FODMAPPED for you! enters the UK
22nd January 2018

You may or may not have heard of the low-FODMAP diet, but if you’re thinking it’s just another fad, you couldn’t be more mistaken!

The low-FODMAP / restricted-FODMAP diet is a therapeutic diet which can help up to three quarters of people with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) – when supported by a registered dietitian.

FODMAPs – an acronym for Fermentable Oligo-, Di- and Mono-saccharides and Polyols – are diverse sugars which bacteria in the gut act upon, triggering symptoms. Varying levels of these carbohydrates are found in different foods, and identifying one’s own personal triggers and eliminating them without affecting the overall diet both present difficulties.

Many have to restrict high-FODMAP foods, such as wheat, milk, garlic and onion – all common ingredients in foods. The advice to prepare one’s own meals from scratch is all very well, but these days people need convenience solutions too.

Although the much-welcomed rise in ‘free from’ (ie gluten free, dairy free) has helped, dedicated FODMAP-aware convenience foods have, until now, been few.

But the market has been given a boost this month with an innovative new partnership between IBS charity, The IBS Network, and Fodmap Easy, the UK distributor of Australian brand FODMAPPED, who make flavoursome low-FODMAP sauces and soups.

Sauces and soups are tricky for low-FODMAPers – dairy cream and wheat flour are used to thicken; onion and garlic are ubiquitous as flavours – and these products can be an enormous help to some, not only practically, but also in easing the stress of trying to prepare the next meal which isn’t going to lead to digestive troubles.

And it is stress which inevitably adds a further strain to IBS patients’ quality of life, worsening symptoms. It can be a vicious circle. For many, fixing themselves something to eat is a straightforward matter. For IBS folk, it can be fraught. When your digestive system’s mechanisms can go awry at a moment’s notice, it’s easy to become hyper-aware of everything you’re putting into it. And hard to avoid worrying about it.

It was important to my co-author Julie and I that, in our new book, we covered both convenience foods and recipes, so that readers knew that yes, cooking is great, and yes, home-made meals are (generally) healthier and better, but also that picking up the ‘easy’ option is fine too – provided that over-reliance upon these products is avoided. It’s important to prepare one’s own food, and consume any higher-FODMAP foods which are tolerated in the diet, in order to maintain gut health.

But choosing ready-made options is not about being lazy. Those with IBS merely want, just sometimes, to let someone else do the FODMAP thinking for them.

Which is why manufacturers and distributors like FODMAPPED and Fodmap Easy are needed. There are other brands – Bay’s Kitchen, Slightly Different Foods, Lauren Loves – but they remain far from mainstream. More manufacturers need to rise to the challenge. Supermarkets are now inclusive to coeliacs, food allergics, and those following diets due to religious or ethical beliefs – kosher, halal, vegan, vegetarian.

It’s time the IBS consumer was brought into the fold.

Alex Gazzola specialises in food intolerance, allergies, coeliac disease and gut disorders. He is the author of Living with Food Intolerance (Sheldon Press; 2004) and Coeliac Disease: What You Need to Know (Sheldon Press; 2015). His latest book, co-authored with dietitian Julie Thompson, is IBS: Dietary Advice to Calm Your Gut, which was published by Sheldon Press in November 2017.