FODMAPs are found in many common foods, including fruit and vegetables, grains and cereals, nuts, legumes, dairy foods and manufactured foods
A team of researchers at Australia’s Monash University have launched FODMAP (fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols) cook book for people with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) with recipes and diet tips.
The book introduces Monash University’s unique Low FODMAP Stack Cup, which allows people with IBS to quickly and easily understand what they can eat in one sitting, and mix and match recipes to create low FODMAP meal plans, without triggering IBS symptoms. Using the Stack Cup, one full four-band cup represents the FODMAP limit for one meal.
When they pass into the large intestine, FODMAPs are fermented by gut bacteria, producing gas as a result. The extra gas and water cause the intestinal wall to stretch and expand. Because people with IBS have a highly sensitive gut, ‘stretching’ the intestinal wall causes exaggerated sensations of pain and discomfort.
The low-FODMAP diet is an evidence-based therapy that restricts intake of these carbohydrates, which are found in a wide range of foods, and improves symptoms for three in four people with IBS.
Monash dietitians, scientists and gastroenterologists established the FODMAP diet’s effectiveness in the mid-2000s and improved understanding of how FODMAPs trigger IBS symptoms.
