Thinking About A Low-FODMAP Diet? Here's Exactly What You Need To Know

And as a medical doctor who specializes in gut health, I've had numerous patients like Maria. Fortunately, there is a tried-and-true way to treat IBS and other gut conditions without drugs or other invasive procedures: a low-FODMAP diet. And while the low-FODMAP diet isn't exactly a newcomer to the wellness world, it can still seem very complicated and be pretty difficult to execute. Here's the information you need to know to get started, plus seven expert tips on how to make your new diet a success.

IBS aside, a low-FODMAP diet helps a variety of gut conditions including Crohn's disease, celiac disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and even small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO: another problem that causes bloating, abdominal pain, constipation, and diarrhea).

Patients get great results because a low-FODMAP diet treats the underlying causes, not just the symptoms. Let's briefly look at high-FODMAP foods and why they can become a problem.

All of these categories aren't necessarily bad unless you struggle with FODMAP intolerances. While I recommend most patients eliminate dairy and wheat, others like sugar alcohols (especially xylitol) and fructans (as prebiotics) can be perfectly healthy. With a low-FODMAP diet you'll completely eliminate these high-FODMAP foods for four to six weeks. If you let even a little creep in, you'll find it harder to identify your food culprits. Many patients like Maria notice a difference almost immediately. After about a month, we test high-FODMAP foods by reintroducing them one at a time. Maria learned that while she could occasionally tolerate some high-FODMAP fruits, a few foods like dairy and wheat were permanently off the table.

"Initially sticking with a low-FODMAP diet felt a little challenging," Maria told me during our third consultation, "but not having those OMG I've got to run to the bathroom NOW and other post-meal woes made it worth sticking to." For her and other patients, I recommend these seven tips that make managing gut conditions like IBS and sticking to a new eating plan a little bit easier:

Tracking your food intake becomes an excellent way to pinpoint where high-FODMAP foods and other food intolerances might creep in and target major offenders.

Know what you can eat. Low-FODMAP foods include:

The more high-FODMAP ingredients you eat at a single meal, the stronger your symptoms will likely be. But unfortunately, that does not give you permission to let a "little" high-FODMAP food slip in during your elimination phase.

FODMAPs sneak into processed foods, even healthy ones. Maria learned her chewing gum had xylitol as its sweetener, and the protein powder she used every morning had inulin, a high-fructan FODMAP.

The Monash University Low-FODMAP Diet App makes selecting low-FODMAP foods easy when you're at a restaurant, a social occasion, and the grocery store.

Patients tell me how easy complying with the diet can be when I supervise their progress, create an individualized diet plan, and tweak as necessary. This especially becomes important during the elimination phase, whereas Maria learned that sneaky high-FODMAP ingredients can derail your best efforts. Find a health practitioner in your area who can help you optimize a low-FODMAP diet.

I'd love to share more strategies to reverse IBS and other gut conditions to lose weight and feel great with my free Quick Start Guide to a Happy Gut.