FODMAP

Are you restricting all FODMAPs (which is only recommended for an initial period before reintroducing)? Or do you only know what your trigger foods are?

General ideas: salads without your triggers, meat and roasted veggies, any gluten free pasta dish (without your triggers).

Once you have done the initial fodmap diet and reintroduced things to know what your trigger foods are, eating will likely be quite simple. For example, I have switched to gluten-free pasta and oat-based bread, avoid chickpeas, beetroot and large quantities of onions, but otherwise I eat the same stuff I used to and everyone else eats. I have a friend who’s more restricted with legumes, especially soy, and she’s also a (fish-eating) vegetarian, and she manages just fine.

The Complete Low-FODMAP Diet, Sue Shepherd and Peter Gibson is the book I use. It has explanations and charts.

It's really best to work through an elimination diet with a nutritionist. They will provide you with the info you need to reintroduce foods from each of the groups. Usually in three consecutive days increasing the amount per serve then a four day wash out period before another group the next week.
This part is really important so you can identify which foods you can tolerate and in which amounts. The Monash University FODMAP app is great as well.

I started thinking about this some more. Please see a nutritionist and/or your doctor, especially if you are doing the fully restrictive version of all FODMAPs.

I say this with love and experience, because I figured out on my own that wheat, barley and rye are triggers for me, so I avoid them. After doing this for more than a year I went to a doctor for other issues, and they wanted to test me for celiac disease. The celiac test requires that you have eaten gluten regularly, which I hadn’t, so I had to spend a whole summer being an absolutely miserable bloated mess to prepare for the celiac blood test. I don’t have the celiac disease and I’m glad it was tested, but I wish I had got the test done before exploring the fodmaps and restricting gluten. Many of the symptoms leading people to look into fodmaps are the same as celiac disease, so please get yourself checked first or at least discuss to eliminate the possibility with your doctor.

Also, talk to a nutritionist about the restrictions. You want to make sure you get all the nutrients, plus if you end up in a cycle of restricting more and more, your body will have a much harder time processing whatever fodmaps you happen to eat. One of my mom’s best friends is on a very restrictive fodmap diet and has been for several years, and in addition to her eating it’s starting to limit her social life. Just yesterday my mom mentioned that the friend is debating attending a new year’s brunch ”because the salad at the restaurant will probably have cucumbers in it”. Cucumbers aren’t even high fodmap. I don’t know if her restrictions are coming from actual tummy distress or a mental place, but it’s good to be aware of that cycle.

Reintroducing is key, really.