# Low FODMAP Diet Making My IBS Worse?



## SadHuman (Jul 15, 2017)

So about week ago I started the Low Fodmap diet. I had high hopes for this due to the high success rate and all the wonderful stories of people's IBS being healed or atleast improved.
My symptoms were mostly being bloated, leaking gas, infrequent diarrhoea, flatulence and just generally smelling terrible which is great.
The first day of the diet was completely fine. I had a banana and strawberry smoothie, some millet with carrot, feta, olives, etc. for lunch and a gluten free pasta salad for tea.
I didn't just jump into the diet. I took a couple of weeks to research all the foods I could eat and felt prepared.
However, the next day and onwards I have had even worse flatulence, constant diarrhoea, pain when I eat and I can feel all the gas moving around inside me. It's awful. I just want to break down wherever I go anywhere. I smell even worse than usual and I nearly cannot function.
My symptoms were better before the diet and now I'm just depriving myself of food for nothing.
Someone please explain if this is normal. I've heard it takes about two weeks to start properly working but I really doubt it will since it's so bad.

Is it normal for the low FODMAP diet to make IBS so much worse?


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## simmer (Jul 10, 2016)

Might want to introduce low FODMAP a little more slowly than going all out on the first day. The diet change might be a bit radical, depending on what you ate before.

However, some stuff on the low FODMAP diet is a trigger for me, while other things are perfectly fine for me. You still need to work out what works and what doesn't. Good luck.


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## ♧Pandora☆ (Jun 23, 2017)

Fodmaps made me much worse. The to eat list contained alot of foods i was actually intolerant to. I had a private intolerance test and came straight off the diet. Then ate foods i wasn't intolerant to.


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## ChrisRayd (Dec 31, 2017)

I wrote an article about the whole low fodmap myth. http://raydernutrition.com/index.php/2018/01/02/could-a-high-fodmap-diet-be-better-than-low-fodmap-for-sibo-with-scientific-evidence/

There's been a lot of evidence recently that suggests that low fodmap is not the way to go for correcting a gut imbalance and therefore alleviating stomach issues. Using rifaximin or natural treatments like grapefruit seed extract or cloves with a higher fodmap diet is probably the way to go for treatment.

Thanks,

Chris


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## Sadtummy14 (Jan 16, 2018)

I tried low fodmap. It was awful. Made me worse too. Never again.


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## ada (Feb 26, 2018)

Bananas are high fodmap according to the monash app. They suggest to limit the yellow ones with dark spots to just 30 grams! And 1 green/yellow one maximum. Try oranges and strawberries. They have no fodmap.


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## ada (Feb 26, 2018)

Bananas can not be eaten unlimited. Try oranges instead. They have no fodmap. Very sweet grapes will also digest fine. Strawberries can be eaten unlimited.


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## ada (Feb 26, 2018)

Bananas can not be eaten unlimited. Try oranges instead. They have no fodmap. Very sweet grapes will also digest fine. Strawberries can be eaten unlimited.


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## Musgos (May 15, 2018)

ChrisRayd said:


> I wrote an article about the whole low fodmap myth. http://raydernutrition.com/index.php/2018/01/02/could-a-high-fodmap-diet-be-better-than-low-fodmap-for-sibo-with-scientific-evidence/
> 
> There's been a lot of evidence recently that suggests that low fodmap is not the way to go for correcting a gut imbalance and therefore alleviating stomach issues. Using rifaximin or natural treatments like grapefruit seed extract or cloves with a higher fodmap diet is probably the way to go for treatment.
> 
> ...


..

what do you have to back up what you just said, are your sources the "dude trust me"? i tried low fodmaps and it is working for me, slowly but surely it is..

people dont take advice from some randome dude on the internet, make your own research, try an extreme low fodmaps and then start testing which foods

are making you sick, i've only been in the fodmaps diet for 8 days and i dont feel like i am going to die, i am no as miserable, i think i could work around it..

i think there are more variants of IBS that we know, just because we have a few symptoms that are beginning to become like common denominators doesnt mean

that we all have IBS, i am begginning to belive that there are conditions that are unnamed right now and you have to discover your own body to tackle the problems


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## jeffinnh (Jun 15, 2018)

Parts of the low FODMAP diet have worked for me... other parts of the SCD have been more helpful.

I'm pretty much a believer in Xifaxan (Rifaximin) and Probiotics (VSL #3).

Everything else is still up in the air.


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## Noelle1234 (Jul 30, 2018)

Fodmap is a general diet that is not specified for your needs.

Try something like https://www.everlywell.com/products/food-sensitivity/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxdfFp4fK3AIVRFmGCh1_FwZuEAAYAyAAEgIJCPD_BwE

There are many other ones out there. You really need to get a food Intolerance test done and then cut the foods that are "High" on your own personal list. Its almost impossible to know what foods are causing symptoms when you feel terrible all the time. Food can take anywhere from 30min -24 hours to effect you so a test like this is your best bet.

Hope this helps!


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## alexho (Dec 7, 2019)

I have been on FODMAP for almost a year and it helps me control my IBS well.

Couple of things to the previous posts.

The Monash FODMAP app allows only unripe banana -- which most people don't like.

Gluten free pasta: if I eat pasta, I make sure it is pure white rice pasta. Brown rice and quinoa is difficult to digest even for healthy people.

Getting back to the FODMAP diet, it is working for me as far as I keep some further restrictions and I address some restrictions by special food preparations.

-- Eg. while I cannot it wheat bread, I can I sprouted and or traditional sourdough bread -- both sprouting and traditional dough leavening decreases the fodmap content of the grain

-- Soaking and special preparation decreases the FODMAP content of legumes

-- Further restriction: I have to avoid brown rice, quinoa and nuts (nuts flour); I can only eat nuts (walnut, almond) if they are soaked -- nuts and seeds contain anti-nutrients that impede and disturb digestion; these anti-nutrients can be eliminated by soaking and sprouting, which have been part of the traditional food processing


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## alexho (Dec 7, 2019)

Re Rifaximin -- my gastroenterologist at some point was floating the idea of putting me on a Rifaximin / antibiotics treatment.

The doctor -- it seemed to me -- was genuinely concerned that she couldn't offer me a clear path for improving my symptoms. Nevertheless,I told her I was quite uncomfortable with the idea of taking antibiotics. What I had red about IBS and what I had heard from other patients -- IBS being linked to antibiotics medication -- lined up with my own experience as well. As a child, I got exposed to antibiotics medication to an extent that would be viewed excessive in today's standards. Also, my IBS symptoms grew worse a few years ago, after I had a surgery, which involved antibiotics treatment.

So I asked the doctor whether she could research if taking antibiotics for IBS would be a really promising option for me. Next time I met her she told that having done some further research, she wouldn't recommend the antibiotics strategy for me.


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## mrcasual (Dec 20, 2019)

Low FODMAP does not work for everyone from what it looks like. I've tried sticking only to rice or only to fish, one food for a whole week. No improvements. Apparently IBS has various forms, different causes and symptoms. At least the way I see it. For example when I first start having symptoms of IBS - I still didn't know what it was back then - I was swalloing one raw garlic every night, nothing happened. I was eating salad full of onion and garlic, nothing happened. The only reason why I stopped eating them is because I read about the Low FODMAP crap. Maybe it only works for people who have intolarances to those foods.


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## bushja1 (Apr 23, 2003)

I've tried various diets but none have worked for me.


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## h8ibs (Oct 24, 2004)

After MD's never helped, I decided to throw lots of time...and money....on a Naturopathic Doctor. I had the personal food intolerance blood test done, SIBO test and my entire diet looked at as well other tests. Doctor decided I should try low FODMAP in combination of avoiding foods high on my intolerance test. Bottom line....none of it worked. At all. And yes, I was 100% compliant and super strict. At times I was worse off than before. I know the low FODMAP diet works for some, but like most things, it doesn't work for everyone.


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## jza (Oct 4, 2016)

Going on a strict low FODMAP diet didn't do much for my SIBO-C. I know there are certain high FODMAP foods I need to avoid or it really sends my symptoms into overdrive, but no diet has ever eliminated my symptoms.


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