IBS and the FODMAP diet

IBS symptoms may be triggered and exacerbated by high FODMAP foods in your diet. *FODMAPs is an acronym for Fermentable Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, Monosaccharides and Polyols. These are molecules found in food that can be poorly absorbed in the digestive tract by some people - they travel into the large intestine where they become food for bacteria in the bowel and there they ferment, often triggering or exacerbating IBS symptoms such as bloating, cramps, diarrhorea, etc.
*A FODMAP friendly (or Low FODMAP) diet will not cure IBS - it aims to reduce the symptoms of IBS, making it more manageable and life much pleasanter. *High FODMAP foods have a cumulative effect within your digestive system - it is often a 'build-up' of poorly digested FODMAP foods over a period of time that will trigger or exacerbate IBS symptoms. It also means that it is the quantity, combination, and 'spacing' of high FODMAP foods in your diet, rather than a specific food, that will cause problems. Furthermore, the physical effects (IBS symptoms) of eating problem food/s may not show up immediately after a particular meal - it may take days or weeks. In this case people often think it was, for example, the garlic or onion they had that night that caused bloating and cramps, when in fact it may have been the asparagus, mushroom and snow pea pasta, followed by apple pie that they ate 2 nights previously that actually triggered the symptoms. *A low FM diet is more about understanding and controlling the quantity, combination, and 'spacing' of high FM foods in your diet, rather than the total elimination of specific foods. *Reducing meal sizes, alcohol, fatty foods and caffeine in your diet are all likely to help reduce IBS symptoms. *Cutting food into smaller pieces, chewing well and eating slowly may also help. *Stress, anxiety and poor sleep are likely contributors to IBS symptoms.
I highly recommend you make an appointment with a reputable FODMAP aware dietitian for a personal assessment eg. Shepherd Works if you live in Melbourne or Adelaide (Australia). If you live in another state or overseas, I would suggest you contact Shepherd Works or Box Hill hospital - hopefully they can recommend a reputable dietitian or dietary practice near you. We are lucky enough to live close to Shepherd Works, Monash University & Box Hill Hospital (in Australia), the world leaders in this research.
My daughter (22) is having great success on the low FODMAP diet - she had IBS symptoms for a number of years and they were steadily getting worse to the point of being debilitating. She is now about 8 weeks into the FODMAP program and her IBS symptoms have significantly reduced. For more info go to www.facebook/glutenfreeguerrillas then click on Discussions - the topic FODMAP diet posted by Valda Davis should appear. This should be a good starting point for you to find out more about FODMAPs and IBS.

Hi jrlm, sorry to be so slow replying but been hellishly busy at work of late. FODMAP diet still relatively unheard of, even among doctors, dietitians, etc. Slowly becoming more well known and accepted as a legitimate approach to reducing IBS symtoms. The results of ongoing research in Australia is slowly filtering through to health professionals around the world, and these sorts of forums have been great at spreading the word to IBS sufferers. The more IBS  people who mention FODMAPS to their doctor/dietitian the more interest there will be from health professionals, and hopefully they'll look into it more. I guess it will be like the gluten free diet - took a long time for that to be recognised. Anyway, Katie's symtoms included tummy bloating, 'wind', abdominal cramps, diarrhea - all were becoming very severe. She's quite thin and she'd bloat and look like she was 8 months pregnant, and rushing to the toilet after almost every meal with watery diarrhea. She's not a 'complainer' and hadn't said too much about it but I found her doubled up on the couch in agony and crying one night. That's when  we began the rounds of doctors and tests, and I started doing a lot of internet research. In the end all they could tell us was that she was not Coeliac, and didn't have Crohns or Colitis or any other identifiable disease. They just said she's got Irritable Bowel Syn and there was nothing they could do for her apart from offering some tablets (which were not a good idea long term, and didn't work anyway). So back onto the internet I went and spent days reading everything I could find about IBS, and that's when I stumbled on the FODMAP info from Shepherd Works. The reasoning behind the diet instantly made sense to me so she made an appointment at Shepherd Works, had all the breath tests and the rest as they say is history. Still a bit of a bumpy road with some set-backs, but slowly re-introducing the 'offending' foods (high FODMAP foods) back into her diet. Still trial and error in terms of how much of each food she can eat, what foods not to eat together in the same meal, etc. But as I said in earlier post, she is soooooo much better - FODMAPS has been an absolute blessing.

Try the following websites/forums for more info

groups.yahoo.com/group/fructose_malabsorption  (this one you can join via Yahoo or your Facebook login - it is Australian based and Sue Shepherd is a member I believe. Information posted seems to be up-to-date and accuate for the most part)

www.ibsfree.net  (Patsy Catos is a dietitian in USA - she's up-to-date with FODMAPS - you can ask her questions on her web site, and I think she offers internet SKYPE consultations also)

www.facebook/glutenfreeguerrillas  (as mentioned my in earlier post)

For those of you interested in FODMAPs diet, the 2 articles listed below are interesting reading.
The FODMAP Approach
Evidence-based Dietary Management of Functional GI Symptoms: The FODMAP Approach