The Start of the FODMAP diet

 My GI doc suggested I follow a FODMAP diet for a few weeks to attempt to eliminate foods that could be troubling my stomach for the last few months. It's a very restrictive diet, and people often lose weight on it, something I'd rather not do. Luckily, this is an elimination diet, not a lifestyle diet (At least I hope not!) to see if there is a food or food group that irritates the most. The issues started very suddenly and severely in late August and haven't really gotten resolved even though the pain has lessened. I've eaten roughly the same diet since March, so I can't imagine it's that, but it's at least something I can start with.

I found a few food delivery services, but they were $12 - $14 per meal, and even if I eat two meals per day, that would be over $350 dollars for two weeks of meals, after considering taxes and shipping. I think I can do better than that.

It looks like while oatmilk (and oats and milk) aren't on the allowed list for FODMAP, that's only if you were to drink an 8oz glass of the stuff, not have about 1 oz over 2 cups of coffee, so I can still have my coffee with oatmilk morning routine. I'll also have to continue my 2 - 4 eggs with salt (and a compliant hot sauce) for breakfast, and find some easy foods for lunch and dinner. I think the easiest would be finding a Gluten Free bread (Gluten Free baked goods are often similar enough for FODMAP folks to follow) some cheddar cheese, deli ham without extra flavoring, and mustard. I can eat those if I'm not interested in cooking or running low on time and stuck in meetings.

Monash University has a large amount of information about the FODMAP diet along with a list of foods, broken down by approved or not, recipes, and a mobile app.

Happily, these foods are free FODMAP and I can eat them without worry:

Oils (without additions)

Meat (without seasoning, though salt and pepper is fine)

Egg

Butter

Clementines and Mandarin Oranges

Strawberries

Grapes

Arugula

Carrot

Cucumber

Butter Lettuce

Red Bell Peppers

Red Skinned Potatoes

Scallions (green part only)

Tomatoes

Chives

Malt Vinegar

White, Basmati and Brown Rice

Olives

Excellent, I can make myself a vegetable salad with butter lettuce, cucumber, carrot and red bell pepper with malt vinegar or red wine vinegar (only 2 TBSP) for a dressing. I can also have a fruit salad consisting of strawberries, grapes and mandarin oranges.

It took me a while to warm up to the idea of this diet, but it looks like I can eat some rather normal things and not just white rice with a piece of broiled meat, like I feared. This is doable, I suspect. We'll see how I do!