A Low FODMAP Diet Won't Heal Your Gut

I recognize that that is a bold statement - but it's true! If you have ever been stuck in the doom spiral of trying to eliminate foods to find your triggers, you're going to really appreciate this episode.

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Transcript

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Underneath that is imbalanced microbes. Okay. So is that the root cause? No. What caused the imbalance in the microorganisms in the first place? And that is where we have multiple root causes coming into effect. Hey, everyone. Welcome to The Nourished and Thriving Show. I'm your host, Katie Lovitt. I'm a registered dietitian on a mission to help you increase your impact and legacy on the world while healing your gut and reducing your IBS symptoms. I'm so grateful to have you here. Each week I'll inspire you to live vibrantly and provide valuable resources and information that empowers you to take bold action towards your health goals. Before we dive in, make sure you follow or subscribe to my show wherever you're listening so you never miss an episode. Ready? Let's go! All right guys, I'm getting pretty bold today. Honestly, I. Gently. Realign you guys a lot of the time, I guess you could say, but today I'm getting pretty bold and possibly saying something that I'm going to get some pushback. On, especially potentially from fellow dieticians, who I love you. Please don't. Listen to what I'm about to say in anger and just know that. It's a different perspective and it's something that I've seen and observed in helping my clients. So if there's any other dieticians on this. You know, podcast listening to this, please just listen to it from that angle. And not from one of I'm trying to tell you you're doing your job wrong because that's not the case. So what I'm going to say, let me just get to it is. Evidenced in the title of this episode? Yes. A low FODMAP diet is not going to heal your gut. If you're looking for different things to try, you're seeing different things on the internet. Like let's just face it. Everything contradicts everything else. Whenever you start going to Dr. Google. Your Instagram or whatever. You can find somebody who is telling you a vegan lifestyle, like hello, the new Netflix documentary that just came out new vegan lifestyle, is it? And it's going to fix all of your problems and you're going to feel so much better. And then just as easily, you're going to find someone else who's saying the paleo diet is going to do the exact same thing. Let me ask you how can two different things. Because the exact same results whenever they're completely opposite it's because nothing ever completely works for any one person. But. I don't think the low FODMAP diet works for anyone there. I said it, I just don't. I'm going to explain myself next. So. Keep listening. So for those of you guys who don't know what a low FODMAP diet is let me break it down. So a low FODMAP diet is basically low in highly fermentable foods. Now what this does is you have organisms living in your digestive tract. And they break food down fiber down. And food and carbohydrates down. Through a process called fermentation. And so whenever you have these organisms in there that are maybe dysbiotic, which means imbalanced or too much of the wrong kind, or as is in the case of CBO, which is actually responsible. For. You know, upwards of 80% of IBS cases. They're in the wrong place. These organisms are not the wrong things or the bad things. They're just not where they're supposed to be. These guys can ferment these. High FODMAP foods, highly fermentable foods. Really easily. And with that ends up doing for you is small bees. Organisms are having a dance party and your intestines. You're in a lot of pain. You're experiencing a ton of bloating. You're in a lot of discomfort and pain and honestly not feeling great. You're feeling like there's, you know, somebody having like a crazy party inside of you, honestly. And it feels exhausting. If you want to learn more about CBO, definitely check out other episodes where I talk more about that. But as it comes to these foods, like it makes sense. Right? Okay. Well, these foods are causing symptoms, so you're going to cut them out. And you're going to feel better. And yes, that sounds great. Whenever you first hear it, like, if you're just new to the space or if you're just a consumer dealing with digestive issues, it may sound like a really great thing. But it's a really simplistic approach and it doesn't actually get to the root of the issue. Or as I teach roots of the issue, Um, it's like onions, you know, if you guys have ever watched Shrek, when donkey's talking about onions with layers it's like that. If you haven't seen Shrek in a while, maybe you should go watch it. It's a good one. Maybe we should actually watch that for family movie night this week. I think our kids would like it. Anyway, you're healing your gut and finding the root causes is like peeling an onion. So you think on the outside of this onion, That the issue is these foods that you're eating. And it sounds great and it looks great. But there's these whole other things underlying it. And so you're not getting to the actual cause. And so what you're doing whenever you're cutting out these highly fermentable foods, you're removing this food source for these organisms. And so. They stop having a party and you do feel better in the short term, but here's the thing for those of you guys, who've not followed a low FODMAP diet. It's all based on amounts of these foods consumed. So there's not a really clear, straightforward. Yes EPS. Foods. No don't eat these foods list. It's all based on serving size, which if you think about. All throughout the course of a day, it can get really complicated to try and figure out if you had a third of a cup of something or two thirds of a cup of something over the entire course of the day. And then add onto that, that sometimes, especially for my friends, dealing with constipation, it can take three days or so for the stuff to start taking a fact. And so then it's like, well, if you have it several days in a row, then it can cause issues. So. It just starts to get really tricky. You can already tell from me just talking about this. So it's an elimination diet. It's not meant to be a new lifestyle. It's not meant to be something that you stay on. Long-term. It's truly meant to be something you do for about two weeks. You cut all of these high FODMAP foods out, or you reduce your overall FODMAP intake. And then you start reintroducing these foods strategically. So normally it is. One food from a certain group. So the FOD. M a P H stands for a different type of fermentable fiber. So it's like you pick an F food. And you do a small portion of it for three days. And then you maybe do a large portion of it for three days and you see how you do, or sometimes you just try it once or sometimes you just try it for three days. Sometimes you increase it. Each shade depends on who's helping you work through it. And then you have like a three-day wash out period. And then you go on to the O's. And you do the next one. And you know, the problem is with this is a, it takes forever. B. You're not really necessarily going to find all of the triggers because what if it's not even the FODMAP you were reacting to, but something else entirely in the food and you only. Tried this one type of food in the F category. And it was something else in that category that you were struggling with, but you didn't reintroduce it. And, you know, you didn't do a trial re-introduction of it. And so then you add it later on. It makes you feel bad, but you don't realize that that's what it was because you thought in your mind, you'd already cleared that whole category of food. So it gets tricky. Also, like I said, if you're dealing with something like constipation, You can take several days for these things to start really having an impact on you. So it starts to get really tricky to say, okay, well, is it something that I did today? Or is it something I did three days ago or five days ago? And you don't live in a vacuum. There's so many variables in your daily life. That it it's tough to say it's just the food. Was it the food or was it, they didn't sleep all the night before? Was it that you, maybe weren't drinking enough water and that's why you got constipated. Was it that your toddler was, you know, having a complete meltdown during meal time and so you were stressed out and you, weren't not eating in a rest and digest state and your stomach didn't produce enough stomach acid. And then the rest of your digestive enzymes didn't get produced. And then your motility got all messed up. That's very possible too. And so it's impossible. Like the only thing changing from day to day is not the presence or absence of these FODMAP foods. And so whenever you start trying to do these Rancho doc, re-introductions, it gets. Really dicey. Then following these diets, I've already said this, you know, they are pretty involved. You're really having to like look everything up, see how much you're having a thing is. Measure them. Like ask for options at restaurants, if you're even going to restaurants. And for me, like I always try different diets and things that are recommended because I want to see how it is, you know, for people. I really want to be able to relate to you guys and see what you guys are going through. It's really stressful. To try and follow a diet like this and stress tends to increase symptoms. So for me, I'm like, it's a pass because I don't want to increase the stress of doing these things. It's really, really tough to splice apart these symptom and these food triggers. Anyway. And you know, long term, you're really not doing yourself any favors by following the site anyway. Or by cutting foods out. So what ends up happening on blood at the time? This is what I hear over and over again. Okay. Is I felt better on the low FODMAP diet. Maybe not completely better, but it was improved. I felt better. I started reintroducing foods. I never felt like I had an actual reaction to a food that I re-introduced, but at some point between entering the low FODMAP diet and three months later, I felt bad again. And I don't know what caused that. And now I'm back to where I started from, and I just wasted so much time and effort on doing this and don't feel like I have really anything to show for it. So there's that piece. So what can often happen is, well, I did all of that. I felt better on the low FODMAP diet. So I'm going to just stay on the elimination phase forever. And it's not sustainable. First of all, because already said it's pretty tricky to follow. You're eating a very limited diet. And it's actually not beneficial for your microbiome. Long-term, you're cutting out a lot of colorful veggies, a lot of prebiotic foods, a lot of fiber rich foods. And that's what these good bacteria are eating. The problem wasn't the food, the problem was something else. And we know that as you eat fewer different types of foods, you actually reduce the microbial diversity in your gut. And so much science has shown that improved health is linked with high gut diversity. Whenever you, so think about it like gardening, right? If you have an organic lawn, which. Y'all I try so hard. We're trying a different approach this year. I really want the organic lawn care thing to work for me. And it's a lot. We have a really big yard too, but so let's talk about lawn care. I promise. I have a point. So you've heard if you've done lawn care very much that healthy grass is the best weed control is the best defense for weeds because you have this healthy grass. That's not penetrable by weeds. Normally we'd show up with a problem. So for example, last fall, we had a lot of weeds that have these long, deep tuber type wheat roots. So D and D lions and saltmarsh Aster, which is a native plant here in the area where I live. And so I actually had an organic OneCare guy come out. And talk with me about this. And you know, all of these root types are deep tubular types and it's because the water is down below. And so our grass wasn't thriving because the root type on our Bermuda grass is not that same type of grass. And so basically we are needing to airfreight to allow more air and water and all of that to circulate through the soil. But you, you, you get what I'm saying, where the Bermuda was weak because it could not get the nutrients it needed through its root. Source. And so these other things were coming in and had space to grow your guts, the exact same way. You have a really healthy microbiome. It's like linked arms with each other. It's super strong, super resilient. Yeah. If you don't have that, if you don't have a lot of different, good organisms going on, it leaves room for these what we call them opportunistic organisms to come in and overgrow and cause issues. So you really want a high diverse, strong, robust microbiome for longterm health. Okay. So low FODMAP diets out. What's in. When I do Katie. So you really want to use science and wisdom to help figure it out. So I think there is a place for a low FODMAP diet. I think for people who are just so miserably, bloated, and they are able to just follow a meal plan, that's handed to them. So say I came up with a like perfect low FODMAP meal plan. Handed it to someone and they were like, great. I can do this. Exactly. Like no stress, like that's fine. For short term, while we figure out a longer term solution, it can be helpful with symptom relief. I just do not buy it that following a low FODMAP diet in and of itself will cure CBO. I just don't buy it. I'm sorry for those practitioners out there who are in this camp. I'm sorry. I just disagree. And it's okay to disagree. It takes all types. Right. But that's not me. So you've got to keep peeling back the layers of that onion. So, okay. I've alluded to this. You have these reactions to foods? Underneath that is imbalanced microbes. Okay. So is that the root cause? No. What caused the imbalance in the microorganisms in the first place? And that is where we have multiple root causes coming into effect. Okay. That's where it's things like you've taken a ton of antibiotics. Cause you keep getting sick, which may be because you didn't have good gut health. Because your immune system is linked to your gut and your microbiome, but that's kind of a chicken egg thing. Maybe you're super high stress. Maybe you're not getting enough sleep. Maybe you're not getting enough fiber and you're not getting enough healthy, you know? You're not feeding your good tummy bugs, as I say to my kids it can be any of those things that lead to that. And it didn't just happen overnight. That microbiome became low in diversity or they moved to the wrong place. Over a period of time and it takes time to get back there, but you really need to understand. What is going on and what are all of the different contributing factors that are making this worse? So that then you can go in and fix them. And that is really what working with a provider like me gets you. I'm not just going to stay on that surface on that. Outer ring at that onion, we're really digging deep and asking why and what caused this and why, how did this happen? And really connecting those dots. And that's what ultimately, I think a lot of you guys are really craving and wanting and meeting and why, when you follow other programs or you go see doctors, you're just really left feeling unfulfilled and unsatisfied is because you still subconsciously maybe even think that there's something else to it. That no one has quite caught on to. So if this is something where you're like, man, I was going to do a low FODMAP diet next and now I don't know what else to try or I've tried the low FODMAP diet or I don't know what to do. And you're really needing some help with your gut health. Reach out. I'd love to talk with you. Follow me over on Instagram. I'm dropping my user below I'm over there all the time. Send me an email, visit my website. You can, you can reach out to me that way. But don't suffer in silence and don't suffer alone. There are answers and their solutions out there. And I love to talk with you about helping you find them. So till next week, guys, Thank you so much for listening to the entire episode. I hope you are feeling inspired and empowered to take bold action towards your health goals. If you enjoy what you heard, don't forget to follow my show so you never miss a new episode. And it would mean the world to me, if you left me a review, so others know what to expect from my show. Last, get in touch. Let me know what bold action you're taking. Let me know how you're inspired. Follow me on Instagram@the_healthygut_dietitian. I've put a link in my show notes for you, so you can simply click and follow. Come say hi, I respond to all my messages and I can't wait to get in touch.