Fibre feeds the gut microbiome, that are responsible for digesting your food and such. Vegetables, fruits, beans lentils and legumes.

A doctor explained to me, Some laxatives use caffeine as the active ingredient, best to avoid those, they only work for a brief period of time. Laxatives like osmolax draw the liquid into the poop. Make sure you’re drinking adequately during the day, and take a Laxative regularly, you are constipated, as constipation leads to polyps and stretching of the bowel and heaps of nasty side effects.

How to use fodmap: Essentially fodmap is a map of foods that have a high or low digestive impact on the gut.

So if you’re having digestive issues, sometimes giving your stomach a break from high fodmap foods can be enough to alleviate symptoms.

Although staying on a low fodmap foods diet can cause some nutritional deficiencies, so it is recommended to not extend too long. How long is too long? Not sure, the specialists i saw didn’t tell me that.

How do I have this knowledge: I had some serious digestive issues, and went to specialists to help figure it all out. I had asked to pursue an allergy diagnosis, but my doctor suggested starting with a dietician to guide me through the process, because sometimes the foods giving you trouble won’t show up on allergy tests and vice versa.

The dietician suggested a low fodmap diet, with no gluten and no dairy for one month and then just add one thing back in at a time, give it a few days to see how you react, if you have a bad reaction wait a few weeks and try again, just to be sure, to eliminate things that do give you trouble. I found i couldn’t tolerate gluten, and after having 2 months of gluten free, so many symptoms had alleviated for me. Bumpy skin on my arms and forehead, bloating and pain, and I found i could add back in other foods I previously couldn’t tolerate, after just taking a break from gluten (that’s just me though, different for everyone).

I’ve been told it’s about balancing. When you have a flare up, reduce down to low fodmap, for a time, a month seems like the usual time suggested. To give your stomach a break to heal, but don’t stay down on the low fodmap, as it’s not nutritionally complete.

There’s a fodmap app from the Monash university, for easy mapping and tracking of your foods as well as recipes.

I have had a lot of success with upping my fibre and liquid intake, and reducing my refined sugar intake. My gut will tolerate so much more now. I found little tins of beans with salad dressing on them, lemon, lime and vinegarettes etc. beans in a tin are cooked ready to eat, they just need rinsing (if no sauces or flavourings) and heating slightly (30 seconds in the microwave) to improve the taste. I add them to various dips, add frozen peas and corn (reheated in microwave, too) and have a chunky salsa, it’s amazing. I’m time poor, so i need quick and easy.