FODMAP diet - have you heard of it?

Following husband's osteo appointment this morning, he's decided he no longer wants to go again, he doesn't want to keep spending £55 on the treatments when he feels they're not working.  I think he was expecting one treatment to cure him - of course it doesn't work like that, both I and the osteopath told him it wasn't a 'one size fits all' thing, everyone is different and husband's particular back problems mean it's going to be a fairly slow process.  Still, it's his money so his choice.  I know he doesn't think so, but the fact is that the 3 (or is it 4?) treatments he's had so far have made some improvement, I can see that and have told him so.  When husband has some kind of health problem, he complains about it constantly, quite literally.  Well, although his back is stiff and sore when he first gets up, it does actually wear off within an hour or so.....I know it does because he hardly complains (well, not about his back!!) for the rest of the day!  Ed (the osteopath) is going to email him some exercises and equipment husband can use at the gym, which is good of him.

I've been having a lot of gut problems lately, which is probably down to stress, there's a few stressful things going on at the moment and stress always hits my gut.  I've always suffered with IBS, generally it's not too bad but does flare up occasionally.  Probably about 15+ years ago, I saw a senior dietitian, she diagnosed me with lactose intolerance, gluten intolerance (not coeliac, just an intolerance) and a mild oral allergy - things like citrus fruits, apples and tomatoes make my mouth, tongue and lips burn, fizz or swell a little.  She said I most likely had a candida infection and gut bacteria imbalance, as well as (or causing) the IBS.  A lot going on there!  She put me on something called the FODMAP diet - I'd never heard of it.  Basically, it's a very strict exclusion diet, eating and drinking only things on a very limited list for the first 2 weeks, then starting to reintroduce one of the 'banned' foods at a time and keeping a symptom diary for 3 or 4 days, then another food, and so on.  That part of the diet took about 8 weeks I think.  It was hard, very hard, but it did work, it kind of reset my gut and I was able to identify certain foods which had a detrimental effect on me.  The diet certainly made me feel better, but was so restrictive (and plain boring!) that it wasn't sustainable in the long term, so over the years I've more or less gone back to eating virtually anything, other than things that give me very pronounced problems - like shop bought bread, cows milk, undiluted orange juice.

I had a look online the other day for FODMAP diets, there's a lot more info nowadays and it appears it's easier to stick to now, the lists of allowed foods are actually quite extensive.  It also seems easier now that I'm mostly vegetarian and have cut back drastically on UPF foods.  So that's what I'm doing now, following (more or less) this FODMAP diet.  Basically, it's very clean, healthy eating and is relatively easy to follow, so long as I'm mindful about things I can't eat, which does include some veg and fruit.  It's all good and I intend to follow it for a few weeks at least.

Betty is fine, back to her normal self now, thank goodness.  I've taken the vet's advice and am splitting her main meal into several small portions which she's having spread out throughout the day.  I've also cut down her treats drastically (much to her disgust) and have told husband we are not allowed to give her anything off our plates.....it's so tempting to slip her a bit of toast with cheese spread on it, or a bite of sausage, but no longer.  She'll still have scrambled egg with a sprinkle of grated cheese for breakfast at the weekend, but no bacon or sausage off husband's plate!