“DIET PLAN for FODMAP, healthy diet in general, Carbohydrate Malabsorption, IBS, and Fibromyalgia” by: Carla Welsh CALORIES Make sure you are getting enough calories per day, and make those calories count! Always choose fresh, whole foods when possible. You may have to stop at the food store a couple more times per week (fresh food does not stay fresh very long because of no preservatives) but it is well worth it. A general rule of thumb would be to take your weight and multiply each pound by 7-10 and that would be how many calories you need per day. It is wise to not go under 1300 calories per day or you likely will get an electrolyte imbalance. If you are an active person then you will need more calories… DO NOT DEPRIVE YOURSELF OF NEEDED CALORIES. If you are a little overweight you could cut out 500 calories per day to lose weight at a healthy rate (about 1-2 lbs per week). PROTEIN Make sure you are getting enough protein per day. To figure out how many grams of protein per day that you need do the following equation: Take your current weight and divide it by 2.2. Then, take that number and multiply it by 0.8 to 1.8 depending upon activity level. Good sources of protein: 2 TBSP of peanut butter (I recommend Skippy Natural Creamy or organic peanut butters with as few ingredients as possible), tuna (choose a brand with just tuna, salt, and water… a lot of brands have added food dyes and preservatives so read labels), mozzarella, cheddar cheese (Boar’s Head sells a lactose free cheddar cheese block which costs around $6.00), nuts (one serving would be about 20 almonds), seeds, and spinach. For the nuts, you really only need about 2 servings per day, and choose unsalted natural nuts… with almonds as your top choice. Cottage cheese is a good source of protein and better than yogurt; however, cottage cheese is high in FODMAPS so it may cause irritation to you. Yogurt causes a lot of abdominal discomfort because it is high in fructose and has added dyes and preservatives (in other words, very high in sugar…. And sugar is what causes gas/bloating when you get down to the root cause of all gastric discomfort). Eggs are good protein sources; however, no more than one egg yolk per day because if you eat 2 egg yolks per day than you will exceed daily recommended cholesterol intake. You can have 2 or 3 egg whites per day, though. TIP: buy brown eggs instead of white eggs that are free range and fed natural diet, as they have less calories and less cholesterol than white eggs. Meat, of course, is a good source of protein. Choose lean meats such as chicken or fish. One serving would be about 4 ounces, or the size of your palm. Choose meats that are fed natural diets, as they are higher in Omega 3s and lower in Omega 6s. Choose wild fish (farm raised fish has added food dye and fed a poor diet; therefore the meat is not as nutritious as it should be). Eat wild salmon at least twice per week. How can I tell if it is wild instead of farm raised? Wild salmon does not have white fat lines going through it and it will feel thicker. It will be darker in color. Giant sells pre-cut wild salmon 3.5 ounce slices in the frozen section and they cost about $4.00 for a serving. Limit red meat intake to not more than twice per week. Milk is a good source of protein, but it is high in natural sugars…. An alternative would be to buy lactose free milk. Almond milk is high in calcium but not high in protein. Soymilk is another alternative but should not be used by people with thyroid disease because of its’ phytoestrogens. BUTTERS/OILS Use clarified butter. You can buy ghee, as it is lactose/casein free. You can find ghee at alternative wholefood stores such as Martindale’s by Outback Steakhouse in Springfield. You can also order it online from Purity Farms. One jar costs $7.00 and lasts about a month. You can also make your own ghee (clarified butter) through a process by boiling off the top. Clarified butter binds to fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, K, which means better absorption of these vitamins for you! Oils… Extra Virgin Olive Oil from a dark glass bottle not exposed to light is a healthy fat source. If the bottle is clear or plastic it won’t stay as fresh for long and will go rancid much faster. Extra virgin unrefined coconut oil is another healthy fat alternative and cooks well for high heat cooking. Coconuts are high in FODMAPS, but virgin unrefined coconut oil is not. Another great oil for high heat cooking is sunflower oil. You can buy Spectrum High Heat Sunflower Oil in organic sections of food stores. FIBER Fiber is perhaps one of the most important things for your body, and whether you have constipation or diarrhea, increasing fiber will help you (unless you are having a flare-up of IBD/colitis, the week after a diverticula flare-up, or the few weeks after an acute gastroenteritis… in that case you should remain low residue, bake/boil your foods, no pan-frying, avoid lactose, cut back on starches such as potatoes and bananas that are on the green side (they are ok on the brown side), eat refined flours/sugars (white rice/white bread with no HFCS). Once that period is over you should resume normal diet with fiber because refined flours and refined sugars are basically empty non-nutritious calories; in other words, they fill you up but do not provide much nutritionally for you. Why is fiber so important? Fiber acts as a paintbrush in the intestine and helps to sweep out germs, so to speak, which will keep your intestines homeostatic, or “even-balanced”. Fiber helps you to regulate sugar levels. It helps to clump waste in your intestines together for easier bowel movements, creating less intra-luminal pressure. The theory is less intra-luminal pressure, less pushing, less gravitational force in the sigmoid colon, which means less chance of weak spots in the bowel wall forming, which means less chance of diverticula forming. Less pushing will help with hemorrhoids, too. Due to how food is processed today, fiber is stripped from many foods, unless it says “whole grain”. With enriched flours, they strip/bleach the flours and then add vitamins back in, but do not add the fiber back in. Now, whole grain brown rice is often said to be avoided on the FODMAP diet, but many people can handle it, or at least a small amount of it and it is a good source of fiber. Quinoa is another good source and it is gluten-free. TIP: always wash the quinoa off first before boiling it, then prepare as normal. Oatmeal and flax seed are good sources of fiber and are FODMAP friendly, and certain brands of oatmeal are gluten-free. If you do 8 TBSPS Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free quick steel cut oats plus 2 TBSP Bob’s Red Mill Crushed Flax Seed for breakfast that provides 9-10 grams of fiber right there. Always have at least 5 grams or more of fiber for breakfast to start out your day. That will make you feel full longer and regulate blood sugars, too! If there is no fiber in a food, then guaranteed that food will be high in sugar and low in protein. High sugar items are hard to digest, and then usually go into your colon not completely digested, which is where they sit and ferment. Some people have more of the type of flora (bacteria, both good and bad) in their colon that release more gases than others, hence gas and bloating. Some people are more sensitive to pain than other people, and abdominal cramping may be more severe for them. So, cut back on sugars which is what the bacterium like to eat, so then they do not eat and release gases which cause symptoms, plain and simple. The recommendation for women is around 25 grams of fiber per day; for men it is 38 grams per day. Most people only get 10-15 grams per day due to food processing. If you eat a natural, fresh, whole-food diet, then you likely will get enough of needed fiber. Sources of fiber which are low FODMAP friendly: blueberries, strawberries, almonds, flaxseed, spinach, kale, green beans, oatmeal... and as no one FODMAPper is the same (you may be able to handle smaller amounts or larger amounts better than others)…you really have to experiment with yourself to see what your FODMAP threshold is. SUMMARY • Make sure you get enough calories. • Make sure you get enough protein. • Make sure you get enough fiber (depending upon current status). • Experiment with foods as you may be able to handle smaller amounts of even high FODMAP foods. • Even if you go strict FODMAP, after a few weeks try re-introducing. The body is on a continuous changing cycle. • Make sure you are not cutting out vital nutrients, vitamins, and minerals such as calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc, vitamin A, D, E and the B vitamins, iron, folate, etc. You may want to take a multivitamin (and gummy vitamins free of dyes are usually easier to digest… I would recommend Vitafusion vitamins). • Eat fresh, whole foods as much as possible. Shop in the outer refrigerated sections of the food market, as the inner aisles are filled with high sodium, high cholesterol, unnatural, bleached/stripped, synthetic, preservative and additive loaded foods. Keep a broad range of foods as diversity is key. • If you decide to avoid wheat, as wheat is high in fructans and hard to digest, be wary of gluten-free boxed bread mixes and goodies. A lot of those mixes contain garbanzo bean flour (chick pea) or pea proteins, inulin, and chicory root, and those are big no-nos’ and are hard to completely digest. Your best bet would be to buy a bread machine and make your own breads and baked goods. Perhaps, you may be able to digest homemade wheat flour mixes over store-bought wheat products because you can control what other ingredients you add, such as replacing honey/agave with pure maple syryp. • 9 times out of 10, people will think they have a gluten intolerance. It is usually not a gluten sensitivity, but rather a fructan sensitivity/carbohydrate malabsorption problem. • General rule of thumb: when buying boxed products, try to find things with as little ingredients as possible. If it has a paragraph long version of what they made the product with, you likely will react. • Another general rule of thumb: if sugar, fructose, HFCS is listed as the first ingredient, don’t buy it. That means it is all sugar. • TIP: walk for at least 20 minutes after eating at least twice per day to help process sugars. • Eat several small meals every few hours throughout the day and stay well hydrated.
Posted on: Fri, 06 Sep 2013 10:06:24 +0000
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