Gut Performance Blog

Gut Performance™ is Officially Certified for Low-FODMAP Diets

Do you suffer from gut problems? …maybe IBS?

You’ve been advised to undertake a low-FODMAP diet to determine what foods are causing your symptoms. But you can’t stick to it. It’s too restrictive and difficult to manage in your life.

Not only that, but you feel like your gut health is destroyed during the process. This isn’t your mind playing tricks on you. Evidence shows that your gut health is impacted when you go on this restrictive eating plan because of the depletion of prebiotics and key nutrients. This is where Gut Performance™ will make all the difference.

But let’s start at the beginning to understand how Gut Performance™ can help you through your low-FODMAP diet journey and beyond.

What are FODMAPs?

FODMAP is an acronym that means ‘fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols.’ A mouthful, right?

They are essentially short-chain carbs that our body can’t digest. Instead of being absorbed into the bloodstream, they pass through most of your intestine unchanged. They are categorized as a dietary fibre.

When this dietary fibre reaches the colon, bacteria use it for fuel, and methane gas is produced.

In sensitive individuals, the bacteria that feed on FODMAPs produce hydrogen, which causes digestive symptoms such as gas, bloating, stomach cramps, pain, and constipation in sensitive individuals. To make matters more complicated, FODMAPs draw liquid into the intestine, which may cause diarrhea.

Not everyone is sensitive to FODMAPs, but it is prevalent with people who suffer from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

The most common FODMAPs include fructose (fruits and vegetables), lactose (milk and cheese), fructans (wheat and spelt), galactans (legumes), and polyols (xylitol and sorbitol).

You might be a little confused. Isn’t dietary fibre supposed to be good for you? 

Well, yes, it is. But some people can’t tolerate these types of fibres.  

IBS and fibre

IBS is one of the most common gut conditions. It’s highly distressing and presents with a combination of pain, bloating, wind, changing bowel habits, and it’s not curable. 

Fibre can help some IBS sufferers, particularly if they experience more constipation than diarrhoea or a combination of the two. But insoluble fibre (which are in the FODMAP foods) can often make the symptoms worse. 

So how do people find out if they are sensitive to these types of foods? 

They are often advised to undertake an elimination diet to determine which foods irritate the gut and cause the symptoms.

Low-FODMAP diets

Low FODMAP diets are a three-step elimination process

  1. You cease eating certain foods (high FODMAP foods).
  2. You gradually reintroduce them to see which ones are troublesome.
  3. Once you identify the foods that cause symptoms, you can avoid or limit them while enjoying everything else.

The elimination portion of the diet is for only two to six weeks. It’s best if you stay on this part of the diet until all the symptoms have resolved – which is often the most challenging part. Then every three days, you can add a high FODMAP food back into your diet to see if it causes any symptoms.

These types of diets can provide remarkable benefits for people with common digestive disorders. But they are not easy to follow and should only be undertaken on advice from a dietician or health care professional. 

Challenges with low-FODMAP diets

Many of us don’t eat enough fibre anyway. It is generally accepted that adults should aim for at least 25-30gm per day for good health, and we currently only get to around 20gms. A low-FODMAP diet will reduce your intake of many high fibre foods, decreasing the amount of dietary fibre significantly.

Another downside to a low-FODMAP diet is that it can put you at risk of decreasing your good gut bacteria as your prebiotic fibre has been reduced (Reddel, Putignani, & Del Chierico, 2019) (Sloan, et al., 2018). This adversely affects the growth and proliferation of good bacteria. Unfortunately, foods high in prebiotic fibre, essential for good bacteria growth, are also high in FODMAPS. 

The challenge is how to get the right amount of the correct type of fibre on a low FODMAP diet. This is particularly true if you are on a restrictive diet. This is precisely where Gut Performance™ can help you.

How To Get Your Fibre

Fibre doesn’t only keep the bowel regular. It also helps lower cholesterol and improves heart health. It plays a role in controlling blood sugar levels and protects against bowel cancer. It reduces inflammation and feeds our healthy gut bacteria. It’s vitally important that we get enough fibre, even if we are on a low FODMAP diet.

Consuming adequate fibre on a low FODMAP diet isn’t impossible; you have to choose the right foods in the right amounts.

It would help if you were aiming to get quality low FODMAP grains such as brown rice, buckwheat, or quinoa into your diet. It would be best if you also aimed to have at least five servings of FODMAP friendly vegetables such as Brussel sprouts, red capsicum, cucumber, and potato. Fruits you can eat include kiwi fruit and blueberries, and you should include a handful of nuts. 

This is all good, but we know how life takes over, and our diet is often the first to suffer.

Gut Performance™ has been officially certified by Monash University as a low FODMAP food. That means taking a dose of Gut Performance™ every morning will not destroy your attempts to find your food irritants if you are on a low FODMAP diet.

It also allows you to ensure you have sufficient fibre intake – both soluble and insoluble if you have found your offending food groups and have eliminated them from your diet.

Taking Gut Performance™ will ensure you have the right prebiotic to increase your healthy gut bacteria. Protecting you from the ravages of gut inflammation and bring your gut microbiome back to a healthy environment.

The added bonus is Gut Performance™ is packed with micronutrients and antioxidants, it’s gluten-free and contains no artificial colours, flavours, preservatives, or chemical stimulants.

Take Gut Performance once a day in conjunction with regular exercise while undertaking your elimination diet, and you will be one step closer to protecting your gut health and reducing your gut symptoms.

Let us know via our Gut Performance ™ Instagram page and #gutperformance how you prepare your daily Gut Performance™ dose. We love to hear from everyone how Gut Performance™ has taken your gut health to the next level.

References

Reddel, S., Putignani, L., & Del Chierico, F. (2019). the Impact of Low-FODMAPs, Gluten-Free, and Ketogenic Diets on Gut Microbiota Modulation in Pathological Conditions. Nutrients, 11(2), 373. doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11020373

Sloan, T. J., Jalanka, J., Major, G., Krishnasamy, S., Pritchard, S., Abdelrazig, S., . . . Spiller, R. C. (2018). A low FODMAP diet is associated with changes in the microbiota and reduction in breath hydrogen but not colonic volume in healthy subjects. 13(7). doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0201410

Share Your Story

Let us know via our Instagram page and #lovegutperformance if you have had success dealing with your gut issues by taking Gut Performance. We love to hear from everyone about how GP has taken their gut health to the next level.

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