What would you say to someone recently diagnosed and starting their low FODMAP journey?
Be patient and be kind to yourself. It takes a while to understand what works for you when it comes to IBS and what doesn’t – everybody is different, but you’ll get there. Remember too, the impact that anxiety, sleep and stress can all have on symptoms. Also – if I can add something else – get learning. Read up on the diet and what IBS actually is. Educating myself made me feel more empowered to make decisions and to be prepared so I was less likely to be caught out.
How important is it to follow an approved low FODMAP dietary plan?
The low FODMAP diet can be complicated, so it’s really important to start it with the help of a dietician and to have a plan in place. What’s also really important to remember is that the low FODMAP diet is not about being incredibly restrictive long term. The ultimate goal is to eat and live as freely as possible with the least restrictions you can get away with — the more FODMAPs you can return to your diet without triggering symptoms, the healthier your gut is likely to be. Down the line it might be that your tolerance to different foods improves and you can even re-introduce those that you couldn’t tolerate before – looking after your gut health is an ongoing journey!
The testing of FODMAPs in foods is continually done which is why apps like the Monash University FODMAP app (founders of the diet) is a great resource to have on your phone for those moments when you’re in the supermarket thinking ‘can I eat this?’. Also exciting are apps such as IBS Coach: FODMAP Diet, Tracker, & Relief – something I wish had been around when I was first told to try the diet. Developed by digestive health experts, you know you’re in good hands.
You have a cookbook in bookshops, and just launched a low FODMAP recipe e-book. Can you tell us about those?
The FODMAP Friendly Kitchen is my debut cookbook, published with Yellow Kite. I really wanted it to be like the book I wish I’d been given when I’d first been told to try the diet and to take some of that frustration and confusion away. It has over 100 healthy(ish) recipes, from sea salt brownies to a cheats buckwheat pizza base, along with lots of hints and tips about how to look after your gut in our crazy busy 24/7 world, that really helped – and still do help – me. It’s available on Amazon and in all bookstores.
Then Spring is the low FODMAP recipe e-book, that I launched during the pandemic. It’s filled with 30 simple, delicious and seasonal recipes for spring and early summer, all reviewed by Dietician Kaitlin Colucci. Gluten-free fresh pasta and Almond, passionfruit & lime cheesecake are two of my favourite recipes in there! Where suitable, lots of the recipes have higher FODMAP suggestions for later in your gut health journey too, so that they can work for the low FODMAP diet and beyond. It’s really important to me that recipes are flexible and adaptable – they should work for wherever you’re at. Plus, from every sale 99p goes to charity, split between The Trussell Trust, who are working to end UK hunger and poverty and The IBS Network.
What’s your favourite low fodmap recipe?
It changes all the time, but something I come back to throughout the year is this Dark chocolate mousse with macadamia nut brittle. I think it’s an example of how a delicious, familiar recipe such as chocolate mousse can be made low-FODMAP, with just a few simple and clever tweaks. I first published the recipe at Christmas time, but serve with fresh strawberries in the summer at the end of a meal and it will be enjoyed just as much.
