New Diet: low FODMAPs for Me.

Over the last few years my gut had been getting worse.  I went gf a few months before conceiving Felicity and felt SO much better.  But over the years I have been cutting out more and more foods that appeared to give me stomach pains.  The difficult thing about a food-elimination diet is the time it takes (irritating foods may cause distress anywhere between 1/2 hr to days later).  I have been following these guidelines of the low FODMAP diet for 5 days now and this is the best I've felt in years.  Last month I was convinced I had liver or pancreatic cancer because of the constant pain.  The Blood tests showed otherwise. (Praise God). I had cut out all dairy, sugar, gluten and still felt icky. 

I don't know how I stumbled upon a low FODMAP diet, probably one of my many "abdominal pain" google searches.  Mainly they explain that you that you go on the diet for 4-6 wks and then slowly re-introduce irritating foods.  I was SO surprised to find out that the soy, peas, beans, cauliflower, garlic, onions, I was eating were making my insides churn and causing such pain.  The good thing about this diet is that I don't have to avoid the foods altogether.  I can have the moderate and high FODMAP foods, just in moderation.  I haven't officially been Dx with IBS/IBD, Crohn's disease, or anything of the sort, technically.  I'm so tired of going to doctors, paying a hearty co-pay and bill, and have nothing to show for it.  Sometime you have to be your own advocate.  Scratch that--ALWAYS you must be your own advocate.

I'm constantly reminded that we eat to live not live to eat.  (But if I could a donut occasionally, I'd be one happy camper!). It's a weird diet.  Grapes are good, but raisins are bad. Maple syrup is good, honey is bad.  Dry wine is good, sweet wine is bad. Most white cheeses are good, processed or yellow cheeses are bad. Mainly fructose is the culprit, but also fermentable foods.  And anything that gives the average person wind (cauliflower, cabbage, beans) reels havok on IBS sufferers guts.

FOD·MAP 

ˈfädˌmap/

noun: FODMAP

1. one of a group of compounds thought to contribute to the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome and similar gastrointestinal disorders. The term is used mainly with reference to a diet that is low in these compounds (which are mainly carbohydrates).

   
   

Origin

early 21st century: acronym from fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols .