So I now have another favourite F word. FODMAP. If you’ve read one of my posts before or follow me on Insta you would have already heard me carry on about FODMAP’s if not? Well don’t say I didn’t warn you…

I’m a Low FODMAPer, which means I happily follow a diet and meal plan without any known FODMAP’s in it. Ok great huge pat on the back for me, and it is trust me. But what are FODMAP’s exactly?

FODMAP’s are a collection of carbohydrates (sugars and such) that occur naturally in many of our foods, they can also be added to some processed foods too. The word FODMAP is an acronym for poorly absorbed, fermentable short chain carbs (note: not all carbs are FODMAP’s) and sugars it stands for:

Fermentable– Not being able to be absorbed in the small intestine, FODMAP’s have to travel to the large intestine to be broken down

Oligosaccharides– Chains of individual sugars joined together, there are 2 oligosaccharides that are FODMAP’s -Fructans and galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS)

Disaccharide– Lactose

Monosaccharide– Excess fructose

Polyols– Sugar Alcohols e.g.: sorbitol, mannitol and xylitol.

Pretty much it sands for lots of long words that are hard to get your tongue round so much so that half the time (and after many failed attempts) now I don’t even try to pronounce them. Essentially I sum them up for others by saying Lactose, Fructans, excess Fructose and Gluten.

As mentioned in my earlier blog, I’ve got this, oh no wait… I’ve got what? Living Low FODMAP is a choice I have made in order to deal with and manage my acute Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). It’s been a relatively easy transition over to Low FODMAP because I was experiencing a lot of “food fear” and had drastically limited my diet prior to having been told I had IBS, so the notion of a list of safe foods was met with the kind of enthusiasm you can only attribute to a kid in a candy store….. Except not. Cause you know, I kinda can’t go to a candy store.

Anyways like I was saying, I now had this way to eat that would assure I didn’t experience any more symptoms or discomfort and sickness. On top of that I discovered there were all these app’s and books to help people understand Low FODMAP and how it works. I remember starting out thinking, oh my god how am I ever going to be able to get my head around this, there seemed to be so many do’s and don’ts as well as very little wiggle room. I mean like seriously, can my food really have never even rubbed shoulders with an onion? But this seemed to be the case and after much reading and researching I can truthfully say it’s very easily become a way of life for me and dare I say it even an obsession, that I can’t shut up about.

A lot of my clients, friends and even the man who serves me at the local grocer have noticed a major change in me, it might be the 16 kilos I lost when I made the change to Low FODMAP #winning, or it might be how my skin and complexion have improved or put simply put it could even be the fact I am just healthier. So when asked what my secret is, as all women tend to do (I’ll have what she’s having thanks) it starts me on what has easily become one of my favourite subjects and as I said my now fav F word. Not that I’ve particularly stopped using the other one either for that matter. (You know the one I’m talkin bout) It’s still doin the rounds.

But really I am so passionate about being FODMAP free not only because of what it has done for me but also what it has done for my husband too. While he still eats a normal balanced diet most of the time, wherever we share meals or I have cooked and baked he has been having the Low FODMAP variety. By doing something as simple as removing FODMAP’s from the Mr’s dinner say or one meal a day we have noticed he has been getting a better night’s sleep (due to there being less need for his body to work overtime to digest dinner and more time to rest) this is just the most obvious change for him. There is the fact too he is very happily enjoying the benefits of all my experimental Low FODMAP cooking time in the kitchen and he can definitely now vouch for the saying happy wife happy life.

That means with all the extra food I can now safely enjoy, the relief of my IBS symptoms, the weight loss and energy boost not to mention the added bonus of a soundly sleeping Mr it’s not at all hard to understand why FODMAP specifically in the LOW sense is my new fav F word..

A Mrs x