According to the Mayo Clinic, if you suffer from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a digestive disorder characterized by cramping, gas, diarrhea, or constipation, your doctor may have suggested adopting a low-FODMAP diet to lessen your symptoms.
Similar to an elimination diet, this diet focuses on removing potentially harmful items before gradually reintroducing foods that are healthy for your body.
As a beginner, planning meals for your low-FODMAP diet can be daunting. It could help to have low-FODMAP meal delivery; this saves you the time and stress of fitting into a new diet plan.
While trying to figure out your new eating plan, you could end up eating the same low-FODMAP meal over and over again. This is harmful because they increase your propensity to consume high FODMAP meals, which may result in symptoms and prevent you from beginning the reintroduction phase.
How to Start Your Low-FODMAP Diet
There are three stages to the low-FODMAP diet; during these stages, you will be able to discover food triggers and what works best for you.
First Stage: Elimination
Choose your start date and remove all your high-FODMAP from your meal plans. To do this successfully, you must work on the FODMAP meal plan on trips, at work, and home. It eases off the stress when you have a plan and work with the low FODMAP meal delivery for your FODMAP meals, especially at work or on a trip.
Second Stage: Retroduction
The key objective in this stage is finding your dietary trigger. It is best to reintroduce your low-FODMAP meals one at a time and pick from a limited FODMAP food list. It will help to spot the triggers.
For instance, reintroducing lactose may require consuming 1 cup of cow’s milk while keeping an eye on how your body responds. Fructose can be reintroduced by eating half a cup of watermelon.
Continue to eat the low-FODMAP diet to track down symptom triggers.
Use a journal during this period to jot down any observations, like changes in your body or symptoms.
Third Stage: Maintenance and Personalization
You increase your low-FODMAP diet by maintaining diets suitable to your body and avoiding the triggers. Generally, troublesome meals should not be consumed regularly or should only be consumed in moderation. The tolerated food could mean lower quantities.
7 Low FODMAP Diet Meal Planning Tips For Beginners
Before you start your low-FODMAP meal prep, it is beneficial to have a plan that could work for you. Although many say that the diet provides immediate relief, it can be challenging to stick to it at first. The following tips could help while planning your meals.
1. It is good to mention that you do not have to change your entire meal plan to a low-FODMAP diet. Instead, consider the meals you often enjoy eating and try to determine how you may modify them by substituting low FODMAP items for those that cause your IBS.
Try gluten-free alternatives like garlic-infused olive oils if you’re worried about avoiding your wheat or garlic-containing foods!
2. Learn how to read labels and identify low FODMAPs in packaged goods so that you may shop with confidence during the first phase of the low FODMAP diet.
3. Take some time over the weekend to plan your meals for the upcoming week (you can write on paper or type in your phone’s notes), and then create your low FODMAP food list.
4. When picking your food sweetener for dessert, consider going for low-FODMAP desserts like lactose-free yogurt.
5. Another excellent method to stay organized is to make some nutritious low-FODMAP meals in advance; for example, you could make the meal on a Sunday. This will relieve the burden of having to cook or come up with ideas throughout the week. So many delectable dinners can be frozen quickly, which is a tremendous time saver later.
6. Try the Monash FODMAP recipe page if you get stuck for ideas for low-FODMAP recipes. Consider a low-FODMAP meal delivery or use the Monash FODMAP app for more guidance. There are a variety of choices you could make throughout the entire dieting period.
7. Prepare your grocery essentials and build a low FODMAP meal list.
List of basic Grocery for Low-FODMAP
Grains:
- Rice noodles
- Rice
- Pasta free of gluten
- Bread without gluten
- Quinoa
- Oat
Dairy:
- Hard cheese
- Calcium -Fortified Almond milk
- Yogurt without lactose
- Soy milk prepared from Soy protein
Proteins:
- Beef
- Unmarinated Chicken or Fish
- Beans Can
- Seeds
- Walnuts
- Brazil nuts
- Eggs
- Tofu (Firm)
Vegetables:
- Green beans
- Broccoli
- Bok choy
- Carrots
- Tomatoes
- Lettuce
- Zucchini
- Cucumber
- Eggplants
Fruits:
- Bananas
- Cantaloupe
- Green Kiwi
- Mandarin
- Orange
- Pineapple
- Blueberries
- Raspberries
Oil and Fats:
- Olive oil
- Butter
Condiments and Sauce:
- Mustard
- Peanut butter
- Soy sauce
- Tahini
- Tomato Sauce
- Vinegar
- Worcestershire sauce
- Miso paste
Low FODMAP Meal Tips for Variety
When you have your diet meal plan created, add a bit of variety to spice up your taste.
Ideas for the Salad
Arugula, lettuce, kale, blanched green beans, bell peppers, cucumber, radish, collard greens (which are ideal for making wraps), baby spinach, and roasted low-FODMAP veggies.
For the Coleslaw
Use iceberg lettuce, chopped carrots, green spring onion leaves, lemon juice, and red or green cabbage (try and use one at a time).
Ideas for Stir-fries that you can Combine
Include carrots, aubergine slices, diced Japanese pumpkin, bok choy, green beans, capsicums cut into sticks, spiralized zucchini or in sticks, collard greens, and Gai Lan.
Conclusion
Stress can worsen IBS symptoms in those with it, so if meal preparation makes you anxious, try getting a Low-FODMAP meal delivery for your food during the weekdays. You can have more time on the weekends to make your own meal.
Keep going even if you accidentally consume some meals high in FODMAPs. Your hard work won’t be undone, and it’s a necessary step in learning.
Using a low-FODMAP meal delivery service can help spice up your appetite while you try to figure out a suitable meal plan for your low-FODMAP cuisine.
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