Low-FODMAP 101: What to Know Before You Start

Low-FODMAP is one of the most misunderstood diets in nutrition — usually followed as a permanent restriction, when it was never designed to be one.

What FODMAPs actually are

FODMAPs are a group of fermentable short-chain carbohydrates (found in foods like onion, garlic, wheat, certain fruits and legumes) that can trigger bloating, gas and pain in people with IBS or similar functional gut conditions.

It’s three phases, not one diet

1. Elimination — a strict, time-limited period (typically 2–6 weeks) removing high-FODMAP foods to establish a symptom baseline.
2. Reintroduction — systematically testing FODMAP groups one at a time to identify which specific ones actually trigger your symptoms.
3. Personalisation — a longer-term diet that only restricts the specific triggers identified in phase two, not everything.

Where it usually goes wrong

Most people who try low-FODMAP alone get stuck in phase one indefinitely — an unnecessarily restrictive, nutritionally unbalanced diet maintained far longer than needed, because no one guided them through reintroduction. That’s the phase where professional support earns its keep.

Eating Indian or South Asian food on low-FODMAP

Rice, roti, dal, onion and garlic all raise specific questions that a generic low-FODMAP explainer like this one can’t really answer — see IBS and Indian food: a practical low-FODMAP starting point for what actually changes (and what doesn’t) across all three phases.

Getting support

Shilpi Arora, APD, provides IBS and digestive-health dietitian support, including the elimination and reintroduction phases above, at Gold Coast clinics and by telehealth Australia-wide.

This is general information about the low-FODMAP approach, not a personal treatment plan. It’s best undertaken with a dietitian’s guidance, both to confirm it’s appropriate for your symptoms and to manage the reintroduction phase properly.

More on Digestive Health & IBS →