FODMAP Diet Versus Specific Carb Diet Question

[Kathleen Smith]

Hi All, I am researching (or trying) both FODMAP and the Specific Carb Diet b/c I am gluten free a year and still having nausea and constipation. I am getting a breath test done next Monday but all other tests are good.

Which diet is better if you are symptomatic or if you have smaill intestineal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO)??

The FODMAP seems to allow corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes and rice and the Specific Carb Diet doest not??? That seems like a huge difference in diet!!!!

So just wondering peoples thoughts who know more than I do.

As always thank you in advance and I hope you are all feeling well!

[kayo]

Hi Kathleen,

I'm following the FODMAP diet and recovering from SIBO. One more day of antibiotics to go. My understanding is that the FODMAP diet starves the SIBO and prevents it from coming back. I feel good on this diet and will continue on it even though my fructose test came back negative. I don't know how anyone follows the SCD. It seems so restrictive and limiting. I suppose I would do it if I needed to but luckily the FODMAP diet is working.

Here are the best resources I found on FODMAP:

Book - "IBS - Free at Last!" by Patsy Catsos

Yahoo group - Open Original Shared Link

Good luck!

[Gutsy Girl]

Kathleen and Kayo,

I was wondering the same thing. I have celiac and SIBO.

I wonder if perhaps one type of bacteria - the main classifications I know about are hydrogen versus methane producing bacteria - tends to have different preferences so that folks who have methane bacteria do better on SCD and folks who have hydrogen bacteria do better on FODMAP, for example? Just wondering. I have absolutely no idea.

But I too am comparing these two diets to start myself, and was noticing how they are almost opposite each other.

[Takala]

?????? Which diet is better if you are symptomatic of what? "still having" sounds more like there is hidden gluten in the diet.

Both FODMAPS and SCD are restrictive, but FODMAPS wins hands down for the number of ridiculous things that must be eliminated in terms of fruits and vegetables. I did a modified SCD diet in the beginning for a few years, which is easy IF you are getting good results, because it is much more likely to be truly gluten free and not as likely to be cross contaminated. I had a lot of trouble finding a benign form of yogurt, a SCD staple, that wasn't full of lactose, or thickened with starch, and therefore didn't do dairy for a while, then gradually tried adding back in cheese, which worked. From this SCD experience, it was easy for me to see that my actual problem was grain- based. Slowly I added back in other forms of carbohydrates that were not grain, successfully, such as legumes (dried beans, for example, cooked & rinsed so they were not starchy.) As long as they were not cross contaminated, I didn't have a problem. When adding a new food, it should be done one at a time, not all at once. Some of the FODMAPS lists I am seeing for "safe" foods include SPELT, which is WHEAT and NOT GLUTEN FREE.

People spend a lot of time & effort messing around with other diet variations, eliminating a lot of perfectly good foods, when they are instead needing to be strictly gluten free and, if necessary, figure out what other foods on a gluten free diet do not agree with them. The FODMAPS diet lists avoid a lot of artificial sweeteners that bother almost everybody... this is a no brainer. But you are trying to eat for celiac/gluten intolerance.

These tend to be milk and soy, for celiacs. And then one or more of the alternative, gluten-free grain products.

Celiac tends to cause thyroid problems and therefore a side effect may be insulin resistance.... any low or no sugar, low carb, high protein diet will go better with a slow thyroid. Soy is also notorious for not being compatible with thyroid problems.

The part of the intestinal lining that processes milk/dairy is also damaged in celiac, so giving up dairy, at least temporarily, to see what happens is one of the most common ways to find out if that is a problem. Then non lactose dairy, such as gluten-free yogurt or hard, aged cheeses, can be reintroduced and seen if that is a problem, as well. If dairy is a problem, it has to go. If lactose is a problem, it has to go. Just like gluten. No amount of giving up a long list of other fruits and vegetables will "fix" this.

When I do baking now, I am still using a lot of nut meals, (non soy) bean flours, potato flours, seed meals, because I am not very good with a lot of grains. The most exasperating thing I'm encountering is random cross contamination for staple food items. I know I can eat fresh corn, for example, but other forms of corn grains, even "gluten free," seem to be a cc minefield, and I am familiar enough with my symptoms I can tell it is low gluten exposure. I might be an oat reactor, and the latest studies (2011) explain that as there are certain varieties/cultivars of oats that celiac/gluten intolerant people will react to anyway, even if they are certified gluten free. Others are okay. That would explain a lot if a manufacturer was running corn and oats thru the same facility. Oh, and there are a lot of manufacturers using the same lines to run "gluten free," and wheat foods.... NOT GOOD.

Other times, from what I am reading, certain gluten-free grains, like millet, are much more likely to be cross contaminated than others, when samples have been tested. There is another thread going now where a lot of people say they are having a non gluten but a reaction to it, anyway. We're all not meant to eat everything, obviously. But is it the "chicken, or the egg?"

Anytime I get into trouble, I can go back onto my version of a modified SCD diet, and get myself back on track within a day. But it is just to get things sorted out, not permanent.