# FODMAP diet



## treasure_ireland (Dec 18, 2013)

Hi,

Has anyone with type 1 been on the FODMAP diet?

If so how did you find it? I think I may be going on it soon and I am a bit worried.


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## Northerner (Dec 18, 2013)

Had to look it up! Why might you be going on to this diet? Sounds like the idea is to reduce (digestible) carbs, but menas that you might end up consuming lots of the sort of things that we would normally say to take in only small quantities, like the polyols and sweeteners in so-called 'diabetic' foods. Who has recommended it?


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## treasure_ireland (Dec 18, 2013)

To help with IBS. I don't take sweeteners anyway as they make me ill, and my consultant at the gastroenterology department suggested it would be the next step if I didn't feel better.


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## Northerner (Dec 18, 2013)

treasure_ireland said:


> To help with IBS. I don't take sweeteners anyway as they make me ill, and my consultant at the gastroenterology department suggested it would be the next step if I didn't feel better.



Ah, I see - you mean you have been recommended a low FODMAP diet, so you would avoid such things. Have you been tested for coeliac disease?


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## treasure_ireland (Dec 18, 2013)

Yes, the consultant said he would refer me to a dietician who would help me with the FODMAP diet.

I have, and it was negative.


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## Karen304 (Feb 18, 2014)

Hi treasure_island, 

Have you now gone on the low FODMAP diet? If so, how's it going? I started it 2 days ago, as advised by my gastro consultant/dietician for IBS type symptoms, and already having difficulties with my diabetes. I'm type 1 and use carb counting and ratios to calculate my insulin so have used these with the new diet but my blood sugar levels keep going really low - yesterday I had 7 hypos?!  My stomach problems are also much worse than usual  

Has anyone else had problems with their diabetes with the low FODMAP diet, or even on a gluten/lactose-free diet? Just not really sure why I'm having the hypos when I'm adjusting my insulin for the carbs I'm having.


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## treasure_ireland (Mar 17, 2014)

Hi Karen,

Sorry for the delay!

Not yet, my next appointment is in May, so I am going to ask to go on it then.

How are you finding it? Are you still having problems with the hypo's?

How about the diet itself, is it hard?


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## HERE TINTIN (Mar 17, 2014)

Can anyone explain what the  low FODMAp diet is to me ? I have lower gastroperesis  (sorry no spelling ability whatsoever !), would it help with that ?


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## pottersusan (Aug 18, 2015)

Karen304 said:


> Hi treasure_island,
> 
> Have you now gone on the low FODMAP diet? If so, how's it going? I started it 2 days ago, as advised by my gastro consultant/dietician for IBS type symptoms, and already having difficulties with my diabetes. I'm type 1 and use carb counting and ratios to calculate my insulin so have used these with the new diet but my blood sugar levels keep going really low - yesterday I had 7 hypos?!  My stomach problems are also much worse than usual
> 
> Has anyone else had problems with their diabetes with the low FODMAP diet, or even on a gluten/lactose-free diet? Just not really sure why I'm having the hypos when I'm adjusting my insulin for the carbs I'm having.


I've been doing low FODMAP for a week and am having the same problems of lots of hypos. I'm wondering why this happening cos like you I'm carb counting. All I can think is they are different sorts of carbs we're now eating.
The best low FODMAP food I've found so far are Tesco free from ginger cookies - as good as ordinary ones. Good for those hypos!


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## heasandford (Aug 18, 2015)

My science knowledge (Food Sience and Microbiology completed what feels like a hundred years ago) points towards the digestion of the carbohydrates in the gut. Those nasty bacteria which cause bloating and other symptoms of IBS have also digested carbohydrates in order to produce that gas, and therefore also more glucose. If you are eating different carbs that don't get digested by these bacteria then you may have less glucose. Do you remember the digestion of rabbits, by any chance?? I'll reveal in the next posting if you don't - not pleasant!


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## pottersusan (Aug 18, 2015)

heasandford said:


> My science knowledge (Food Sience and Microbiology completed what feels like a hundred years ago) points towards the digestion of the carbohydrates in the gut. Those nasty bacteria which cause bloating and other symptoms of IBS have also digested carbohydrates in order to produce that gas, and therefore also more glucose. If you are eating different carbs that don't get digested by these bacteria then you may have less glucose. Do you remember the digestion of rabbits, by any chance?? I'll reveal in the next posting if you don't - not pleasant!


I didn't have the pleasure of doing the digestion of the rabbit. Having the benefit of a good old fashioned Scottish education (no Scottish blood though!) I did the dogfish - very smelly!

I think you've hit on the answer - so it's back to the drawing board (yet again!) with my carb ratios.


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## heasandford (Aug 18, 2015)

So I won't need to continue with more about rabbits! Hope you find some reasonable things to eat anyway!


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## TheClockworkDodo (Sep 3, 2015)

I'm not on low FODMAP diet, but I've had IBS for over 20 years, and I manage it well by avoiding problem foods.  Interesting to see that low FODMAP diet seems to lead to lots of hypos though, because I've always had lots of hypos (I've only had diabetes for 4 and a half years) and none of the DSNs, consultants, or anyone I've asked about it can work out why - they just keep telling me to cut my insulin, which is difficult when I'm already using a half unit pen and needing to cut a dose to, say, five and a quarter units instead of five and a half ... .

Oats are great for IBS, they really help.  But I'm really surprised that corn/sweetcorn is allowed on low FODMAP because I find that has the opposite effect - my remaining IBS symptoms virtually disappeared once I stopped eating sweetcorn.


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## KookyCat (Sep 4, 2015)

They think IBS is caused by an abnormal stress response to certain food groups, so if you remove those food groups you reduce the amount of stress hormone your body produces.  Stress hormones are insulin antagonists by nature, the system is designed to keep glucose in your blood as part of the fight or flight mechanism.  The glucose is waiting there so your body can fuel superhuman fighting (in my case fast but uncoordinated running ).  So if you remove the stress response you increase your sensitivity to insulin hence the hypos I would guess?  Your previous insulin dose was based on eating food which in a round about way artificially increased your blood sugar because they stressed your body.

I was diagnosed with IBS twenty odd years ago and I wasn't diabetic then so I can't directly compare the impact of my change in diet to blood sugar, but I follow a very strict diet to keep mine under control.  If I go off the rails and eat the food I know will trigger an attack I need more insulin and I'm not as ludicrously sensitive to the insulin either.  Bit of a problem though when you have to choose between digestive comfort and hypos/insulin sensitivity or digestive horror but reduced sensitivity 

Incidentally it made me chuckle that FODMAP has reached the edge of mainstream these days. When I was under a gastro for it in my 20's it was considered nonsensical to change your diet to manage IBS, in fact the first consultant called me a "naive and gullible child" for being taken in by pseudoscientific nonsense.  I think he was fairly shocked by my response, namely that he was a rude cantankerous old man but I was still managing to force myself to sit and listen, so he'd just have to suck it up and expand his mind (we were pals after that, and he managed not to bah humbug my whole food approach too much!).  

Incidentally I've found the key to managing the diabetes and IBS in tandem is slightly more basal than my body would need if I did basal testing to accommodate the slower digestion of the whole food approach, and very little rapid (I only bolus for refined food).  That seems to work 95% of the time


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## TheClockworkDodo (Sep 4, 2015)

Interesting about the stress response - people with ME have a malfunctioning flight or fight mechanism, so that might explain why quite a lot of people with ME develop diabetes.

I would chose the hypos over the IBS every time (well, except for that 1.4 I had the other day when I didn't know what was going on  ) - I'm pretty sure before I was diabetic I was hypoglycaemic so I'm used to functioning on slightly lower than normal blood sugar.


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## pottersusan (Sep 15, 2015)

TheClockworkDodo said:


> I'm not on low FODMAP diet, but I've had IBS for over 20 years, and I manage it well by avoiding problem foods.  Interesting to see that low FODMAP diet seems to lead to lots of hypos though, because I've always had lots of hypos (I've only had diabetes for 4 and a half years) and none of the DSNs, consultants, or anyone I've asked about it can work out why - they just keep telling me to cut my insulin, which is difficult when I'm already using a half unit pen and needing to cut a dose to, say, five and a quarter units instead of five and a half ... .
> 
> Oats are great for IBS, they really help.  But I'm really surprised that corn/sweetcorn is allowed on low FODMAP because I find that has the opposite effect - my remaining IBS symptoms virtually disappeared once I stopped eating sweetcorn.


That's interesting that you're getting much the same response as me. It's also been suggested that I'm not counting my carbs properly...do they think I suddenly lost that ability when I changed my diet?!


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## TheClockworkDodo (Sep 16, 2015)

Diabetes specialists say peculiar things sometimes, don't they?  I think they sometimes forget we are living with diabetes every day and are used to doing things like carb counting and adjusting insulin doses ourselves, all year round, without any help!  I count carbs too (well, a bit - my diet is so limited they tend to be the same every day so I only count them for special occasions!) but it makes no difference, I still hypo all the time.


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## pottersusan (Sep 19, 2015)

My need for insulin has reduced by about 50% since going low FODMAP. Have been having 'great fun' fasting to try and get my ratios correct, but am getting to the hypo free stage thank goodness.


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## TheClockworkDodo (Sep 19, 2015)

Well done! 

I need to have another go at getting my ratios right too - especially as my readings have been all over the place since I was ill a couple of weeks ago, and am feeling it's about time they settled down now


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## BubbleandSqueak (Feb 1, 2022)

I am just starting on the Low Fodmap diet the second time around. I have not been diagnosed as being diabetic but I have developed lactose and especially glucose intolerance. I don't mean to hijack the thread, but I am a bit puzzled by the lack of information on the subject from the NHS and was wondering whether this might be a pre-cursor to diabetes or whether its a separate issue. Chancing on this thread by accident, I thought I would drop in and ask.

The Low Fodmap diet removes fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols, which are short-chain carbohydrates (sugars) that the small intestine absorbs poorly, from the diet. After a few weeks these are gradually re-introduced and the effects monitored to see what causes digestive problems. I can't really comment on what effect this might have on someone with diabetes but it is a bit of a challenge to maintain. If anyone knows of a forum where the Fodmap diet is discussed I would appreciate some information as I am struggling to find much information.


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## Inka (Feb 3, 2022)

I’ve posted on your own thread @BubbleandSqueak


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