Diet Tips:Research studies: Cooking legumes

By Caroline Tuck (APD, PhD Candidate)

Research is currently underway to look at ways we can make it easier for patients with IBS to follow a low FODMAP diet. One strategy that our group is looking at is if changing the way we cook foods can reduce the FODMAP content, hence potentially making it easier to people to tolerate them.

The main FODMAPs present in legumes are the oligosaccharides. Oligosacchardies are water soluble, which means that when the food is put into water, the oligosacchardies can leach out of the food and into the water. At Monash University, we have recently been testing if any reduction in FODMAP content will occur through this process. We have found that when legumes e.g. red lentils are boiled in water, the liquid they are cooking in becomes higher in oligosacchardies.

This has shown that straining legumes after cooking may help to reduce their FODMAP content. This is a great strategy to trial at home to see if it helps you tolerate legumes better and increase your legume intake.

Diet Tips:Rice Milks Revisited: Moving from red to green rating in app

By Dr Jane Muir 

Everyone was very disappointed when our rating for rice milk was red = high FODMAP!

We have had many requests to conduct further testing of rice milks from different countries.  Our team has just completed testing rice milks from Australia, United Kingdom and the United States.

Remember that the analysis of all FODMAPs in food is a complex and time-consuming process undertaken by the laboratory team here at Monash.  Some foods (particularly processed foods) present technical challenges.  Rice milk is one of these challenging foods. 

Currently, rice milk has been given a red rating in the app.  This was due to the presence of very high level of oligosaccharides (Oligos) that our team detected in the rice milk samples. As we discussed in our last rice milk blog – this high level of Oligos are due to the enzymatic breakdown of the rice flour starch to release glucose (this is how rice milk is made).  As you can see from the diagram below, rice starch is a large and complex carbohydrate - made up of chains of glucose (these can be very long - thousands of glucose units long). The enzymes used to make rice milk sometimes fail to completely break down the rice starch and as a result some small oligos are left behind.  The key point here is that these types of starch-derived oligos are digestible, unlike the Oligos- fructans and GOS. So these are not really FODMAPs!

Our laboratory team has discovered that these starch-derived oligos get mixed up with the FODMAP - GOS-oligos during the laboratory analysis. This means it has been difficult to know how much of these oligos are starch-derived and therefore well tolerated, and how much is GOS, a FODMAP, poorly tolerated. The team has recently established a new technique to answer this question. As a result of their hard work, they have discovered that there is little GOS in rice milk and indeed these Oligos are probably starch-derived and therefore well tolerated. All rice milks have been re-tested using this new method.

We have now reviewed the rating for rice milk and will be modifying this accordingly.  We have given a safe (low level greenrating) for 200 ml of rice milk per sitting.  The results for the Australian, UK and US will be in the app very soon. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused - but this is science in action! and part of the ongoing research and refinement of the Monash University Low FODMAP diet.

Be careful:  There are still some fructans present in some rice milks and therefore we do not recommend very high quantities of rice milk in one sitting.

So will this problem of starch-derived Oligos affect other food ratings in the app?  We have reviewed other foods in the app and we have not found any other foods which have been affected by this technical issue.

 

 

Diet Tips:Dietary Fibre Series - Prebiotic Fibre

Erin Dwyer (Research Dietitian)

 

We know eating enough fibre on a low FODMAP diet can be challenging and that getting the right mix of fibres is very important, so let’s discuss prebiotic fibre.

There has been a lot of talk recently about prebiotics and probiotics and how they can affect the gut, but what really are they?

Prebiotics (including resistant starch) are non-digestible fibres found in certain foods that can stimulate the growth of some bacteria. This means that instead of being broken down within the gut the prebiotic fibre travels through the gut, stimulating growth and/or activity of probiotics i.e. the good bacteria!

Here's a list of foods that are high in prebiotics that have a 'green serve’ size – take a look at the Monash low FODMAP App to find out more!

Fruits and Vegetables	Grains and Cereals	Legumes, lentils, nuts and seeds
Artichokes	Oats	Mung beans
Beetroot	Buckwheat kernels	Lima beans
Butternut Pumpkin	Wheat free Gnocchi	Nuts – Almonds and hazelnuts
Pomegranate seeds	Wheat bran	Canned chickpeas
Dried paw paw	Pasta (wheat/spelt), cooked and cooled	Canned lentils

If you are following or have followed a low FODMAP diet you may notice many of the foods listed above are high in FODMAPs. This is because fructans and galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS) are prebiotic fibres.

So if prebiotics are often high in FODMAPS, but considered part of a healthy diet, how can they be included on a low FODMAP diet?

Here are a few ideas to get you started

·         Firstly, remember that a low FODMAP diet is only meant to be LOW in FODMAPs, not completely depleted of FODMAPs

·         Also, after the initial strict phase of the diet, you may find through the rechallenge phase that you actually tolerate moderate serves of fructan and GOS rich foods quite well

·         Certain canned legumes that have been rinsed and drained are lower in FODMAPs - you can find a safe ‘green serve’ of legumes and lentils in the Monash FODMAP App. Try this recipe http://fodmapmonash.blogspot.com.au/2016/01/low-fodmap-vegan-coconut-pumpkin-curry.html

·         You can purchase wheat free Gnocchi for a low FODMAP option, serve it with a low FODMAP pasta sauce and salad – You can try this recipe http://fodmapmonash.blogspot.com.au/2016/09/low-fodmap-chicken-and-gnocchi-pasta.html

·         Add ¼ cup (green serve) of pomegranate seeds to your salad for great texture and a little sweetness

·         Snack on some almonds or hazelnuts (10 for a green serve)

It is also important to remember to continually test your tolerance to FODMAP containing foods, you may find you can tolerate different prebiotics in varying amounts. For some guidance in reintroduction you can look back on this past blog post:

http://fodmapmonash.blogspot.com.au/2015/06/just-2-6-weeks-it-is-not-diet-for-life_8.html