Once in a while it’s good for a nutritional therapist to try the diets that we recommend to other people. I had a go at the ketogenic diet for an assignment as part of my training, and it was quite a revelatory experience – note the brain fog and crappy feeling at first, followed by clarity and lack of hangry blood-sugar rollercoaster that followed. Just recently, I tried the low FODMAP diet for about 10 days as part of my protocol for addressing some weird digestive IBS-like symptoms I’ve had lately. It also proved to be a handy experience – there’s really nothing like trying something out for yourself before makng it a serious recommendation to others. This post is about what it is, why you might need it, what to expect in terms of difficulty and some key tips for making the successful transition to a new way of eating.

What is it?

So, what in the heck is a FODMAP whojamaflip? Well, I’ll tell you. FODMAP is actually an acronym which stands for Fermentable Oligosaccharides Disaccharides Monosaccarhides And Polyols. Any wiser? Basically, it’s SUGAR in various forms that the body can’t absorb well and hang around in the gut, being fermented by bacteria and forming lots of nasty gas such as methane and hydrogen.

Why you might need it

If you’ve ever experienced that gurgly bloated stomach feeling and/or lots of unexplained diarrhoea or constipation, then you may have had a hard time with your sugars or FODMAPs. Most people will have experienced something like this in their lives, often at times of acute stress, or illness, and then things go back to normal. But if you have a lot of these irritable bowel sensations that don’t go away, you may find a low FODMAP diet beneficial in terms of managing symptoms.

NOTE – The low FODMAP diet is there as a symptom manager and will not necessarily get to the root cause of your digestive distress. This is why it is meant to be followed for a short period before reintroducing potential troublesome foods in order to discern which ones cause the most trouble for you. Not everyone has the same trigger foods, even with broadly similar symptoms. If you find, for example, that onions are a real trigger, reducing the amount of onions you consume for the rest of your life, while annoying, is just about doable. Going without all FODMAPs in the long-term is not great at all. And ideally, you’d find out what is causing that sensitivity e.g. an overgrowth of a particular bacteria, damage to the gut wall, a parasite, or just a particular life circumstance that causes the motility of the gut to go into overdrive, and deal with it.

What is hard about it

FODMAPs are in lots of different food types. Here’s the kicker – even in healthy foods. Yes, it is a good idea to cut down or eliminate refined sugar, processed foods, alcohol, dairy and gluten – but that’s a good idea anyway, for everyone. When you find that certain sulphurous vegetables like onion, garlic, leeks or fibrous veggies like artichokes, asparagus, and broccoli (yes, even broccoli can be a problem for some) then it gets a lot harder a lot more quickly.

As a rule of thumb, most animal proteins are okay on a low FODMAP diet. Luckily, I do eat meat and fish, but if you are a non-meat eater, you are going to struggle with variety on a low FODMAP diet as those essential plant proteins like lentils, chickpeas and split peas etc, can do funny things to a sensitive person’s insides. It’s also hard to eliminate all dairy too when you are used to eating a lot of it. Generally, the harder the cheese, the easier it is on the digestion for those with FODMAP issues as it contains less lactose – a specific sugar found in milk – but if you are trying to cut out dairy, all those ‘with cheese’ recipes aren’t going to work.

My top tip – cut out milk. And if you are struggling with that, try lactose-free milk. You need a specific enzyme called lactase to digest milk well, and not everyone has enough of it. In my own experience, I found cutting milk out helped with much of my upper digestive issues straight away, suggesting to me that my body just wasn’t liking it, even if my tastebuds did! Yes, plant milks are a good alternative, but even these have a sliding scale of helpfulness when it comes to digestion. For example, oat milk is high in naturally occurring sugars, whereas coconut or rice milk is generally better tolerated.

Yoghurt. I love yoghurt and it contains all that fermented live culture stuff that the gut enjoys. But not necessarily on a low FODMAP diet. I swapped dairy yoghurt for coconut yoghurt with live cultures (check the label) and it is a decent alternative due its creaminess, good taste and texture, and culture-profile. However, it is very expensive. Like, eye-wateringly. And if you don’t like coconut? Well, there is soy but the jury is out as to whether this is much of a trigger food, but I personally detest the taste.

A word about onions. And garlic. I love, LOVE these foods. Cutting them out is hard. Not just because every decent recipe seems to contain them, but also because so does stock and bouillon and gravy and loads of other condiments. It may be that small amounts don’t cause a problem, but you might want to cut out the onion bhajees and raw garlic moments. Also, cooking well helps with digestion too. Slow cooking is your friend on this diet.

Top tips for cutting these down? Use the green tops of leeks or spring onions (scallions) for some flavour, and chives in moderate quantities. Also, use garlic infused oil to add to food after cooking or sautee at lower temperatures. Note – If the oil contains garlic ‘bits’ – use a strainer to just get the oil.

Fruit – some fruits ferment more than others. Low-sugar fruit is a good idea – most people will tolerate berries quite happily and fortunately, I love berries as they have so many other good qualities – their antioxidant profile alone is enough to make the heart sing. Apples and pears are less good for a low-FODMAP follower. If you want fruit, eat a little at a time and space it out. Don’t go for a fruit salad – it’ll be ruinous.

What is good about it

There are LOADs of good recipes online and in books for this diet as it is well-known and commonly followed. I got a couple out of my local library and was surprised by the mouth-watering prospect of some of them. However, there is quite a lot of contradictory information out there, so you may need to be a little discerning, and it will take some detective work of your own to find what triggers you.

Low FODMAP diets that kind of force you to cut out the rubbish for a while make you feel better all round. I found that I was planning meals with emphasis on protein and healthy fats rather than carbohyrates, which meant that I was fuller for longer and less likely to have any low-blood-sugar moments.

Bone broth – I started to consume bone broth, made from beef and chicken bones by a local supplier in larger quantities. Bone broth deserves a blog post of its own but suffice it to say that it has an impressive nutrient profile, increases hydration, soothes and calms the digestive system thanks to high levels of gelatine, and contanis glutamine and glycine that can help heal any damage to the lining. You can drink it on its own but I was preferring to use it as a base for hearty soups and stews.

Another tip for the diet is swapping coffee for green tea. Though technically not a high FODMAP drink, coffee spikes cortisol levels, making the gut move faster, as well as being potentially inflammatory thanks to being caffeinated and acidic. But oh, how I missed the taste and the sensation of that caffeine boost. Green tea tastes nothing like coffee, so there’s no real way to substitute that – even if you use chicory coffee, it can be pretty hard on the insides thanks to the high fibre levels. With all things FODMAP, try it first and see what happens. But what green tea has is L-theanine which is a naturally calming compound, evening out the caffeine – admittedly at far lower levels than coffee – contained in the beverage, and providing a bit of mental clarity.

My advice is to consume a cup of green tea before doing something tricky. I also felt it had a distinct calming effect on my digestive system. I used ginger, chamomile and fennel tea for a similar effect, though these contain no caffeine. Green tea is also one of these things that deserves a blog post of its own, such are its manifold health benefits, but to avoid the ‘pond’ taste that some people recoil from, brew at 80 degrees (let your kettle go a little cold after boiling), buy high quality, and take the bag out after 5-6 minutes to reduce the bitter tannins.

I also discovered that throwing every vegetable I own (many, many) into a stir fry and expecting my body to cope was a bad idea. Just the sheer level of fibre alone was intimidating. We tend to eat one stir fry a week. I extemporised on a recipe from my library book and had a meal that was both delicious and ‘sat well’ afterwards last week. Find the recipe at the bottom of this blog post.

Enjoy eating out but frightened of the consequences? I found out that the BEST type of cuisine for a low FODMAP diet is Japanese! As it happens, I love Japanese food AND it happens to be one of the healthiest styles of eating out there with its emphasis on fresh fish, vegetables, soy and seaweed. Other FODMAP-friendly cuisines include Greek and Vietnamese – again, no hardship for me as I love both.

One more thing – I started to lose a little extra flesh – I imagine lowering sugar and saturated fats had a lot to do with that! You may find that following a low-sugar low FODMAP diet has a similar effect.

Overall conclusion

My personal opinion is that restrictive diets like this and ketogenic are for the short-term (up to 3 months, for example), but they can be very effective tools in terms of getting on top of common health issues such as gut damage or weight gain. It may be that if gluten and/or dairy are major-major triggers, these need to be kept out longer term, or even cut out entirely if there is a chronic autoimmune component – think Crohn’s or coeliac disease rather than plain old IBS. But for many, giving the gut a rest and some TLC from time to time can be of huge benefit, enabling us to start to enjoy previously favoured foods once more.

Easy-on-the-guts duck and ginger stir fry – gluten and dairy free (serves 2)

Fry the meat + marinade in 1 tbsp coconut or sesame oil and add the following low FODMAP veggies

• Chopped carrots
• Beansprouts
• Oyster mushrooms
• Spinach or greens of any kind
• Green leek tops

Serve with rice noodles