the worst my skin ever got from my health issues
Hey {{first_name}},
5 years ago I was sat in a doctor's office, on a chair covered in stains of unknown origin, staring at a leaflet.
IBS. The low FODMAP diet. That was it. Two pages about a diet I'd never heard of, handed to me like it explained everything. It explained nothing.
I read it 4 times back to back and somehow, after every read, I was more confused and more anxious than when I started. What is the low FODMAP diet? What even are FODMAPs? Why can't I eat grapes anymore? Do I cut all of them out? Which foods have them? Do all foods have all of them?
Brilliant questions, questions that my doctor couldn't answer. Not in a way that actually helped.
But I want to be clear, I'm not having a go at doctors or the medical system. You only know what you know, and they've got thousands of things to hold in their head. Their training on IBS and the low FODMAP diet is a tiny fraction of everything else they have to learn. But knowing that didn't make me feel any less lost or crap.
So here are the answers I wish someone had given me that day.
What actually is the low FODMAP diet?
It's a short-term diet, split into three phases. Not a forever thing. That's the first thing nobody told me.
Phase 1 (the elimination phase) is the strict bit. A maximum of 2 to 4 weeks where you cut out or seriously reduce foods that contain the sugars that produce a lot of gas in your gut. The point is just to calm everything down.
Phase 2 (reintroduction) runs for 6 to 8 weeks. You bring back one group of these gas-producing carbs at a time, one per week, until you understand which ones you can actually tolerate. Each week is 3 tests of one food. You start with a tiny, safe dose and gradually increase it over the next 2 tests to see how much you can handle.
Phase 3 (personalisation) is the goal the whole time. Elimination and reintroduction are restrictive, so the aim here is to get as much variety back into your diet as possible, especially the FODMAPs you now know you're fine with.
Does restricting all that food damage my health?
No, not if you do it properly. Elimination is a maximum of 4 weeks (usually 2), then reintroduction over 2 to 3 months. There's no evidence that doing it that way causes long-term harm.
Doing it wrong is a different story. I stayed stuck in the elimination phase for 2 years because nobody told me reintroduction was the actual point. I ended up with terrible acne, sleep problems, depression, anxiety and a weakened immune system. The diet didn't do that. Staying in phase 1 forever did.
If I react to one type of carb, can I never eat anything with it again?
No. This one's huge. With any food that contains FODMAPs there's a safe amount, a risky amount and a very risky amount. A food containing a trigger doesn't mean zero. You can usually have far more of it than you'd think, and it varies food to food.
You'll also find you're more sensitive to some foods within the same group than others. I can't tolerate fructans, so onion, garlic and peas absolutely wreck me. But the other fructan foods? I'm fine with a fair bit.
Where do I find out which foods contain what?
Monash University (not sponsored, I just rate them) have a great app that breaks down exactly which FODMAPs are in a food and at what amount. My app Olara is built for the moment you're actually staring at a meal, a menu or an ingredients list, or your own food log, and need the triggers flagged fast as well as many other things but I won't get into that now.
Will I feel 100% better?
Most likely. Research shows that roughly 75% of people with IBS who do the low FODMAP diet see a significant drop in symptoms. But that leaves 25% who don't, and there are reasons for that. One is doing it without proper support (dietitian, or FODMAP-qualified specialist). The other is the bit almost everyone forgets.
Why do I still feel sick when I'm eating perfectly?
Stress. It plays a massive role in how your gut feels. Take IBS out of it for a second. Remember feeling sick before a presentation at school, or before going to talk to your crush? Same mechanism. With IBS it's just turned up to 11. Get your stress and your diet working together and that's the real recipe for a calm gut.
Why this matters
Here's the thread running through all of it. The food was almost never the enemy. It was the not-knowing. The portion, the phase, the stress, the part nobody explained. Once I understood what was actually happening, the fear had nowhere left to live.
That's the whole game. Not restriction. Understanding.
This week's practical tip
Pick one food you've been avoiding completely because you "can't have it." Just one. Then look up its actual lower FODMAP serving size rather than treating it as all-or-nothing. Most of the time you'll find there's a safe amount you can enjoy right now, today, without a single issue. Start there.
This week's mindset
A diagnosis with no answers is just a label. The answers are what give you your life back.
You were never broken. You were just handed a 2-page leaflet and left to figure out the rest on your own. You don't have to do that anymore.
There were loads more questions I had back then, but this one's already getting long. If there's a specific question you'd love me to answer, hit reply and let me know.
See you next week.
Zak