I have been diagnosed recently with chronic gastritis and severe IBS. And was hoping to get some recommendations or advice on how to navigate these conditions.
I was advised to try the low FODMAP diet. It is normally supervised by a specialist dietician but there was a 2 year wait so my Doctor said if I felt like researching it and giving it a go myself to try it. I’ll admit it was the worlds most difficult diet - but - it stopped the 6 weeks of continuous diarrhea that I had been having. My faeces (if you can call it that) was luminous green/yellow at that point so I was desperate. I now avoid seemingly ‘healthy’ foods like raw vegetables, salads and wholemeal bread but can eat most things. I’ve now got gallstones on top of everything else so also cant eat cheese ot anything high fat (no sausages or burgers for me - sob!)
Hi. Can you give me an example of 3 days worth meals you’ve had. Thanks
Hi, I’ve had a look for the recipe book and food diary I kept for 12 weeks but unfortunately I couldn’t find it. However, what I did first was google the diet and an NHS Hospital Trust, I think it was Gloucester, had produced a very good printable summary. It is 6 pages with food group sections and then within that section it listed BANNED food and ALLOWED food. If you can find it I suggest printing it out in colour as it makes the red (banned) and the green (allowed) columns much easier to see when you are crying in the middle of Tesco’s. All I can remember is that the list was quite bizarre as it’s based on the basic chemical compounds that different foods have rather than whether it’s a fruit or vegetable or has got gluten in it etc. You can have white rice (NOT brown), mashed potato (no skin) and chickpeas but no bread or wheat pasta. Absolutely no onion or garlic, not even cheese and onion flavoured crisps. The diet appears very unhealthy to the untrained eye but it is avoiding all known allergens and roughage, so very few fruits and vegetables allowed. There are some good recipe books around, I got one off Amazon, there was an excellent Chickpea curry in it that I would have with white rice. I cut myself some slack and used ready cooked microwavable rice as you have to make everything from scratch. Anyway, sorry I can’t be more helpful but if you do some research you will be able to do it, it’s not a ‘forever’ diet, it is a total elimination diet that, once you’ve cleared your system by following it, you gradually re introduce foods to see what you do and don’t react to. If your symptoms are bad it’s definitely worth doing - good luck!
Hi. That’s so helpful. Im 2 months into having these issues having had no issues whatsoever all my life. I will do the research as you say and give it a go Many thanks
PS - I found the information you suggested from NHS Gloucester!
Hi Sarah I have been living with severe Ulcerative colitis for 15 years I strongly recommend keeping a record of what you eat and avoiding things that trigger you everyone is different so you can only study your symptoms and adjust to suit
Hi Sarah
I have had IBS(C) for about 20 years but it became severe about 10 years ago blighting my life. I take regular daily Mebeverine and Colpermin, need fybogel three times a day. I did get a referral to a dietician about 3-4 years ago and was put on a Low Fodmap diet. I am aware that after follwoing this for a while you are supposed to reintroduce foods back into your diet, but frankly I was too scared to having reached a happy medium of relative quiescence.
I also have a hiatus hernia and a slow transit bowel to manage…
My GP has always been amazingly supportive when I had emotional outbursts with unmanagable pain… Thankfully none for the past 18 months 