If you’ve ever talked to your doctor about IBS, you probably walked away with either a prescription or a recommendation to try the low-FODMAP diet. 

While both of these options are valid and can be very beneficial for some individuals, they are absolutely not the only two options for managing IBS. For some individuals, low-FODMAP can be stressful, difficult or even impossible to follow depending on their living situation, or even make their symptoms worse in some cases. Plus, education is often lacking, and an explanation of the importance of reintroducing FODMAPs is often completely missing from the conversation. 

This is why individualized IBS support is so important.

But often, when I speak out against these blanket recommendations for low-FODMAP, people assume that I’m always against using it—I’m not—or that I avoid talking about FODMAPs with my patients because I don’t want to stress them out. 

I don’t.

Here’s why. 

FODMAPs—things like lactose in milk products, fructose in fruit, FOS in wheat and garlic, GOS in beans or polyols in mushrooms—are natural components of food, and they usually aren’t the “root cause” of someone’s IBS symptoms. They aren’t bad or harmful in and of themselves. 

Developing symptoms in response to eating FODMAPs doesn’t actually suggest a “FODMAP sensitivity.” These food components aren’t just a problem for individuals with IBS, either—they can be symptom triggers for anyone when eaten in the right doses.

For example, I can eat a whole banana and be just fine, but when I made banana “nice cream” (basically frozen pureed bananas) I definitely do not feel fine.

I try to help my clients understand the FODMAPs as common “symptom triggers” rather than “sensitivities,” so that they don’t have to fear these foods. I teach them how to identify these symptom triggers and understand the constellation of factors that can come together to produce a symptom—such as stress, lack of sleep, and intense exercise—piled onto a dietary trigger, so that they can develop some curiosity about their symptoms, compassion for their bodies when their systems are struggling, and release their grip on striving for the “perfect diet” that will “solve” their symptoms.

But at the same time, I teach what a gentle diet can look like when symptoms do ramp up, so that they can give their gut some TLC until the symptoms subside.

Like most things in life, FODMAPs are not all or nothing. I feel strongly that building understanding of how these food components work, what they do in the gut, and how to adjust intake of them (down or up!)—is empowering and food-fear-busting.

If you want to learn more about living well with IBS, FODMAPs and beyond—I’ve got a course built just for you. It will walk you through everything you need to know from diagnosis to diet to long-term management. The first module will help you better understand your IBS, and it’s completely free.