Rebekah:
Stephanie:
There are so many more great gluten free options than there were even ten years ago, which makes all of us gluten free folks incredibly blessed to be living in this era. So below we’ve listed a few of the many, many fantastic gluten free options from replacements to snacks to ingredients. Obviously there are tons more than what we have listed here, but this is what is currently in our house. Hope this helps many of you out there!
In the Pantry:
In the Fridge:
This is relevant to whether you are doing FODMAPs to lose weight, because it has alleviated your pain, deciding to become a vegetarian, or deciding to go vegan. It’s super important to make sure that you are physically able to do any of these things. For me personally, I cannot become a vegetarian or a vegan – at least not at this point in my life. However, if I wasn’t doing the low FODMAP diet, then I would be a very sick girl. So for me and my doctor, doing low FODMAPs alone was the best option.
However, it is also important for me to not become a vegetarian or a vegan, at least not at this point, because of other medical conditions I have. This is a discussion I have had with my doctor and my parents and it’s the best way to go. If I were to stop eating meat or animal products, I would become sick again. So for now, I am simply the FODMAPs in FODMAPvegan, and that’s okay.
I think we often hear how important it is for you to talk to your doctor about any new diets you’re trying, but very rarely to we actually heed this advice. So I will reiterate what hundreds before me have said before: please talk to your doctor before starting any new diet or exercise plan.
Best of luck to anyone attempting a new way of life!
This is the option I usually go with because it’s easier on me to do this. I usually bring a main course and then supply the rest from it is provided at the pitch in.
low FODMAPs….
vegan…
vegetarian…
all of the above…
Eating with friends is going to go a little bit different than how it works at a restaurant, partly because your friends care more than your waitress if you are going to have stuff you can eat. Stephanie and I are both high schoolers, so this will be written from that point of view.
First things first: let your friends know about your eating needs/habits/whatever you want to call them, and let their parents know. Most people are going to be totally helpful about it. For vegetarians especially, there might be some distasteful remarks, but aside from that? They will be sure to accommodate you at all functions they can.
But even so, it’s a good idea to always bring some food with you if you’re spending the night or just going over for the day. You never know what they might think is appropriate for you to eat that’s really not.
So we’ve divided our tips into a couple of sections: breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks
Breakfast
…with low FODMAPs
…as a vegetarian
…as a vegan
**Please note there are MANY more vegan cereals, these are just common household cereals and my favorites**
**More of the Quaker Instant Oatmeal flavors are vegan, these are just the ones I eat. Just check the ingredients to know if a flavor is safe**
…all of the above
****Not all Clif Bars are vegan-friendly so you’ll have to double check the ingredients. Also note that on FODMAPs you can’t have apple juice, and some Clif Bars have apple juice. Fortunately it’s such a small amount that it doesn’t bother me, but that’s for each individual person to find out for themselves.****
Lunch
Lunch isn’t usually a common meal to eat when spending the night, but you might find yourself at someone’s house for lunch and it’s always good to be prepared. A lot of these will be things you’ll have to pack yourself, but a few are common household foods.
…with low FODMAPs
…as a vegetarian
…as a vegan
…all of the above
Dinner
Dinner is the most versatile meal of the day, so anything on the breakfast and lunch meal ideas will be omitted.
…as a vegetarian
…as a vegan
…with low FODMAPs
…all of the above
Snacks
Honestly, snacks are the most common “meal” that you eat at a friends’ house, because who doesn’t love a good snack?
…as a vegan
…with low FODMAPs
…as a vegetarian
…all of the above
So maybe you’ve got the whole eating at home thing down, now. Hopefully we’ve helped that process a little bit – but the world of dining out, dinner parties, and church luncheons are another matter entirely. So here are some pointers from us about how to navigate “social eating”.
Before we begin, there are so many different versions of social eating. How you’re going to prepare for a holiday dinner at Grandma’s is going to be different than eating at a restaurant in Cincinnati. We’ll be talking about quite a few over the next couple of weeks. So if there are any circumstances you want us to talk about, let us know. Or if you have any suggestions we don’t mention, as always, we’d love to hear them!
Eating Out
…as a vegetarian:
…as a vegan:
…low FODMAPs:
…all of the above:
I have always loved Halloween. My favorite holiday, hands down. The costumes, the candy, the fun, the parties…how can you not like Halloween? Of course, with my current state of eating abilities, Halloween this year will be a bit more of a challenge – it’s actually one of the first things I thought of when I found out about my various food restrictions. What kind of candy can I eat on Halloween? I don’t eat a lot of candy the rest year, but…Halloween is another story.
So, being me, I made a list of all the candy I liked. Then I went through and researched them and figured out what was in them. Shockingly, most of them had corn syrup. I was so surprised *eye roll*. But I thought, “hm, I wonder if there are other people out there who don’t know what kind of candy they can have?”, so I decided to make this lovely blog post for all of you that you can look at it and see what you can and can’t have depending on your respective dietary needs and choices.
As always, if you have any additions to the list, please post them below! It’s greatly appreciated. 🙂
FODMAPs Friendly Candy:
Vegetarian Friendly Candy:
Vegan Friendly Candy:
All of the Above:
You’ve probably heard me refer to FODMAPs a few times already, but maybe you don’t know what it is. FODMAP stands for “Fermentable Oligo-saccharides Di-saccharides Mono-saccharides And Polyols.” There’s a reason we call it FODMAPs! Foods containing FODMAPs either have excess fructose, lactose, fructans, galactans, polyols, or some combination of the five. The goal of being on a low-FODMAP diet is to eliminate and limit these types of foods. It’s important to avoid foods that are made with high FODMAPs as well, like high FODMAP fruits, HFCS, honey, inulin, wheat, soy – the list goes on. When on a low FODMAP diet, you’re essentially going lactose and gluten free, with the exception of hard cheeses like cheddar and mozzarella. When it comes to fruits and vegetables, it’s probably best to avoid having large quantities of them whether they are low FODMAP or not.
It’s important to know what foods to watch out for when you’re scanning through ingredient lists. The main ones seem to be any form of corn syrup (including HFCS), milk, and wheat. Some other foods to stay away from are apples, fructose, concentrated fruit sources, honey, custard, soft unripened cheeses, asparagus, rye, watermelon, chicory, baked beans, apricots, cauliflower, and artificial sweeteners ending in -ol (sorbitol, mannitol, isomalt, maltitol, xylitol, etc.).
FODMAPs is not a “one size fits all” diet, and depending on your needs you may find that you can have some foods and not others listed. The best thing to do is to be super strict for about two or three months, and then kind of experiment with different foods and figure out what the trigger foods are and what foods you can safely eat.
Hello, all! You’ve probably heard of high fructose corn syrup, or HFCS, which is what I will refer to it as. HFCS is a sweetener derived from corn starch. It has been processed by something called glucose isomerase, which converts some of the corn starch glucose into fructose. Basically, enzymes have been added and it makes the product sweeter than it normally would be. That’s the science behind what HFCS is, but now why it’s even being talked about.
I cannot have HFCS, fructose, or corn syrup. Any excess fructose is actually a bad idea for me, which means no apples, mangoes, watermelon, dried fruit, or honey either. Unfortunately, HFCS and corn syrup are in everything. I challenge you to go HFCS free for a week, or even a day, just so you can see how many things have it in them.
So much HFCS wouldn’t be a bad thing if it was good for you…but it’s not. HFCS is made of mostly just different forms of sugar, and nobody needs that much sugar. HFCS is manmade as well, which is another red flag that it might not be so good for you. Obviously that rule doesn’t apply to everything, but the more organic and natural, the better.
HFCS is also hard for any digestive system to process, it’s just particularly harder with mine because I’m so ~special~. It’s also difficult to burn off, and it’s a big weight gain contributor.
This is just a Sparknotes version of what HFCS is, but in short, whether you are sensitive or allergic to it or not, many nutritionists agree that HFCS is one of the worst things you could eat, second only to hydrogenated oils. So I’ll restate my challenge for you to go HFCS free for a week, and see the difference it makes in your eating habits!
I’ve also posted a lovely little infographic below for some more in-depth information about HFCS and the dangers of it. Hope this helps!
About a year ago I started getting really sick after eating and I had no idea why. My stomach would hurt so much I couldn’t move. I hated the idea of eating. I didn’t tell my parents right away because when my brother was my age he had the same problem, and it was because of stress. The thing was, I was on vacation when it really started to flare up, a time when there wasn’t much stress in my life. But everyone in my family, myself included, dismissed it at first because this had happened to my brother. It was just a phase, right?
Except it never quit. Whether I was stressed or not, my stomach hurt after eating most foods, except for maybe French fries and strawberries. Unfortunately, a girl can’t live off of that. I started losing weight. One of my friends thought I might even be anorexic.
In January, I started keeping a food journal. I religiously wrote down every single thing I ate, but I found no connection. I would later find out that that was because I was eating so many things I shouldn’t, and couldn’t, there was no noticeable pattern. I stopped eating milk and eggs in May, and while that helped slightly, I still had horrible “episodes”.
As time went on, the stomach aches only got worse, and eventually, something had to be done. So in June we finally went to my doctor. We had a full work up and I was referred to a gastroenterologist. He was the one who figured out what the problem was, and I was given antibiotics to take when the pain got really bad and I was put on a whole new diet. No more gluten, milk, corn syrup – the list goes on.
I’m going to be honest: it’s hard, living with food sensitivities and allergies. It’s hard to watch your friends and family eat ice cream and fried chicken and macaroni and cheese when you can’t have any of it. It’s hard going out to eat and staring at the menu, trying to figure out what in the world you can eat (shout at to the awesome people at Culver’s for being super helpful). But it’s not impossible, and having a support system is super important.
My mom is the only one in my family who is totally aware of what I can and can’t have, but my dad is pretty observant too. My brothers and extended family don’t know about the recent developments however, and I’d prefer to not tell them just yet. That is my personal choice and I’m not by any means saying that’s the best way to about things – in a few years I may say the complete opposite. But for now I’m keeping my food allergies and sensitivities to myself.
I still have moments of weakness when I eat something I know I shouldn’t, and know I’ll regret later. I’m still working on my willpower, and that’s okay. I’ll keep praying for God to help me with it, and I believe He will.
fodmapvegan823 