A quick guide to the FODMAP diet & 5 quick, low FODMAP meals you must try
Do you often feel symptoms such as bloating, gas, stomach pain, or even diarrhoea? You may blame it on the suspicious, expired chicken which you risked eating; knowing the likelihood of being ill may be quite high.
OR, you may put it down to that night snack you simply couldn’t resist, remembering that it patiently waits for you in the fridge…
Yes, it could be the reasons stated above, but if these symptoms turn out to be a consistent part of your daily life then you should investigate FODMAPs rather than blame expired foods or irresistible night snacks.
If you’re not sure what FODMAPs have to do with disturbing your stomach, then this quick JollyGut food scanning app overview of the FODMAP diet may be beneficial to you! As well as the app itself.
WHY blame FODMAPS?
For some individuals, FODMAPS are completely innocent and even beneficial parts of their diet. However, for others they are troublemakers.
If you didn’t know, FODMAPs are short-chain carbs that travel through your intestines without being digested.
Instead, they end up in the furthest parts of your intestine where they turn to be a delightful snack for your gut bacteria.
What do gut bacteria do with this treat? It consumes your delightful FODMAPs treasure and in return releases the gas called hydrogen that is responsible for bloating, gas, and stomach pain. Piece of cake for your gut bacteria, but not for you, right?
But that’s not all. FODMAPs may also draw water into your intestine and cause unpleasant symptoms such as diarrhoea. Spending hours in a bathroom is not an option…
Is a FODMAP diet for me?
KEEP IN MIND that it does not mean that all of us should give up on FODMAPs. They are only troublemakers for individuals who are sensitive to these short-chain carbs. Before following the FODMAP diet you should consult this decision with a registered nutritionist or dietitian, and complete certain tests.
Many studies have shown that a low FODMAP diet is extremely effective in reducing unpleasant digestion symptoms for individuals dealing with such organism problems pretty frequently.
GOOD NEWS for IBS patients! A study suggests at least 75% of patients with IBS disease benefited from a low-FODMAP diet that reduced their symptoms and improved their quality of life. So a low FODMAP diet for IBS patients can be a quick ticket to symptoms-free life.
A quick guide to LOW and HIGH FODMAPS
If you’re not sure which exact products cause your unpleasant digestion symptoms then you should resist consuming any kinds of high FODMAPs for a couple of weeks.
Don’t get us wrong, it does not mean that you must resist high FODMAP foods for the rest of your life. It just simply helps you to improve digestion symptoms within a few days and see which high FODMAPs cause them.
After a couple of weeks, you should slowly introduce high FODMAPs into your diet again. This experiment allows you to determine which high FODMAPs are responsible for the unpleasant symptoms and which ones can be reintroduced to your diet with strict moderation.
HIGH FODMAP food list
- Fruits: Apples, apricots, blackberries, cherries, canned fruit, dates, figs, pears, peaches, watermelon.
- Sweeteners: Fructose, honey, high fructose corn syrup, mannitol, maltitol, sorbitol
- Dairy products: Milk (from cows, goats and sheep), ice cream, most yoghurts, sour cream, such cheeses as a cottage and ricotta.
- Vegetables: Artichokes, asparagus, broccoli, beetroot, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, garlic, fennel, leeks, mushrooms, okra, onions, peas, shallots.
- Legumes: Beans, chickpeas, lentils, red kidney beans, baked beans, soybeans.
- Wheat: Bread, pasta, most breakfast cereals, tortillas, waffles, pancakes, crackers, biscuits.
- Other grains: Barley and rye.
- Beverages: Beer, fortified wines, soft drinks with high-fructose corn syrup, milk, soy milk, fruit juices.
LOW FODMAP food list
- Meats, fish and eggs: These can be fearlessly added to your low FODMAP diet unless they have additional ingredients that are high FODMAPs. Make sure to check the ingredients list carefully or simply check it with the JollyGut food scanner app.
- All fats and oils.
- Most herbs and spices.
- Nuts and seeds: Almonds, peanuts, macadamia nuts, pine nuts, sesame seeds.
- Fruits: Unripe bananas, blueberries, cantaloupe, grapefruit, grapes, kiwi, lemons, lime, mandarins, melons, oranges, passionfruit, raspberries, strawberries.
- Sweeteners: Maple syrup, molasses, and stevia.
- Dairy products: Lactose-free dairy products, hard cheeses, cheddar, and aged cheeses such as brie and camembert.
- Vegetables: Alfalfa, bell peppers, bok choy, carrots, celery, cucumbers, eggplant, ginger, green beans, kale, lettuce, chives, olives, parsnips, potatoes, radishes, spinach, squash, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, turnips, yams, water chestnuts, zucchini.
- Grains: Corn, oats, rice, quinoa, sorghum, tapioca.
- Beverages: Water, coffee, tea, etc.
The struggle is real…
If you’ve made it this far then you may be thinking — ‘With all these products listed, how much time do I need to devote to food shopping?’
We get it! It can be insanely complex to begin a FODMAP diet on your own and comply with all of the above requirements keeping in mind that most high FODMAP products are so commonly used in daily meals!
Shopping for a FODMAP diet can require hours spent planning and then following the plan at the supermarket, reading tricky food labels (especially of multi-ingredient products).
BUT what if we told you there’s an app that does all the calculations for you?
All you need to do is take your phone and point it to any food product in-store and ‘Voilà!’ — within seconds you are informed whether the product is low or high FODMAP. That’s it. Really!
…until you install the JollyGut app
How does it differ from any FODMAP apps out there? JollyGut food scanning app is the only app that makes it possible to instantaneously classify a product on the shelf, without manual checking of ingredients.
All that is required to do if you want to know which products are high or low FODMAP:
- Scan a chosen product in-store or enter it into a search engine using the JollyGut food scanner.
- If you are in store, scan it with the JollyGut food scanner:
- Check if the product matches your dietary needs:
- Click the tab ‘for experts’ and explore the nutritional profile of your chosen food product:
5 low FODMAP meals you must try — approved by the JollyGut app
To get you started we’ve scanned a few ready meals in-store that are low FODMAP based on the JollyGut app suggestions.
1. Market Street Plain Tortilla
2. Sainsbury’s Just Cook British Chicken Breasts with Cheese & Bacon
3. Sainsbury’s Just Cook British Gammon Steaks with Pineapple
4. Morrisons Ready To Eat Roast Cooked Whole Chicken
5. The Vegetarian Butcher What The Cluck
NOTE! Some of these products contain high FODMAP foods but in very small amounts, so they are still safe to consume.
With the JollyGut food scanner app, you don’t need to analyse complex ingredient lists wondering whether the chosen product is high or low FODMAP — just check the product with the app or Browser extension and it will warn you whether the product meets your dietary preferences or not!
