Diet is a major trigger for IBS flare-ups.
Fortunately, there's a life-changing diet that helps many people manage their IBS symptoms
and reduce the risk of worsening pelvic floor problems.
Hi, I’m Michelle, and today I’m guiding you through this IBS diet which is known as the
FODMAP diet, and I’m talking to you about it with specific reference to pelvic floor
and pelvic floor management. Now, we're going to be going through the trigger foods to avoid
in this diet, I’m going to be taking you through the foods to choose in this diet,
and I’m also going to be showing you some of the foods that work for me that I include
to help me manage my IBS symptoms too.
So you can skip straight to the timestamps below regarding the diet if you'd like to
look at it now, otherwise there's some really important information I need to give you before
commencing this diet. Now, I just want to tell you a little bit about the FODMAPs diet.
FODMAPs are certain sugars that aren't well absorbed as they pass through the bowel,
and what these sugars do is they can sit there and they can ferment,
they can draw extra fluid into the bowel, they ferment causing gas and bloating,
and that's what can then give you the abdominal pain and the abdominal cramping, and these
certain sugars can also cause constipation and diarrhea or this can alternate. Now,
this condition can occur some of the time or all of the time, and if you need emergency management
strategies for this condition, you can refer to my video above that outlines what to do straight
away when this condition occurs. This video today is much more about prevention of these things.
Now, to start the diet what happens, and it's usually recommended to work through with a
dietitian, that's a really important recommendation, because it's quite a
restrictive diet. If you can't work with a dietitian, the Monash University Diet app,
the FODMAP app is linked below and it's pictured up here, and I really strongly recommend you,
get this diet, because these scientists have actually rigorously investigated
this diet and, also too, the quantities of how much you can have and how much not to have which
is really important in this diet. Now, normally the diet starts with a six-week elimination of
all the trigger foods that I’m about to take you through, and then it's a gradual reintroduction
over eight to 12 weeks or maybe longer of one food at a time over three days. Now, we're about
to go through the major food groups, so let's start with fruit. So you can see on the screen,
some of the fruits to avoid. Now, the reason these fruits need to avoid is because they contain the
fruit sugar called fructose, and what fructose does is causes gas and bloating in the bowel,
and fruits with high levels of this sugar are those are the fruits to eliminate, and they're
the ones that you can see on the screen now. Now, some of the fruits too I want to make mention of,
in terms of – I’m going to make particular mention of prunes here, because prunes are
often one of those fruits that we tend to reach for if we're constipated, so watch out for prunes
because they are dried plums and they are very high in fructose and they're also hard to digest.
Now, if we look at fruits to choose, again with reference to the bowel,
you can see the fruits to choose here. I want to make special mention of oranges and strawberries
and also too kiwi fruit. Oranges and strawberries are high in fiber, so they're great for managing
constipation if you suffer from pelvic floor problems. And also too, kiwi fruit, so these are
kiwi fruit or Chinese gooseberries as they're also known, and the Monash university recommends that
we start with two of these a day. So obviously, they're peeled, and these are great because not
only they're high in dietary fiber, that would be about 150 grams each I think a day – so not only
are these high in fiber, but they also too have an enzyme, and it's the same enzyme that's in papaya
and pineapple that actually softens or tenderizes meat, and also, so that can have a great effect on
digestion and your ability to digest your food. So kiwi fruits, put them on your shopping list.
Now, let's move on to vegetables. Now, some of the common vegetables to avoid, again,
you can see on this list here. When we're talking about vegetables to avoid, we really
want to think about the most common culprits are, you've got your garlic and your onion,
and these are often hidden in a lot of foods. And I should have mentioned with fruits, chilies too,
but I’ll mention here as well – these are major irritants and they're things to eliminate from
your diet. Okay? So these are actually fruits, but eliminate those, eliminate chilies,
eliminate garlic, and any garlic maybe garlic products, like your garlic salt;
and look for the ingredients of these in the products that you have, they're strong irritants.
Now, in terms of vegetables to choose, I’ve made like a nice easy salad here and, again,
you can see, the vegetables to choose up here. But this is a salad I just quickly whipped up,
and it's got spinach leaves, it's got baby tomatoes, red tomatoes,
yellow tomatoes, and I choose these ones because they're lower in acid than the red ones, which
are kind to my tummy. It's also got alfalfa, and it's got some shredded carrots, so that's a simple
FODMAP friendly salad that you can dish up. Now, if you want to make a dressing for this, you could
use a little bit of olive oil or sesame seed oil or you could use some lime juice or orange juice.
But what I really like to use is tahini, and I get the whole tahini, and I actually sometimes
mix this with lactose-free yogurt, and put it over the top. And if I had time, I would have put
in some sweet potato into this salad as well. So that's some of the vegetables that you can choose.
I want to make a, just a mention of a couple of other vegetables – red capsicum and green
beans are really great for constipation, because they'll help soften your stool,
and help your pelvic floor problems. And the other food I want to mention is white mashed potato,
they have a vegetable to include. White mashed potato is really great at firming the stool,
if you suffer from diarrhea. So that might be a food that you'd like to include in your diet too.
So let's move on now to protein sources – so in terms of proteins to avoid.
One of the first things we reach for when we're constipated, and we're told this time
and time again is to reach for legumes. So we're told to reach for our beans,
our kidney beans, our chickpeas, our lentils, and we know how good these are for our gut health.
Unfortunately, these are major triggers for IBS sufferers. So these are things to eliminate right
from the word go. Don't forget that things like hummus that you can see here and falafels are also
a combination – falafels are a combination of this which is our chickpeas and garlic.
So that's a lethal combination, isn't it? So don't forget to actually think about the ingredients
in the foods that you're choosing. So in terms of proteins to choose, you can choose most meats,
just cook – make sure they're cooked simply. I personally suggest that you avoid fatty meats,
because a lot of fat can slow down digestion, so try to choose your lean meats, but you can
have red meat, I have fish, I have eggs daily and include that in omelets which I cook with tomatoes
and Asian greens. And the other protein source that I want to mention is tofu – now, we know that
this is a great protein source, but if you're choosing tofu, choose the firm tofu, not the
silken which is a high in FODMAP food. Choose your firm tofu, which is your lower FODMAP alternative.
All right, so now we're going to move on to dairy. Now, on the foods to avoid for dairy,
I just want to mention milk sugar, because the milk sugar called lactose
is what causes people a lot of intolerance. It causes bloating,
and it can cause terrible diarrhea. So many of us know a lot about lactose intolerance – the
foods to avoid are all your milk products and your milk based products like your yogurts,
your ice creams, all those types of things that are based on milk. I also just too want to mention
soybean milk or soymilk – because if you have soymilk, remember what we said about beans,
if it's actually made from soybeans, it's going to be a gut irritant, potential irritant or IBS
irritant. So you want to choose milk made from soybean extract, and fortunately, that's one
of the less expensive options too. So just be mindful of that with your milk alternatives.
Now, if we actually think about the types of products that we can have, and thinking about our
bowel, and also too our pelvic floor, obviously, you're going to go for your lactose-free milks,
and that's a huge range of lactose free products that we all know about.
In terms of cheeses, this is where it can get a bit tricky for the pelvic floor. So hard cheeses,
I eat quite a lot of hard cheeses, but just your plain hard cheeses – this is a Spanish
Manchego cheese which I really like at the moment – but these cheeses,
hard cheeses can actually cause constipation in people that are prone to constipation,
but conversely, if you're prone to diarrhea, they can be something that's really good to
include in the diet. So just remember that about hard cheeses, you might want to just start off
with a small amount of hard cheese, if you're prone to constipation. Soft cheeses, you can
include camembert, brie and feta, and they're all really nice options to include in your diet.
Now, let's move along to grains and cereals and bread. So this is where a lot of people
come unstuck, because wheat is a major IBS flare-up trigger. So you need to eliminate all
products that are made from either wheat, barley or rye. So that makes your gluten-free products
semi-safe, doesn't it, so long as they don't include – I mean, your gluten-free bread,
so long as they don't include fruit, dried fruit. So the breads that you can include
are things like your sourdough, so use sourdough bread, your spelt bread, and also too, the safe
gluten-free breads. Now, on bread gluten-free bread, white bread will firm the stool. So if
you're having a lot of gluten-free white bread, just again be careful of that with constipation
or conversely, if you suffer from diarrhea, might be something that you'd like to include.
Now, one of my big tips for cereals is this. So I usually make a smoothie in the morning out of
oats, that's one of the things I include with my lactose free milk. But baby rice cereal is
an absolute gem, it's really easy to digest, so Farex or the Baby Rice or Baby Rice Cereal.
But the wonderful thing about this, not only is it really easy to digest, it's actually iron
fortified and calcium fortified. So for someone like me that doesn't eat a lot of red meat and
perhaps that might be you too, this is a really nice way of getting iron because we know that our
iron supplements can cause constipation and that affects our pelvic floor. So I find that these are
a really great way of actually increasing my iron consumption, but also too, getting a really nice
little plain cereal. And this also too goes into my smoothie which I’ll show you in a little while.
So that's a really nice option for your cereals. I also too wanted to mention boiled rice. Boiled
rice is a – boiled white rice, is a great food that you could include in your diet,
again, that's a stool firming's product. And I also too wanted to mention just plain rice
crackers. So I snack on these, just plain rice crackers during the course of the day as well.
So rice crackers, rice cakes, all those sorts of things are fine to include in your diet.
Now, we're just about to finish up. We're going to move on now to nuts, seeds, and also
to sweets – topics that are close to my heart. So if we look at the nuts to avoid, things like your
cashews and your pistachios are the ones to eliminate. But fortunately,
you can still have walnuts, you can have peanuts which means you can have peanut paste,
and you can also have macadamia nuts which means you can have macadamia nut paste too.
Now, seeds are where things really come into play for your bowel management and I love the
fact that on the low FODMAP elimination diet, you can have chia seeds. So I've got chia seeds here,
you can see them here, little black seeds – these are a great source of dietary fiber. Now, what
happens, I soaked these overnight just to show you in milk. That's the volume increase you get
with this, and the chia seeds become like a gel like, I don't know if you can see it on screen,
but they become like a gel like consistency. So I put this in my smoothies, so I make a
smoothie in the morning, and this is my smoothie, so obviously it's got the baby rice cereal in it,
it's got yogurt, it's got kiwi fruit in it, and it's also got the chia seeds,
really yummy, so it actually looks like that. So that makes – and you can also add some gluten-free
protein powder to it as well, which is what I often do as well, so making sure that it's low
FODMAP. So you can make a really nice filling healthy smoothie from these types of seeds.
The other types of seeds that you can include are linseeds or flax seeds.
So they're your flax seeds, and again, it's a myth now that these cause diverticulitis,
they actually have been shown not to. But you can actually then blend these up with your smoothies
as well. So I tend to blend up my seeds, and they just tend to work well with my stomach.
The other thing that I’ve found recently too is these grain biscuits, so these are biscuits,
and they seem to be readily available everywhere, they're just made from grains. So just linseeds,
Pepita seeds which you can have. I think they've got some chia seeds in them as
well. This is the packet in Australia, but I’m sure they're available worldwide. Just
read your ingredients and make sure there's no other additives, there's some thickener
in there and there's some salt and that's it, and they are just delicious to snack on.
Now, finally what I need to move on to is sweets. So things to avoid, in the US, high
fructose corn syrup, major IBS trigger. Make sure you avoid the high fructose corn syrup, it's in
everything. You need to read your labels. Honey, just because it's natural, it's not IBS friendly,
so eliminate that from your diet as well. And the other important thing that I want to mention,
and I’ve got a close-up here that you can see of the label, is your artificial sweeteners. So
there's a dose-dependent effect of these. You can actually see on the label that excess consumption
can cause a laxative effect. It's true. The more you have, the more likely some artificial
sweetness like xylitol and mannitol can actually have on your bowel and cause your IBS symptoms.
So alternatives, your safe alternatives are things like pure maple syrup unfortunately,
don't get the cheap stuff, make sure you get the actual pure, this is pure Canadian maple syrup.
Also too, you can have rice syrup, you can have plain white sugar. And fortunately,
last but not least, one of my favorite things – the packet was already open this morning when
I got out of the cupboard, dark chocolate, you can have dark chocolate as your sweets as well.
If you've got a question about caffeine, and people ask me about coffee, caffeine is a bowel
irritant – so coffee is a bowel irritant so that's something to avoid in this diet, unfortunately.
But we've gone through a lot of things there, haven't we? We've talked about the foods to
choose, we've talked about the foods to avoid on the elimination diet; but this is just the
elimination diet, then you gradually reintroduce extra foods, and this is where it's really
important to work with a dietitian. Once again, I’ll reiterate the importance of the Monash app,
grab it if you haven't already got it, it's a great little app to have. I really hope
this information today helps you manage your IBS symptoms. Don't forget coming up is the emergency
management video for IBS, if you want to stay with me for that. And if you've liked the video,
please make sure you give it a like below, because then that helps YouTube recommend it to other
viewers, and they can find it as well too. Look forward to seeing you next time. Bye for now.