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Healing Your Digestive System

A simple guide to healing your digestive system on a low FODMAP Diet.

3 Step Process

Digestive discomfort can take over your life, limiting what you eat, how you feel, and even what you’re willing to plan for the day ahead. The good news, Relief is possible, and it starts with understanding what your gut truly needs.

The Low FODMAP approach is a proven, practical way to calm symptoms, identify your triggers, and rebuild your confidence around food.

This guide will walk you through a simple three-step process:

  1. Elimination – Temporarily reduce foods high in FODMAPs to give your gut the reset it needs.

  2. Reintroduction – Test and track foods to uncover which ones work for you, and which don’t.

  3. Maintenance – Create a long-term, balanced eating plan that supports your health and lifestyle.

We’ve designed this guide to be clear, encouraging, and easy to follow. Whether you’re brand new to digestive health changes or have tried other approaches before. You’ll not only soothe your gut, but also regain the freedom to enjoy food without fear.

Step 1: Elimination - 4 Weeks

It is really important to do a complete elimination of high FODMAPs for 4 to 6 weeks, minimum four. If you’re feeling no gas or bloating or digestive issues you can start the reintroduction.

If you’re still not at that stage you will need to continue to 6 weeks and be strict.

Elimination means Low FODMAPs only. It is important to know that there are limits on fruit and vegetables, because there is a tipping point where the quantity results in a High FODMAP.

Top Tip: If you suffer from diarrhoea or constipation regularly, you may still have a level of FODMAP in your system.

That means when you add a similar FODMAP into your diet, it creates the tipping point into a high FODMAP.

That’s why it can be confusing: one week you eat one food and you’re fine, and when you eat it the next week you’re not.

We call it layering. Try to keep your bowel movements regular, which should happen with the No Bloat products as part of your diet, and the right additional low FODMAP food throughout the day.

It’s important that you do not include any food from the list below that you know you are allergic or intolerant to, because there are exceptions.

For example, you might have a gluten intolerance. No Bloat’s founder, Heather Mills, first thought her symptoms were caused by a gluten intolerance. It turned out that fructans were causing the issue. Fructans can be found in breads alongside Oligosaccharides.

It is important to be 100% sure your diagnosed allergies and intolerances are correct and that you have not been misdiagnosed. Otherwise, you could be missing out on some delicious food for no reason.

Recommended Low FODMAP Food

Bread, cereals, rice, pasta.
  • Couscous, Gluten-free
  • Cooked maize (1.5 cups)
  • Rice and corn cooked (1.2 cup)
  • Buckwheat flakes cook (1/2 cup)
  • Quinoa flakes (1/2 cup uncooked)
  • Baking powder (1 tsp)
  • Bran
  • Oat, Unprocessed uncooked (2 tbsp) ,
  • Brown, rice unprocessed uncooked (2 tbls)
  • English breakfast muffin, wheat and soy (1)
  • Gluten free rice, corn or tapioca bread (2 slices)
  • Millet bread (2 slices max )
  • Corn Flakes (1.5 cups )
  • Rice Krispies (1.5 cups)
  • Quinoa, white rice (1/4 cup uncooked)
  • Polenta (1 cup)
  • Bran, Panko breadcrumbs (1/3 cup)
  • Corn, tapioca, sourdough, spelt, buckwheat, arrowroot, cornflour, green banana flour, sorghum flour (2/3 cup)
  • Rice flour, quinoa flour Cassava flour (100g )
  • Gluten free plain flour (2/3 cup uncooked)
  • Green banana flower (2/3 cup)
  • Flower maze cornmeal (2/3 cup)
  • Millet flour (2/3 cup) 
  • Quinoa flower (2/3)
  • Rice flour (2/3 cup)
  • Teff flour (2/3 cup uncooked)
  • Yam pounded flour (2/3)
  • Grain, barley, pearl whole sprouted (1/2 cup)
  • Green millet hulled cooked, (1/2 cup)
  • Meal maize/corn cooked (1/2 cup)
  • Soba noodles, wheat and wheat (1/3 cup cooked)
  • Vermicelli noodles (1 cup)
  • Taco shell (2 shells)
  • Tortillas  (2)
  • Green beans
  • Potatoes
  • Kale, carrot, spinach, lettuce, tomato, aubergine (1 cup )
  • Courgette
  • Bok choy
  • Celeriac
  • Chow sum
  • Collard greens
  • Cucumber
  • Daikon radish
  • Dulce flakes
  • Gai lan, Galangal
  • Did you root
  • Oyster mushroom only
  • Plives
  • Parsnip
  • Radish
  • Turnip
  • Seaweed
  • Swiss chard and Edamame (1/2 cup only)
  • Aubergine (75 g only)
  • Banana firm small Raspberries (1/3 cup)
  • Strawberries (5 max)
  • Cranberries (1/2 cup max)
  • Try to cranberries (2 tblspoons max)
  • Boysenberry (6 max)
  • Blackberries. (6 max)
  • Breadfruit peeled raw
  • Carambola starfruit raw
  • Kiwi fruit (2 small)
  • Lychees canned (15 max)
  • Mandarin (1 medium)
  • Oranges (1 medium)
  • Papaya
  • Passionfruit (2 max) 
  • Pineapple (1 cup max)
  • Rhubarb (1 cup max)
  • Tamarind shelled raw (4 max)
  • Lemon zest from one lemon only
  • Orange zest from one small orange only
  • Mixed peel citrus fruits (50g only)
  • Coconut flesh (1 cup only)
  • Dragon fruit
  • Ackee (tinned in brine)
  • Dried banana chips (30g only)
  • Coconut dried (1/2 cup)
  • Cumquats raw (4 max)
  • Dates (5 max)
  • Durian deseeded (1 cup only)
  • Feijoa (1 max)
  • Goji berries (3b tsps max)
  • Guava peeled raw, jackfruit 
  • Young, canned, (1tbls)

Milk

To replace lactose, which is a FODMAP, we recommend unsweetened almond milk or 1/2 a cup of rice milk (up to 224 g; above this it becomes a fructan).

If you want it sweeter, just add a little bit of maple syrup.

Do not use agave. Many people don’t realise agave is both a fructose and a fructan with just 1 tbsp.

Cheese

To replace dairy cheese, which is a FODMAP, we recommend one of the VBites vegan cheeses — no more than two slices per meal or 40 g. They are not made with cashews, which are a GOS (over 4 g) and both a fructan and a GOS at 30 g.

VBites cheeses are made with coconut. If you are not intolerant to cashews, they are absolutely delicious as dairy alternatives in milk or alternative cheese.

Eggs

Eggs are generally not high FODMAP. However, some people are intolerant or sensitive, as they may have a separate condition where the body has difficulty digesting egg proteins, leading to various digestive issues.

It’s best to keep them out of the diet during the elimination stage to avoid confusion.

Most commercial eggs contain antibiotics and are high in cholesterol.

If you love your eggs in the morning, try the brand Sinless Eggs to replace them.

Step 2: Reintroduction

If you have been strict and eliminated all FODMAPs, and have felt an improvement, with less diarrhoea, constipation, or bloating, then it’s time to work out which of the FODMAPs are the irritants.

No Bloat founder Heather Mills, is intolerant to Fructans, the worst culprits being garlic and onion.

Some people are fine with garlic but not onion. Heather also can’t eat mannitols, such as button mushrooms. As an alternative, Heather enjoys oyster mushrooms, which are yummy and low FODMAP.

As you go through, there will always be a replacement food once you work out which ones to eliminate.

We are trying to keep this information as simple as possible, as Heather has suffered personally and understands what you’re going through. Even after studying the science for 15 years, it is still very complicated.

Let’s cut out all the noise and confusion and hopefully explain this in an easy to digest way (pardon the pun!) so you can find out as quickly as possible and not suffer, as Heather did, with no real information at hand.

Find out what your gut irritant(s) are, eliminate them, and start to get back to expanding your range of foods outside of low FODMAP, which is really important for nutritional variety.

It is important you avoid eating out during your challenge days and make sure you are near the toilet. It’s best to start with the single challenge FODMAPS to start getting some quick results. If the first one you start with doesn’t have a negative reaction, you can move on to the next one the next day. If you do have a bad reaction, wait until the gut inflammation has gone down completely (which can take 48 to 72 hours) before you move on to the next challenge FODMAP. Keep a diary of your specific reactions and a careful note of which FODMAP irritated you. At the end of testing the 6 below you will find out which FODMAPS irritate you.

This process, depending on your reaction, can take 2 to 6 weeks as the gut must always be calm before testing the next challenge FODMAP.

In the reintroduction phase, we test different amounts of a specific FODMAP containing food, starting with a moderate serve and increasing to a high serve, to determine the amount someone may be able to tolerate without triggering symptoms. A food is reintroduced for 3 days, and a 2 to 3 day break is taken between challenges, or until symptoms settle, before moving on to a different food.

Fructan: Leeks start with 14 g. If no problem, move up to 18 g. If no problem, move to 75 g.

Lactose: (Best to avoid for many reasons) butter, milk, cheese.

Oligosaccharides: Half a can of baked beans.

Mannitols: Start with 3, moving up to 15 button mushrooms. (Once you get to 15 they become a fructan as well as a mannitol.)

Fructose: 1 tsp should be ok. The problem can arise when you go to 3 tbsp agave syrup (as then it becomes a fructan also).

Sorbitol: 1 whole apricot up to 3 g. Over 4 g it becomes a sorbitol. At 30 g it becomes a fructan as well.

Once you find out which one, or if you are unlucky multiple FODMAPS, you are intolerant to, you will need to avoid any products that have more than one, even if just one of them is your intolerance.

For example: watermelon is a fructan, mannitol and fructose FODMAP. Sweetcorn is a sorbitol and a GOS. Mangetout is a fructan, mannitol and GOS.

Step 3: Maintenance

At this point you should have a full understanding of which FODMAPs have been irritating you. Now you will be ready to eat out, but you must tell the restaurant that you have an allergy, as they will not take it seriously if you state it is an intolerance. You will take yourself back to the beginning, as chefs cannot help themselves; they always have to sprinkle some garlic and onion into everything.

It’s usually a good idea to avoid curry and meals with lots of ingredients. Heather always calls the restaurant ahead so as not to create a scene with her guests by explaining all of her issues. She sends a list of foods ahead that she can eat, and the chef is always happy to pick out a few of the many to make something interesting, but they must be given notice.

After the launch of our elimination (No Bloat range), we will be introducing a further maintenance range for on-the-go convenience.

This means there will be a range of foods with one FODMAP eliminated from each product. For example: mannitol free, fructan free, or sorbitol free, so you can get more and more variety into your diet while on the go.

We will launch this once we receive your feedback on our opening range.

START YOUR JOURNEY PREPARED

Now that you understand how the Low FODMAP process works, it’s time to set yourself up for success. Make sure you are prepared with the right foods and convenient, suitable ready meals from No Bloat.

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