To be upset about going back on the Fodmap diet

[AnnoyedALot]

I was diagnosed with a bowel disease a couple of years ago. I revisited the consultant recently to get advice on my medicine/symptoms and he has diagnosed me with IBS as well.

Worse still, he is sending me to a dietician to try the fodmap diet. I gratefully agreed as I need to get my bowel under control again.

But I have already tried this diet years ago and it was awful. Most of the stuff I should eat was out of our budget. So I ended up eating a tiny limited diet. I was so miserable.

Is there anything I can do to make it bearable or affordable this time around ?

well you can get other fish in tins too.

also, I don't like spinach either but sometimes you just have to suck it up if you want a balanced diet and are restricted in what you can eat.

also I only like raw carrot too, you can still have it with your meals even if you don't add it to dishes. On Fodmap you are allowed 1 tablespoon of sweetcorn/day. this can be added to omelettes or just eaten with your meal.

Hmm okay... this sounds really hard for you! Would your husband cook meat for you? Will you eat fish?

Leek and potato soup with the green parts you could add: dried mixed herbs, bay leaves, thyme (pref fresh) as well as salt and pepper. Also white wine?

Other soups - what about butternut squash and sweet potato? These could have lentils in but be blended up so you don't have the texture?

What about a tomato sauce with butternut squash cut up really small, and peppers? And then plenty of fresh basil as well as oregano, poss mixed herbs and salt and pepper? Or you could maybe turn this into a soup?

Could do the same thing with a bolognese - maybe with mushrooms cut up really small to give some flavour without the texture? Plenty of red wine in bolognese again will help with flavour. Then bay leaves, mixed herbs etc.

Sweet potatoes can be turned into "fries" by baking in the oven, so that might add a bit more interest, without any fat?

You can also bake butternut squash with cumin and black pepper and that can be quite tasty with salad.

Ultimately you're going to have to eat a lot of rice and potatoes because carbs are the only way you're going to get enough calories if you aren't eating fat.

Do you have to cut all fat completely or could you eg get a cooking spray so you can still fry but with minimal fat?

If so you could do omelette with eggs, potato, no cheese, but peppers and chives and black pepper and salt and some other fresh herbs?

Hmm realise my suggestions above like wine don't really work with a v limited budget - can you pool some meals with family so you can stretch the budget more?

It seems that the problem is that because you don't cook very much you are unable to think "outside of the box" (I hate that expression as well).

You have had loads of suggestions and have responded negatively towards most of them. You really do need to adjust your thinking about food. You won't get better with restricting such an already restricted diet.

Having bowel problems sucks I know. Perhaps you could think of eating unfamiliar but healthy foods for you as medicine and a positive way of making you feel better.

I am sorry my posts are coming across very negatively. I am taking on board the food suggestions and will use of them.

I will start cooking again and try new food again. I just find it all very hard.

Last time I ended up skipping loads of meals, as it was easier than forcing myself to eat food I cooked. In the long run, I will have to get the hang of eating my cooking this time won't I.

It does suck! I lost 2.5 stone when I was first diagnosed with IBS. I also disliked a lot of foods. In the end I ate foods I disliked less and because I kept eating them I learned to like them eventually.

Things like other types of stock cubes don't involve learning to like new textures so they can sometimes be more manageable.

Things like mince aren't necessarily low fat though, so I wonder if establishing how much fat you are allowed to eat might broaden the available diet a bit?

I think you can get corn tortillas - so then maybe you could have chicken (if someone else could cook it?) with cumin and paprika and red peppers and maybe grated carrot? With a tomato salsa and then that might be tasty and acceptable under fodmap?

Would that be something you would eat or something where it could be changed so you'd eat it?

Can you eat fish? If so what fish do you eat?

I do a tomato and balsamic and fresh herbs and capers sauce which I eat with fish and rice sometimes.

Gluten free replacement breads/cakes still tend to be high fodmap/inflammatory.

Ok, this is just me, but Celery causes massive flare up of gut pain, including a special “poker up the arse” stabbing pain took a while to work that one out.

Nightshades (potato, especially the skins, tomato, peppers, aubergine), cause a lot of people gut pain and reflux (some need to avoid them all, but many people are ok if they limit the amount and frequency they eat these things, some are fine with some nightshades but not others).

Grains- all of them, not great for many people with gut problems due to the type of fibre they contain, and the gluten, phytic acid and a whole host of other things they contain.

I’ve had great success (for years), with a Paleo/primal diet. Marksdailyapple is a great (free) site, it has a searchable archive and a lot of info on exclusion diets, gut issues and all the other reasons why people change to this diet, which is based around leafy greens, non starchy veg, nuts, seeds, meats, fish, eggs (and dairy too if you can tolerate it). No grains, so no gluten, and the emphasis is on fresh, unprocessed food.

Worth a wee look and a month or two trial IMO!

I should eat less than 40g of fat a day.

I love salmon but that is not in our budget.
I tolerate Tuna bit can only get the spring water type which is more expensive.

I use to like white fish in butter sauce type book in a bag meals with rice. But the milk or butter sauce means this is not allowed any more.

Yes potatoes make me very bloated and uncomfortable but I have to eat something.

The only food that I don't react to is white boiled rice.

Isn't tofu ok? My fodmap list says it is as long as the drier varieties

Not tried corn tortillas they are on my list to try.

Capers are too salty.

Your posts show the same level of despair I felt after living for many years with chronic bowel condition. It's really tough. But now you are being offered a drug free solution, it's amazing and life changing.

These tricky and frustrating limitations on diet really are a small price to pay for; not being exhausted, not being in pain, not having to always know where the nearest loo is, being able to leave the house in the mornings, travel on the motorway, not panic in traffic jams, not have yet another colonoscopy, missing social occasions, shitting yourself...

Think about it differently. Lots of good advice on here, some very inaccurate though, so I'd wait to start fodmap until seeing dietician.

If you can't cook, can your husband do it for you? I appreciate it would mean him cooking twice but if you can't make food that is edible then maybe he ought to try.

I don't think it's at all selfish for you to want to eat with your family btw. Yes maybe your food isn't exciting but I'm sure there is a way forward.

Oh blimey you poor thing, I had a sudden thought about nutritional yeast flakes whilst reading your post - they add a cheese flavour to stuff without having any dairy in them. So maybe to have 'cheesy' scrambled egg etc. Or wonder if u could make a cheese type sauce with oat milk and a flour replacement? You could have that with your rice and veg?
I'm not overly familiar with Fodmap but a quick google tells me you should be able to have nutritional yeast.
Apologies if someone more informed comes and tells you otherwise

Hmm okay, well if you like white fish, maybe you could have it with a tomato-type sauce? Aldi sell cheap balsamic vinegar which adds flavour, you could get rid of the capers (or just use a very few, again aldi is cheap for them - mashed up, perhaps so you didn't get one big lump then they would add a little flavour without being overpowering?) and then if you had that with white fish and white rice, it might be something different?

Or I have a white fish and potato stew that I quite like, it's basically fish, tomatoes, potatoes and then you could add peppers for flavour, fresh herbs (grow a pot to save cash?), black pepper etc.

I used to make baked cornmeal things when I was cutting out a lot of stuff. You basically boil up cornmeal with herbs and water and stock (if you can find one you can eat) to make a paste and then either eat the paste or bake it in slices. They're v mediocre but they are different and edible and don't have an offensive texture.

I also used to make a sauce with tomato and paprika and other spices which I would have with potato or sweet potatoes or you could have with this.

I think with 40g of fat per day you would have room to eg make a fried tortilla with potatoes and eggs and chives (I also put white fish in this)

I also would look into whether you could get a gluten free soy sauce as that would be more of a one off purchase, and then you could bake white fish with the soy sauce and have that plus veg and rice.

Other options would maybe be either fish or chicken baked with lots of lemon and parsley and basil, which you could have with potato?

Or chicken (if someone else cooked it?) coated in honey + lime + tomato purée + paprika + black pepper and then baked to eat with either rice or potatoes?

"I love salmon but that is not in our budget. "

Salmon is cheaper than you think. Have a look in the frozen food section or Aldi/Lidl or Iceland?

Re the mince, the cheaper mince is high in fat. You really do need to be eating lean mince, which is more expensive, but can be stretched with red lentils. I make a lovely mince dish that contains red lentils and you wouldn't know they were there. You can't taste them at all, and as they break down as they cook just add a thicker texture to the sauce.

Eto That is a very interesting list. Have to Google what cornmeal is ?

Wisterical I am still on 50 pills a week for my main bowel disease and will continue to have regular colonopsy egg and on top on that I now have to have a limited diet too and I know from last time...I still end up with accidents. Sadly I am not being offered a drug free solution.

But if an consultant tells you to do it. It must be worth a try.

lonicera you can't have lentils on fodmap. No pulses

I am not bothered about mince. I will cut it out. But lentils are a no no on Fodmap

I think you should show your dh this thread. Many of the cooking suggestions are too daunting for you at the moment as you're not a confident cook, but many of us have given ideas that he would be able to use.

On the bright side I have been to Aldi and bought rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes, leeks, jelly and one packet of root vegetables crisps that have my entite fat allowance in them. Just have to check the vegetable against the list and if they are wrong...give them to my DH.

I don't want to explain how much I am struggling with change with DH yet. I mean he understands I am not happy. But he doesn't understand how much I need food. Other people drink or smoke, I eat or rather I did eat. Now I have nothing to calm me down and nothing to cheer myself up with and that is very frightening. I would take up drinking but it is on the flipping list, lol.

But I will write down the suggestions given and see if he can teach me how to make one of the simpler ones.

It's all about deciding whether you would rather be hungry, or learn to cook using what you can eat. It's very difficuly to try to adapt an existing recipes my removing/replacing things and that can make it all the more frustrating.

You're doing the right thing in noting down the ingredient suggestions made here, because if you can start with a list of things you can and will eat then it's easier to create your own meal ideas. although as a non-cooker you may find this harder.

The corn wraps suggestion from PP upthread are a good idea.

I think the conrmeal someone metioned is more commonly known as polenta here. Sainsbury's definitely see it and it is indeed versatile. (and also 100% ok on fodmap)

I would rather go hungry! But that isn't a long term solution.

I looked up a few things. I have previously tried and like Corn Tortillas. We used to eat them as pizzas with cheese which I clearly can't do and mince is too fatty....any other suggestions for something to go with tortilla
..maybe Tuna.

I tried Polenta once at friends house. I found it gritty and odd. I would be willing to try it again, in case it improves on further taste.

Yeast additive thing that is cheesy. Has defeated me. Do you have a brand name ?