In recent years, researchers have pinpointed a group of compounds called FODMAPs that are common trigger foods for people with irritable bowel syndrome.
But it wasn’t immediately clear whether eliminating these foods could also help people with more serious conditions like Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis — or if it might actually hurt their already-sensitive guts. Now, a new report in the journal Gastroenterology suggests a diet low in FODMAPs can help relieve symptoms for the full range of irritable bowels — even those with Crohn’s.
Irritable Bowel Syndrome, or IBS, is a broad diagnosis that’s applied to people with recurring diarrhea, constipation, bloating and/or abdominal pains. In recent years, researchers have been learning how and when these symptoms can be triggered by foods — specifically, by certain carbohydrates that ferment in the gut. These carbs include fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols — FODMAPs for short — and they ...
