If you’ve been suffering from gastrointestinal symptoms that interfere with your work or social life, there is no need to suffer in silence. Bring your symptoms to the attention of your primary care provider. You might decide to make a special appointment for this, especially if your symptoms are new, or to bring it up at your next scheduled check-up. How can you make the most of your doctor’s appointment?
If you’ve done much reading about nutrition and digestive health over the past couple of years, you may have come across the term “resistant starch”. Resistant starch has been touted as a weight loss aid and a potential cure-all. While it has been mentioned briefly on this blog in the past, let’s take a closer look. What are resistant starches, and how do they fit into your low-FODMAP diet?
National Nutrition Month (March) is a great time to talk about the nutrition practitioners who appear on my Find a FODMAP Dietitian directory. These are credentialed healthcare professionals you can turn to for expert help with your irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
Many people with IBS are under the impression that everyone with IBS (or maybe just everyone, period) should avoid “dairy.” And who can blame them, after hearing this advice passed around by any number of authors, bloggers, celebrities and even healthcare professionals. I don’t share that view. Although I recognize that milk and milk products are a common cause of abdominal pain, excess gas, bloating, diarrhea and constipation, that is no reason to over-generalize and say that everyone with IBS should avoid them. There are some individuals who actually do need to avoid all dairy products to manage their IBS, but in my experience that is the exception, not the rule.
