on a FODMAPS diet?

sakuraraine

Tell me how it's going. I want to clean out my diet, eat clean, and make myself feel better about what I eat. The biggest problem is that I'm a college student cooking for myself, and it's hard enough to eat healthy and avoid *kitten* like noodles and instant ramen, much less limit my diet in any way. How are you feeling on the diet? Has it helped with IBS or anything?

If you don't know, FODMAPS stands for Fermentable Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, Monosaccharides and Polyols, which is just referring to complex sugars/carbohydrates that are poorly absorbed in some people, giving them digestive problems/etc, and are in lots of processed foods.

trigden1991

Were you suggested to do this diet by your doctor?

Cbestinme

HI OP,

Actually my doctor did recommend the FODMAP diet, by recommend meaning I was given a list of those foods and sent on my way to try it out. I tried to look into this and quite frankly was overwhelmed. It seems to come out of research from Australia (Monash if I remember correctly). There were other websites offering a range of information, lists and perhaps recipes etc etc. I figured I'd continue to eat what I'm used to eating. And see how to make changes as or when necessary. I do have a sense of some of the foods that I may like but my body (or stomach (doesn't).

From what I'd seen online, it seems one would eliminate those FODMAP foods then reintroduce them in groups to help you identify the ones that cause you problems. in my case that seemed to be something I could get to do once I sorted out other things. For example in my case it turned out that for health reasons I needed to lose weight. That was overwhelming itself. Logging food, measuring it, walking. It was already a big change so I had to put that FODMAP plan on hold.

In your case were you given better guidance (other than a list of foods to avoid and those to eat)?

crawforgarten

I'm on a FODMAP diet for about a year, it's rough at times. But between the diet and a daily culturelle i'm up to the point where I can have about one meal a week where I don't care.

As Cbestinme said, you eliminate everything, heal your gut, then slowly reintroduce things to find what you can get away with and what you need to avoid like the plague. Here's a great link that helped me:

http://fodmapliving.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Stanford-University-Low-FODMAP-Diet-Handout.pdf

Cbestinme

Hey that's great you got it to work! Your tummy is happy now so you did the whole 12 week process at your start? If I remember correctly there's that learning stage of about 3 months right?

littlechiaseed

I did it and it was really helpful for my IBS. I have less symptoms if I watch what I eat and don't eat my trigger foods or too much of them. Still do have some symptoms, but thanks to the diet I don't have to take my medication as much anymore.

Cbestinme

So is medication permanent? This was a question I had for the doctor, which is how she gave me this FODMAP list as an alternative to medicine.

littlechiaseed

Cbestinme wrote: »

So is medication permanent? This was a question I had for the doctor, which is how she gave me this FODMAP list as an alternative to medicine.

Yes medication is permanent because ibs is a functional illness so it's all about symptom management. Ibs is not curable at this time.

crawforgarten

Cbestinme wrote: »

So is medication permanent? This was a question I had for the doctor, which is how she gave me this FODMAP list as an alternative to medicine.

I think it depends on your situation and how strict you have to be with the diet. With this past week being Halloween, I'm definitely not skipping my pill. But back in August I went a week without it because I forgot to pack it on a trip. I was very strict with my diet and didn't notice any increased bloating.

I know my triggers are dairy and sugar. And I love them both. So I splurge once a week and take the pill.

leejoyce31

crawforgarten wrote: »

Cbestinme wrote: »

So is medication permanent? This was a question I had for the doctor, which is how she gave me this FODMAP list as an alternative to medicine.

I think it depends on your situation and how strict you have to be with the diet. With this past week being Halloween, I'm definitely not skipping my pill. But back in August I went a week without it because I forgot to pack it on a trip. I was very strict with my diet and didn't notice any increased bloating.

I know my triggers are dairy and sugar. And I love them both. So I splurge once a week and take the pill.

May I ask what medication is prescribed for this?

littlechiaseed

leejoyce31 wrote: »

crawforgarten wrote: »

Cbestinme wrote: »

So is medication permanent? This was a question I had for the doctor, which is how she gave me this FODMAP list as an alternative to medicine.

I think it depends on your situation and how strict you have to be with the diet. With this past week being Halloween, I'm definitely not skipping my pill. But back in August I went a week without it because I forgot to pack it on a trip. I was very strict with my diet and didn't notice any increased bloating.

I know my triggers are dairy and sugar. And I love them both. So I splurge once a week and take the pill.

May I ask what medication is prescribed for this?

I am jumping in since I've taken several meds for it...I rely on bentyl...it's cheap and effective and sometimes promethazine for nausea. I have taken viberzi and xifaxan which are the newly approved drugs...had to stop taking them because they either didn't work long term or side effects.

crawforgarten

leejoyce31 wrote: »

May I ask what medication is prescribed for this?

It sounds like littlechiaseed might have it worse than I do, because I don't have a prescription. My doctor recommended I look into a probiotic, and my friend who is a nutritionist helped me read labels and pick one called Culturelle.