Digestive distress affects everyone from time to time. Sometimes it comes from a meal that doesn’t sit well, a lingering gastrointestinal issue or what-seems-like no reason at all. That’s what makes them so difficult to deal with. Digestion issues can be hard to determine why they’re happening. Even if you have a digestion-related diagnosis and watch what you eat, your digestive tract still probably sends you for a loop once in a while. With a low-FODMAP eating plan, you can give your digestion a rest, significantly reduce all of your digestion symptoms and restore a healthy gut flora that helps manage gastrointestinal issues moving forward.
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What is a Low-FODMAP Diet?
“FODMAP” is the acronym for the category of carbohydrates that are removed, which are fermentable short-chain carbohydrates, formally called Fermentable Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, monosaccharides and Polyols. A low-FODMAP diet is a temporary eating plan designed to relieve uncomfortable indigestion symptoms and give your digestive tract a rest by removing these types of carbohydrates that are known for being difficult to digest.
Let’s take a closer look at the carbohydrates that get removed:
- Fermentable: Foods that the bacteria in your gut feed on and convert into gases via a chemical process called fermentation. Some examples of these types of carbohydrates include; sweet such as cookies, cake and candy, as well as bananas, several tropical fruits, raisins and dried fruits, and starchy foods such as potatoes, yams, rice, pasta, bread, pretzels and corn.
- Oligosaccharides: Soluble plant fibers, also known as prebiotics, that feed the healthy bacteria in your gut. Some examples of these carbohydrates include garlic, beans, lentils, garlic and wheat products.
- Disaccharides: Lactose, a fermentable sugar, found in dairy and human milk. Some additional examples of these types of carbohydrates include sweet potatoes, honey, carrots and beetroot.
- Monosaccharides: Fructose, a fermentable sugar in fruit. Not all fruits are affected but some common examples of this carbohydrate include honey, dried fruits such as apples and dates, fruit jams, canned fruits such as pineapple, strawberry and plum, and whole wheat breakfast cereals that contain oats and fruits.
- Polyols: Sugar alcohols commonly used in artificial sweeteners but that can also be found naturally in some fruit. Some examples of these carbohydrates include sugar-free chewing gum, candies and beverages.
As mentioned, the Low-FODMAP Diet is a temporary eating plan that is used to give your gut a break so a healthy balance of gut flora can be restored. The length of time that you would be on this type of diet depends on the individual but typically, it’s around 2-6 weeks. The process is broken into three phases and consists of:
- Phase 1: The first phase is the elimination period and it should take at least two weeks and no more than 6 weeks. This is when you eliminate the triggering foods and substitute them for something gut-friendly. For example, you would change out your daily apple for an orange or start using chives instead of onions. You may feel great during this phase or you may experience detox symptoms before you start to feel better. It’s important to take note of the foods you eliminate during this phase so you can determine which foods you tolerate and can reintroduce at a later time.
- Phase 2: The second phase of the program is where you start to reintroduce the foods you’ve eliminated in a methodical way. This is best completed when under the guidance of a dietitian, as they can help you decide on the foods to reintroduce, when to reintroduce them, the amount of reintroduced food to have and so on and so forth. As a rule of thumb, you should have a couple of days in between the reintroduction of foods to avoid any crossover effects. Since there are so many factors that vary from person to person, the time you spend in this phase depends on the individual. However, the average time is around 8 weeks.
- Phase 3: The third step of the process consists of establishing a personalized plan for longterm based on what you learned from phase one and phase two.
Who Is A Low-FODMAP Diet For?
Anyone struggling with digestive issues can use the low-FODMAP diet to help relieve symptoms, reset their gut and restore a healthy gut flora. It can also be used to treat digestion-related conditions, such as irritable bowel syndrome and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. In fact, studies show that the majority of people who use the low-FODMAP diet to treat these conditions see significant results.
Additionally, the low-FODMAP diet can be an excellent way to figure out what’s upsetting your digestive tract.
The Benefits of Eating a Low-FODMAP Diet
There are various studies supporting the vast benefits of eating a low-FODMAP diet, especially for those dealing with digestive disorders or digestive symptoms, such as gas, bloating, diarrhea, stomach pain and constipation. But the advantages go far beyond that. Here’s a quick look at what you can expect when using this temporary eating plan to address your health concerns:
Relief of Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Studies found that 75% of people with IBS benefit from following a low-FODMAP diet. It’s often hailed for easing pain and discomfort relating to IBS, and many people (86%) report experiencing a major decrease in their symptoms and an overall improvement in their quality of life.
Improve Other Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders
A low-FODMAP diet doesn’t just help treat IBS; it can be used to help improve all kinds of functional gastrointestinal disorders, such as Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, inflammatory bowel disease and many more. This is due to the fact that the diet focuses specifically on removing triggers that are upsetting your digestive tract, so any condition that produces digestive symptoms can benefit from this eating plan.
Decrease Indigestion Symptoms
Since a low-FODMAP is designed to remove possible triggers from your diet that are causing digestive symptoms, you can expect to experience a significant decrease in a variety of indigestion symptoms, such as gas, bloating, diarrhea, constipation, and stomach pain. In fact, several studies have concluded that following a low-FODMAP diet gives you a 75% chance of relieving stomach pain and bloating.
Ease Psychological Symptoms
Many digestive issues are strongly linked to mental disorders, such as anxiety and depression. Not only can they cause increased anxiety and depression, but anxiety and depression can also cause digestive disturbances. Using a low-FODMAP can give your digestive system and your mental health a break, and help you moving forward as you’re able to identify what may be causing your psychological symptoms.
Improves Emotional Health
Just like your mental health, a low-FODMAP diet can also help boost your emotional health. This is largely due to the diet being able to eradicate debilitating symptoms, so people can get back to doing the things they love and living their life, stress (and pain) free.
Enhances Quality of Life
For similar reasons as the prior, following a low-FODMAP diet has been shown to enhance people’s quality of life, as they no longer have symptoms affecting their work performance, social interactions, mood, and so on and so forth. It provides people with the opportunity to finally get back to living their life exactly the way they want to (and without being dictated by digestive symptoms).
As a result, this eating plan has shown to reduce fatigue, stress and depression, while also increasing happiness and vitality.
Find Out What’s Bugging Your Stomach
Perhaps you don’t have a digestive condition and just experience some indigestion from time to time and aren’t sure what may be triggering it. A low-FODMAP diet can help identify possible foods that may be causing your symptoms, so you can make the proper adjustments to maintain a healthier gut moving forward.
Helpful Tips for Using a Low-FODMAP Diet
While a low-FODMAP diet is fairly straightforward and easy to follow as it has a detailed three-phase process, it can never hurt to have a few extra tips. Here are some of our favourites:
- Seek advice from a dietician: Using a low-FODMAP diet with the guidance of a professional dietician, nutritionist or someone similar can take the guessing work out of the equation, as they can provide you with a more detailed plan based on your results, so you can keep feeling good long-term.
- Small amounts first: When reintroducing foods, do so in small amounts so you won’t experience major symptoms if said food is a trigger.
- Know your additives: Many foods that contain high-FODMAP ingredients are hidden under confusing names, such as chicory root, fructose-glucose, isomalt, FOS and so on. Make sure you know which additives to avoid and always read the ingredient list.
- Read the Ingredient List: Although this was just mentioned, it’s so important that it deserves to be reiterated with its own bullet point.
- Use Low FODMAP seasonings to spice things up: Just because you’re removing garlic, onion and other flavorful foods doesn’t mean your meals have to be a bore. Start cooking with dry basil, chili powder, cinnamon, cumin, dry mustard, paprika, rosemary and thyme instead.
- Watch out for those beverages: High-FODMAP ingredients can be hidden in many beverages, such as chicory in coffee. Many teas are also to be avoided, even though they may state that they have zero net carbohydrates.
Since your gut health is directly linked to all aspects of your health – as they say, you are what you eat – you can see significant improvement in your physical, mental and emotional health. While there’s no denying that it is largely beneficial to those struggling with digestion issues, a low-FODMAP diet can also help reduce mental health symptoms, boost emotional health and increase your overall quality of life.
