Thinking of continuing with low FODMAPS instead of reintroduction

[27angel]

I'm on day 27. For the last 2 weeks I've had a very temperamental intestinal tract. I've either had the worst gas on the planet, diarrhea, or a combination. The good thing is that I have had bowel movements ever since the first week my Whole30 was over. The reason this is good is because I've had IBS since I was a teenager. Most of the time is stays on the constipated side of the spectrum. So having daily bowel movements is good. Going all the time (and sometimes barely making it) is not a good thing.

 

I've read many posts on the forums about the gas and GI issues. Last week I cut out cabbage and brussels spouts and the gas got immediately better. I am already not eating raw vegetables. 1) Because I'm not doing salads in January. 2) I already know that several raw vegetables, like broccoli and cauliflower, cause me digestive upset. I thought that I could eat cooked broccoli because many days I do for lunch in a mix of other vegetables (that comes in a bag of frozen vegetables.) This mix doesn't bother me. When I tried eating a side of just broccoli I had bloating, gas, and diarrhea.

 

Now that I am 3 days away from the "end" of this Whole30 I don't think I should stop. I actually think I need to further restrict my diet by figuring out which vegetables are causing so much digestive upset. See, when I am ready to reintroduce other foods I am not planning on reintroducing much. I want to see if I can have dairy because I really love plain Greek yogurt as an alternate protein source and I love cheese. I will occasionally have alcohol, maple syrup, honey, and stevia. I plan on following a primal diet.

 

Based on other posts that I have read about GI problems it looks like I should cut out all high FODMAP vegetables. My question about testing the low FODMAP is should I not mix vegetables in a meal? I found the other day that I cannot eat over 1 cup of broccoli at one time. The thing is that I eat 2-3 cups of vegetables with each meal. How do I make this work?
 

Also one more small question, about fruit. When I read the rules about Whole30 it said to add fruit occasionally. Well, I have only had fruit 3 times. Each time it was a cup of frozen blueberries. The last time I had it was with some coconut milk after dinner like a dessert. I know that we are not supposed to have or think of food as rewards or have desserts so I just stopped eating fruit. Should I add fruit back into the mix or leave it out while I'm figuring out my gut issues and helping it heal?

[Tom Denham]

Eating several different vegetables during one meal is a good thing. I don't always do so, but that is laziness on my part. 

 

Vegetables always provide more nutrition than fruit, so it is important to maximize veggie consumption. Some people are sensitive to fructose, but that is not very common.

 

You can eat one or two servings of fruit per day if you like. A good way to incorporate fruit is to only eat what is in season and relatively local. That would mean eating little or no fruit part of the year and maybe eating a lot part of the year. I've been know to eat 4 oranges per day after buying a case from a high school band student. I am religious about not wasting food.

[27angel]

Has anyone tried the GAPS diet? It seems pretty extreme.

[LucieB]

I can only answer your FODMAP questions. I did paleo, then Whole30, then FODMAP. I'm finally symptom free. I'm not diagnosed with IBS, but I have a lot of the symptoms of IBS-D. I don't need another doctor to give me more vague answers!

 

For me it's not how the veggies are mixed with other foods, but rather how much of them I eat. If I were to choose to eat a FODMAP high food, I would only eat a little bit and just eat one such food. For example, I'd eat broccoli but not broccoli with onion in the same meal. I've tested many veggies on the "limit" list so that I have a rough idea of how much I can tolerate. You'll need do do the same, everyone is different.  

 

I rarely eat raw veggies, I cook them all because it seems to help. For fruit, I eat only the "safe" foods, berries and citrus mostly. 

 

If you plan to go low FODMAP, avoid honey for the fructose. Dairy is listed as a FODMAP, but you're OK if you can tolerate the lactose. Check the FODMAPs lists to be sure on other foods you are looking at. 

 

Can you recall how much of the broccoli you ate in the instances you mentioned? Did the amount correlate with symptoms?

 

Don't think of it as extreme or restricting. IBS is already extreme and restricting. Think of your food choices as helping yourself and healing

 

lucie