What Can I Eat if I Have SIBO?

 If you are new to SIBO and wondering what to eat, 

have a look at my Sexy Sibo Level 1 Diet.

The Level 1 diet is, essentially, a low-FODMAPs version of 

the SCD/GAPS Intro Diet. I created this for people with IBS-C and SIBO.

There are two levels, Basic and Advanced.

Start with Level 1 – Basic for one to two weeks, 

or until symptom relief happens. 

Move to Advanced as symptoms and personal tolerances allow.

(If you know you can't tolerate nuts, or coconut milk, or eggs, for example, don't eat them!)

Remain on Level 1 for at least one month, and during active treatment. 

ALWAYS fall back to Level 1 Basic if flaring in future!

NOTE: Please use the highest quality meats and animal foods whenever possible.

Choose naturally-raised, organic, wild or pastured animal foods and organic produce.

And now, Introducing....

The Sexy Sibo  Level 1 Diet 

Here's what you CAN eat!

And here's what you need to avoid. 

These high FODMAP foods will ferment in your belly

causing gas, bloating and other symptoms.

DO NOTE EAT: Beans, Grains^*, Flour, Corn, Soy, Wheat, Milk, Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Garlic, Onions, Cruciferous Vegetables (Broccoli, Cauliflower, Collards), Mushroom, Celery, Dried Fruit, Dates, Apple, Pear, Peach, Plum, Pectin, Inulin, Chicory, FOS, Gums, Seaweeds, Carrageenan.

 *possible exception: Jasmine rice, ½ cup 

If you are curious about a food that isn't listed above, check out Dr. Allison Siebecker’s very complete SIBO FOOD GUIDE: http://www.siboinfo.com/diet.html.

Please feel free to contact for a large, high resolution version of the Basic and Advanced Level 1 food charts shown above. For personalized guidance, inspiration & support, contact me to schedule a private session. To help you get started, some ideas for how to put it all together are below!

Be well!

   Sexy Sibo Level 1 Meal Ideas                                                                                                                                                         

Chicken Soup (add choice of carrots+zucchini; cubed butternut squash; tomato+green beans, etc. Garnish with green herbs.)

Mediterranean Fish Stew w/ tomato, carrot, black olives, Italian herbs. Serve over Zucchini Noodles.

Roasted Chicken with Baked Acorn Squash, braised spinach or chard

Grilled Salmon with Scallions, Ginger Green Beans, Baked Butternut Fries (toss in coconut oil, salt & pepper)

Creamy Pureed Soups (i.e. Butternut Bisque, Carrot-Ginger)

Indian Curries – Veg, or Chicken/Shrimp & Veg (add fire-roasted tomatoes if desired)

Thai Coconut Curry - carrots, eggplant, red bell pepper; shrimp or chicken (no sugar!)

Omelet/Fritatta – choice of spinach, zucchini, red peppers, olives, shredded hard cheese

Chinese Restaurant Food – “Dieters” Shrimp/Scallop/Chicken & Steamed Vegetables, Eggplant & Green Beans

Poached Eggs on Greens (Poach/Steam in chicken stock if you have it – yum!)

GAPS-style Pancakes (make with cooked, mashed winter squash, eggs and nut butter)

SexySibo Safe Foods List - Updated

It's been 16 months since I posted my original "Safe Foods List" in one of my first posts on this blog. Well, today I have a new Safe Foods List to share with you. Because Things Change.

This is something you, too, will discover, as you modify your diet and advance, stall or heal on this journey. Don't consider it a setback if a food you used to be able to eat without any problem suddenly starts bothering you. Be prepared to adapt. Dealing with SIBO is an ongoing and transformational challenge. Your diet will always be a work in progress. Just keep paying attention! When you stay in sync with the body's changing needs, you can keep symptoms at bay, feel a million times better and beat the bloat, one day at a time, every day. Oh, Yeah.

2016 *NEW* SexySibo 
Safe Foods List

animal protein
-eggs
-seafood (salmon, tuna, shrimp, cod, etc.)
-meat (beef, lamb, Paleo bacon, etc.)
-fowl (chicken, turkey, duck)
-bone broth & meat stock

cooked vegetables
-spinach
-chard
-zucchini
-carrots
-green beans
-winter squash (butternut, kabocha, acorn, etc.)

lactose-free dairy
-aged hard cheeses (best are those made with raw milk, and goat/sheep milk)
-full fat Greek yogurt (no added gums/pectins) or 24-hour yogurt (GAPS style) -1/2 cup serving
-heavy cream (no added gums/pectins)

safe treats & sweets
-dry wine
-distilled spirits (gin, vodka, whiskey)
-chubby checkers (see recipe on this blog!)
-non-fermenting sweeteners: monkfruit (Lakanto); erythritol (Zero); stevia
-lemon & lime juice

----------------------------------------------------

Second Tier Safe Foods - I avoid these if symptomatic, otherwise I do okay with them.

raw veggies (stick with cooked veg when symptoms are present!)
-lettuces of all types
-spinach
-carrots & baby carrots
-green herbs (chives, dill, cilantro, etc.)
-ripe tomato
-red bell peppers
-olives

fruits (not for every day, but nice every now & then)
-avocado (up to 1/4 medium avo. per meal)
-blueberries, other berries - 1/4 cup

The Main Idea: Ketogenic Healing and a No-Bloat Food List for Meaningful SIBO Reduction

Remember those reading comprehension tests in grade school where you had to identify the Main Idea of a story? That question always bothered me. The best stories have lots of main ideas! Narrowing it down to just one didn’t make sense.

Because I was an advanced reader, I only attended Second Grade for a couple weeks before the adults decided to skip me up to Third. Unfortunately, matronly Mrs. Williams, my new 3^rd grade teacher, was a mean old beast and I was bullied on the playground by all the bigger-than-me girls. I had to go last at everything. “Respect your elders!” was the rule.

I pretty much cried my way through 3^rd grade, so my parents took me out of the crowded New Rochelle public school system and off I went to Riverdale. (This is the Riverdale that Carly Simon attended, not the one with Betty and Veronica.) At the time, Riverdale was co-ed only through the 4^th grade. After that, school tradition dictated that boys and girls be separated, all the way through to 12^th grade graduation.

Interestingly, when I started Riverdale it was 1968, meaning cultural values were changing and sex segregation was on the outs. By the time I hit eighth grade, the entire school became fully coeducational for the first time.

But in 5^th grade, my class was all girls and at some point in Spring, we had a special event. A heavy, lumbering film projector and squeaky expandable screen were wheeled into our small classroom and, with window shades pulled down and door closed tight, we got to see a movie!

The movie was called It’s Wonderful Being a Girl.

It’s Wonderful Being a Girl featured two new teenagers, Libby and Jane, and their experience around getting their periods. Mostly, the flick was about using menstrual napkins and how great they were. (I guess tampons weren’t invented yet, or maybe the sponsors of the film only made pads.) My favorite take-away from the entire short film was that a hot shower really helps when you feel crampy. This is true!

It’s also true that I was only 9 years old in 5^th grade. Menarche was in the far distant future for me. So when the lights came up and our pretty, dark-haired teacher invited those of us with any personal questions about our bodies to come up to her desk for a private discussion, my question didn’t have anything to do with puberty. I did have something kind of embarrassing about my body that I thought maybe Mrs. Begelman could help me with, though.

“Sometimes I get a little gas bubble in my butt,” I confided, “and I don’t know what to do when that happens. It makes a funny noise when it comes out, and sometimes it even smells bad.”

To her credit, Mrs. Begelman succeeded in suppressing a nascent smile before responding. Her advice, basically, was that I just let the “gas bubble” come out. “Better out than in,” she said.

What’s remarkable about this story to me is two things. First Remarkable Thing: I didn’t know the word “fart” in fifth grade! What the hell?

Second, if intestinal gas was already a concern of mine by age nine, it can be assumed that IBS-C goes way back in my history.

I’m not sure which of these remarkable facts is the main idea—they kind of go hand in hand.

Anyway, when I started the Sexy Sibo blog, my main purpose was to chronicle my personal experience in dealing with—and hopefully solving—the digestive disorder which has plagued me for, evidently, decades. My primary goal wasn’t to “share my expertise,” let alone “hold forth” to my audience. But it is also true that I have some expertise to share, both as a person with lifelong digestive issues and as a trained clinician with a Master of Science degree in human nutrition who indulges a voracious appetite for research.

I’m not yet an expert in SIBO, though. No one really is, as each person with SIBO is so unique. Trial and error is the only way. But maybe my trial can save you some error down the road. That’s what I’m hoping for. We’re all in this together!

What I’ve been learning about SIBO is turning my world, and my diet, upside down. I started out in January (five months ago) giving up my vegetarian diet and embracing an approach that I believed would work, which I wrote about here.

This dietary approach was a great place to start, but ultimately it didn’t do enough. I’m talking about the classic SIBO-safe diet (per Dr. Allison Siebecker, et al.) consisting of:

• animal protein (eggs, fish, seafood, poultry, beef)

• lactose-free dairy (aged cheese, 24-hour yogurt, heavy cream)

• healthy fats (coconut oil, EVOO, butter)

• low-FODMAP vegetables

• low-FODMAP fruits (including bananas, berries, oranges, pineapple)

• honey

• nuts and seeds (small servings)

• treats: dark chocolate, peanut butter, potato chips, blended frozen banana “ice cream”

• rarely: low-FODMAP starches (potatoes, rice, gluten-free bread/crackers)

It turned out that this diet was successful in significantly reducing the belching and farting that had previously accompanied me through life 24/7, which was great. But my motility didn’t improve, and my uncomfortable belly distension, i.e. bloating, continued. Not surprisingly, the more I strayed into the fruits, “treats” and “rarely” segments of the above list, the worse my suffering.

So last week, I decided to try something new: a 3-4 day “ketogenic” diet, followed by a stricter version of the above. A friend of mine on Facebook suggested this to me, and guess what? It worked! For the first time in over a year: no bloat. It’s a miracle.

Actually, though, it’s not a miracle. It’s just common sense. Bloating comes from gas. Gas comes from microbial fermentation of sugars and starches. If you don’t eat sugars and starches, the microbes don’t have anything to ferment. If the microbes don’t have anything to ferment, they can’t make gas as a byproduct, hence no bloating. Keep the sugars and starches out for long enough and eventually, the microbes will die off.

It’s that simple. In fact, I’d say it’s even the main idea in understanding SIBO:

If you don’t feed your SIBO, your microbes don’t eat and you don’t bloat. As long as you have bloating, you are not making a dent in your SIBO reduction.

So what the hell is a ketogenic diet, you might ask. A ketogenic diet (keto for short) means you stop using glucose as the primary energy source for your body by taking all sugars and carbohydrates out of the diet. In this way, you force the body to get its energy from fats which produces “ketone bodies”, a breakdown product of fatty acids burned as an alternate energy source when glucose is not available.

The process is called ketosis and, despite all the hype on the internet about keto diets, it’s not really a great idea to do long term. Metabolic acidosis and a weird fruity kind of bad breath, known as “acetone” breath, are two reasons. (Acetone is a type of ketone.)

Short term, however, a ketogenic approach can be very healing for people with digestive disorders because it removes all fermentable foods (sugars and starches) from the diet, cutting off gas and bloating at the source.

Practically speaking, a keto diet for SIBO means you only eat animal protein, fat and cooked low-FODMAP green vegetables. (Always avoid salads and raw veggies when your gut is inflamed—they won’t help.)

My SIBO Keto Diet List looks like this:

• animal protein (eggs, fish, seafood, poultry, beef)

• lactose-free dairy* (aged cheese, heavy cream)

• pure fats (coconut oil, EVOO, butter)

• low-FODMAP GREEN vegetables (spinach, chard, bok choy, zucchini, green beans)

*If you want to try this diet, include dairy only if tolerated. I am lucky in that hard, aged cheeses digest beautifully for me, especially raw milk cheese from goat or sheep milk. I only use heavy cream in small quantities, for coffee or tea. Plain lactose-free yogurt with no additives (24-hour yogurt or Greek style) also could be on the list but I don’t do as well with yogurt, so I’m keeping it out for now. The cheese is a lifesaver, though!

My plan was to do this for 3-4 days but when I woke up the morning of Day 4 with a flat stomach for the first time in maybe a year, I didn’t want to stop! So today, I am essentially on Day 10 of this very low carb approach. I’ve had a small salad twice and have tested two low-FODMAP orange veggies—roasted butternut squash and raw grated carrots—once each. I did okay with both but am not in a rush to repeat. Even though the squash tasted SO SWEET my tongue thought it was in heaven, I think it’s good to keep coming home to baseline. It feels safe at baseline and I have to say, I really like not having symptoms!

Jasmine rice might be the next thing I test. But (referring back to the original list) I’m going to stay away from most everything below the low-FODMAP vegetables line, including most fruit with a few exceptions (lemons and limes for sure, and possibly avocado and coconut which I will test when I am solidly symptom free.)

So for those of you who are still reading, here’s my new food list for the next three months. By the way, this list functions in tandem with Dr. Norm Robillard’s Fast Tract Digestion: IBS system, a quantitative approach which utilizes the fermentation potential (FP) values of different foods to reduce IBS symptoms. Dr. Robillard is the one who figured out the FP of Jasmine rice is zero, making it safe for many SIBO peeps.

No-Bloat Food List for Meaningful SIBO Reduction

• animal protein (eggs, fish, seafood, poultry, beef)

• lactose-free dairy (aged cheese, heavy cream, 24-hour or pure Greek yogurt)

• healthy fats (coconut oil, EVOO, butter)

• low-FODMAP vegetables: primarily cooked, mostly green plus some orange

• Jasmine rice (limit to ½ cup serving per meal)

• lemons and limes

• allowed sweeteners: liquid stevia drops, pure stevia, erythritol

With this plan, I hope to make some REAL progress in getting my symptoms and my SIBO under control. It sounds tough, but actually, it’s not so bad. To paraphrase Kate Moss, “Nothing tastes as good as symptom-free feels.”

I guess that’s the point for me, the bloody Main Idea, if you will: I want to feel better ALL THE TIME. Feeling better calls for figuring out through trial and error what works, and being mature enough to actually do it.

This is where I’ve gotten stuck, repeatedly through the years. The maturity thing. I’m a rebel at heart. I don’t like to follow rules, even rules I make for myself.

But I’m not a kid anymore. I’m not like Libby and Jane, navigating a turbulent adolescence. Au contraire, I’m the mother of two young men in their 20s! A full-grown woman who hasn’t had a monthly cycle since October! I’m navigating menopause now, and the sea is calming. I love myself and I want to heal. I think I’m finally ready. Wish me clear skies, fair winds and a steady rudder, will you? Wish me bon voyage, and feel welcome on board.

xo Diana

Sexy Sibo Word of the Day: Borborygmi (and some good news about erythritol)

Now here's a ten dollar word for you: Borborygmi

I'm not sure how to pronounce it, but the definition is "a rumbling or gurgling sound caused by the movement of gas in the intestines."

Sound familiar? 

I learned this fancy new borborygmi word from a study I was reading, comparing the digestive tolerance of sucrose (table sugar) with that of two polyols, xylitol and erythritol.

Xylitol (like most other polyols—sorbitol, mannitol, etc.) causes lots of gas, loose stools, borborygmi and other GI distress, as you may have found out the hard way. But erythritol, it turns out, not so much! Check it out:

"When consumed in water, 35 and 50 g xylitol was associated with significant intestinal symptom scores and watery faeces, compared to the sucrose control, whereas at all levels studied erythritol scored significantly less symptoms. Consumption of 20 and 35 g erythritol by healthy volunteers, in a liquid, is tolerated well, without any symptoms. At the highest level of erythritol intake (50 g), only a significant increase in borborygmi and nausea was observed, whereas xylitol intake at this level induced a significant increase in watery faeces."

In case you want to translate the above into practical terms, a teaspoon of erythritol (the one I've tried comes from Wholesome Sweeteners, under the brand name Zero) weighs about 6 grams. Meaning it is probably safe to use a teaspoon or two of erythritol in your tea or lemonade, for example, without it setting off your IBS/SIBO symptoms.

Sweet!

Have you tried erythritol? I'd love to hear how it worked for you. To me, it's got an interesting kind of sweetness—kind of cooling in the mouth. I think it works really well in drinks or foods containing cooling herbs like mint or cilantro, such as peppermint iced tea and cilantro vinaigrette. Still I feel a little nervous about it. I tend to stick with raw honey or a pinch of green stevia for sweetness, but I'm all for branching out. So it's nice to see some evidence suggesting that erythritol may be tolerable for SIBO.

:-)

REFERENCE

Storey D, et al. Gastrointestinal tolerance of erythritol and xylitol ingested in a liquid. 
Eur J Clin Nutr. 2007 Mar;61(3):349-54.  To read the study abstract, click here.

Pink Salted Coconut Bliss Bites (Raw, Paleo, Gluten-Free, low-FODMAPs, SIBO-safe)

If you are on a strict SIBO-safe diet and can tolerate small servings of nuts and seeds, you are guaranteed to ADORE (if not come to worship) these chewy little Coconut Bliss Bites!

Sexy Sibo Pink Salted Coconut Bliss Bites are a naturally gluten-free, unbaked raw dessert that I created out of desperation and inspiration (!) using a variety of SIBO-safe nuts and seeds, a drizzle of raw honey to sweeten and my beloved Himalayan pink salt to add the flavor complexity that takes them over the top. Raw shredded coconut plus a touch of coconut oil make these bites divinely smooth and chewy at the same time while protecting your belly with healthy, antimicrobial coconut fatty acids.

For those who don't know, Himalayan pink salt is high in minerals, does not come from polluted oceans like sea salt (my previously preferred crystal sodium source) and tastes better than any other salt in the world, imho, which is why it's the only salt I use. (Click here to read all about it!)

And now...the recipe!

Pink Salted Coconut Bliss Bites

 Ingredients

1 cup raw walnuts

¼ cup raw almonds

¼ cup raw sunflower seeds

½ cup almond flour

½ cup (+ 4 Tbs) shredded coconut

½ tsp Himalayan pink salt

4 Tbs coconut oil

2 Tbs raw honey (or maple syrup*)

2 tsp vanilla extract

*If honey is out for you, use maple syrup instead—just increase the almond flour by a couple tablespoons to make up for the lower viscosity of maple syrup. Also, please see my note below, after the recipe, on the Honey vs Maple Syrup controversy for SIBO peeps. 

Directions

 

Pulse together nuts and sunflower seeds until chopped very small, but with some bigger pieces here and there. 

Add in almond flour, 1/2 cup shredded coconut and pink salt. Pulse to combine. Add in coconut oil, honey or maple syrup, and vanilla extract. Pulse until well combined. (If using maple syrup, add 1 or 2 Tbs more almond flour to stiffen dough.)

Transfer mixture to 8x8 Pyrex baking dish and press flat to fill dish. Sprinkle top with remaining 4 Tbs shredded coconut. Shake pan side to side to get the coconut evenly distributed, then press it gently into surface using the back of a spoon or spatula.

Refrigerate at least 1 hour or until firm. Slice into 1-inch squares to make 64 Bliss Bites, or shape as desired. Seal in plastic or airtight container and store in fridge for up to 2 weeks. Enjoy right out of the fridge or warm them up to room temperature before eating for a softer, more blissful bite.

Don't they look heavenly?

♥

Sexy Sibo Pink Salted Coconut Bliss Bites

Honey vs Maple Syrup: Which Natural Sweetener is Safe for SIBO?

There is no consensus on whether honey, maple syrup, both, or neither are SIBO-safe sweeteners.

Here's the scoop: Honey, which is high in fructose, a disaccharide, is SCD and GAPS legal but not allowed on FODMAPs. (The D in FODMAPs stands for Disaccharides.)

Maple syrup, which is high polysaccharides, is low-FODMAPs but not allowed on GAPS or SCD, both of which eliminate all the longer-chain sugars.

Are you confused yet?

Bottom line: sweeteners are a highly individual food category for SIBO peeps. To find out which (if any) sweetener works for you, you will need to a) tune in to your intuition, and b) test each one on yourself—if and when you feel ready, separately and in small doses.

Personally, I am able to use raw honey (from clover or other flowers) every day and tolerate it well, taken in small, one-teaspoon servings. I tried maple syrup recently and wasn't sure if it was that or the yogurt I mixed it with that made me bloat, but bloat I did. So I'll have to retest maple syrup all by itself, alone, another time. For now, I am happy with honey. :)

Your SIBO safe foods list: Trust your gut.

Long before I ever heard of SIBO, I knew I had "digestive problems". Officially, I called it IBS-C.

For those who don’t know, IBS stands for Irritable Bowel Syndrome. IBS is a functional bowel disorder, meaning it has no known apparent physical cause. People with IBS suffer from gastrointestinal pain, gas and bloating, and exhibit altered bowel habits of different types. IBS-C means you exhibit Constipation, everybody’s favorite sexy word. There’s also IBS-D for Diarrhea, another really sexy situation. And IBS-M for Mixed, an awesome combo of C and D. (IBS-M is also known as IBS-A, for Alternating. The naming experts haven’t decided which they like best, so you might see either in print.)

Anyway, I've suffered from IBS-C since I was a young woman. Sometimes it’s gotten better, sometimes worse. I’ve dealt with it in different ways, applying all my knowledge as a lifelong natural foods devotee and alternative health seeker, an armchair (lay) herbalist and, finally, after earning a Master of Science degree in Human Nutrition in 2002, a bonafide clinical nutritionist.

My gut got really bad in the spring of 2013. I was constantly bloated, my pants didn't fit, I felt like I couldn't eat anything. So one morning, while writing about all this in my journal, I decided to put on my Tireless Investigator hat and try to figure it out.

What I did was to think about different foods and imagine how they felt in my belly when I ate them. I'm a sensitive person, highly empathic. I've known for a long time that even just by holding a food in my hands, say, a bag of Red Hot Blues organic corn chips (cue salivary glands) I can sense how it will feel in my body, which is often: not so great.

So, sitting there that day, in the throes of an IBS flare, I tuned into myself and imagined different foods—how they looked, smelled, tasted. Some food thoughts made my innards clench. A very few caused no response at all, or an actual sense of comfort. Our mind-body connection is very strong. Even in response to a thought, the body knows.

After imagining lots of different foods in my mind, I came up with a short list of foods that I knew I could eat without causing myself more pain. Foods that wouldn't make me bloat or feel like I had a bunch of sour puke rotting in my gut all day long.

The short list looked like this:

three safest foods

spinach • broth • eggs

It's a very short list, true. But I knew it was super safe. I could eat anything on this list and not feel sick! Hope glimmered. It was a beginning.

From spinach with eggs poached in broth I spread out. Here's my expanded list from that same day:

my safe foods

cooked vegetables

spinach

chard

zucchini

carrots

green beans

proteins

eggs

salmon, shrimp, fish

chicken

raw goat cheese

fermented foods

carrot pickles

water kefir

24-hour yogurt

raw f & v

blueberries

fresh ripe tomatoes

sweet red peppers

snow peas

carrots, carrot juice

green herbs

bananas

avocado

safe treats

coconut butter

cacao nibs

very dark chocolate

wine

One problem I had with my list was the protein section. Back when I was doing this tuning-in exercise in early 2013, I was a strict vegetarian. Had been for a full year. In fact, I was coming off of several years of eating a plant-based, pescatarian (i.e. vegetarian + fish) diet and for much of that time, a high raw food diet with plenty of green smoothies, salads, raw vegetable juices, nuts, seeds and dehydrated delicacies.

I was very reluctant to put chicken on the list. Even the fish and shrimp was a concession. But I could tell, in my gut, that chicken would digest. It was a sad moment for me. I would really rather not eat animals. This is still true. It was a big coming to terms.

I realize now that because of my particular IBS-C situation (think slow transit time and a redundant colon) eating so much fiber and complex carbohydrates was a bad idea. Fiber and complex carbs, as well as fructose and other simple sugars, are highly FERMENTABLE. Inside your warm, dark, juicy intestines these carbohydrates get digested by bacteria that make GAS.

Most of these bacteria are supposed to just hang out in your large intestine where they belong. In fact, we need carb-fermenting bacteria in our large intestines, so much so that in the colon, these little guys are even affectionately known as friendly flora

But after a while, if the large intestines don't empty out regularly, the semi-digested foodstuff in your small intestines backs up. And when those fun-loving, friendly colonic bacteria sneak on up the road to party in the small intestine, whooping it up and replicating themselves into millions of bacteria babies, it’s a bad situation. Then you’ve got SIBO.

The only way to get those microbes out of there is to kill them off, either by drugging them (with antibiotic herbs or drugs) and/or by starving them. Which brings me back to my safe food list, and another really interesting thing.

Soon after I came up with the above list (which, by the way, has been added to, subtracted from and refined over time since I created it in 2013) I started doing a bunch of research online. First I found out about FODMAPS: Fermentable Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, Monosaccharides and Polyols, i.e. gas-producing sugars and starches. Then I learned more about GAPS (and it's older cousin SCD, which I'd heard of before but mistakenly thought was just for celiac disease). When I put the two diets together, low-FODMAPS+GAPS, there was my list!

I knew I was on to something.

Right around that time, an article came out in the Townsend Letter that recommended the same crossover diet for treating SIBO: a low-FODMAPS, grain-free, broth-based GAPS/SCD-style program. I was so excited when I found that article, written by naturopathic doctors Alison Siebecker and Steven Sandberg-Lewis.

The Siebecker-Sandberg-Lewis article confirmed that people with my kind of gastrointestinal symptoms seem to be okay eating only the foods that are allowed on both diets (low-FODMAPS and GAPS/SCD), because these foods don’t feed the bacterial overgrowth. In fact, eating this diet can even heal the problem, provided the underlying cause (in my case, C) is also addressed.

Since those days, more research has been done on SIBO, more people are writing about it and more food lists and dietary interventions have been proposed. Dr. Siebecker, for instance, has created a detailed, color coded downloadable list that is fabulous. (Click on the “learn” tab at the top of this blog for link.)

It’s very helpful to read other people's legal/illegal food lists but if you have IBS or SIBO, I strongly encourage you to do what I did: 

Sit quietly with yourself. Access your inner wisdom. Honor your intuition. And make your own list.

In other words: Trust your gut.

There might be some foods on someone else's list that won't agree with you. Others that are missing from their list that don’t bother you at all. The bottom line is this: Only you can know what your own personal safe foods are.

Your short list of truly safe foods, the ones you’ll go to during a flare, is likely very short. Any expanded lists will only be accurate sometimes, depending on whether or not you are flaring, and to what degree. But the short list - that's your go-to. And boy is it nice to have a safe place to rest!

For me, a medium poached egg, cooked in broth, on a soft green bed of wilted spinach is calm belly heaven. What’s your pleasure?