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The Burdensome Process of Cooking Low FODMAP Meals
Key Takeaways
- Reddit user Emmeryrose claims she can only stand eating one meal daily due to the effort required to make low FODMAP meals.
- In muleborax's post, she claims she cheats on the diet, makes mistakes while following the diet, and makes accidents while preparing meals. Muleborax claims, "I try to stick to the diet as best as possible. I have Monash app, I follow low-FODMAP blogs for recipes, have a staple overnight oats recipe so one meal is always free, and religiously check ingredients lists. However, I still fail, make accidents, and sometimes I cheat. Being restricted feels so lonely."
- In a Reddit post by LNtheAnxious, they claim that they are new to a low FODMAP diet and they find it difficult to meal prep and prepare low FODMAP meals " Due to some stomach sensitivities, I've been given instructions from my doctor to follow a low FODMAP diet for six weeks. Does anyone here meal prep with low FODMAP recipes? I'd love to hear your suggestions! As someone new to both meal prep and low FODMAP, this is feeling especially difficult to navigate."
- In an article by Saucy Kitchen on of the comment by a user named Sarah describes how eating has not been fun for since she can not use the ingredients she wants to " I’m a sucker for spicy food and I used to put onions and garlic in nearly everything! Eating has not been very fun for me lately. ☹️ There seems to be something I can’t eat in every single recipe."
Introduction
This research focuses on consumer grievances about how time-consuming it is to prepare and cook low FODMAP meals. The research includes ten comments about the challenges of cooking low FODMAP meals. The comments were pulled from various Reddit posts, low FODMAP recipe articles, and low FODMAP videos. The research contains comments regarding specific low FODMAP meals and focuses on comments that explain the ongoing difficulty and the complexities of preparing low FODMAP meals from scratch. Below are a few of the comments.
Reddit Post 1: Low FODMAP + vegan is absolute hell.
- In a subreddit by Reddit user MindlessFinish, they claim that after suffering from GI issues for years, their doctor told them to go on a low FODMAP diet.
- The user is also a vegetarian and expresses their frustration on not being able to eat their veggies. They claim, "This diet is absolutely awful. I am beyond frustrated at not being able to eat most veggies, nuts, and legumes I was used to eating. Vegan diets are already fairly restrictive as it is, but adding low FODMAP to that has been awful."
- MindlessFinish also expresses more frustration by claiming that many online recipes and information on low FODMAP diets are outdated, misinforming, and lack factual information. They claim, "One frustrating thing about all this has been the lack of solid information. I have the Monash app, but the frustrating part is that a lot of online recipes either have misinformation or are outdated. Lots of recipes that include tons of chickpeas, avocado, tons of tomato, etc."
Reddit Post 2: Low FODMAP depression meals?
- Reddit user Emmeryrose claims she can only stand eating one meal daily due to the effort required to make low FODMAP meals.
- She claims she is too depressed to cook and eats food high in FODMAP.
- Furthermore, the vicious cycle of not being able to prepare and cook low FODMAP meals and then eating high FODMAP meals gets her more depressed and lethargic. In her post, she claims, "Does anyone have any ideas for easy low-effort meals? I'm in a horrible cycle where I'm too depressed to cook, so I eat easy meals that are usually high in FODMAP, and then I get more depressed and lethargic, and it's a vicious cycle. My stomach is so bad right now I can only stand one meal a day. Please help!"
Reddit Post 3: I hate being restricted
- In a post from a Reddit user, muleborax, she claims her GI surgeon recommended a low FODMAP diet for her, but she feels lonely being restricted.
- In her post, she claims she cheats on the diet, makes mistakes while following the diet, and makes accidents while preparing meals. Muleborax claims, "I try to stick to the diet as best as possible. I have Monash app, I follow low-FODMAP blogs for recipes, have a staple overnight oat recipe so one meal is always free, and religiously check ingredients lists. However, I still fail, make accidents, and sometimes I cheat. Being restricted feels so lonely."
- She also feels embarrassed and burdensome that separate meals must be made for her, especially during gatherings and social events. In her post, she said, "Trying to find restaurants and always asking about modifications is a giant pain and makes me feel embarrassed. Having separate dishes just for me at Thanksgiving and Christmas made me feel like a burden, and when I can't find anything that's low-FODMAP, I feel defeated. Honestly, it's taken the enjoyment out of cooking. I know the elimination phase isn't supposed to last forever, but I react badly to most categories and still struggle with stacking when making meals."
Reddit Post 4: Low FODMAP meal prep
- In a Reddit post by LNtheAnxious, they claim that they are new to a low FODMAP diet and they find it difficult to meal prep and prepare low FODMAP meals " Due to some stomach sensitivities, I've been given instructions from my doctor to follow a low FODMAP diet for six weeks. Does anyone here meal prep with low FODMAP recipes? I'd love to hear your suggestions! As someone new to both meal prep and low FODMAP, this is feeling especially difficult to navigate."
- In a reply on the same subreddit AnninNJ comments about how she has to be careful while preparing meals for her daughter who is on a FODMAP diet. She claims "I would frequently make chicken teriyaki by making my own teriyaki sauce and leaving out any garlic (Michael Bittman has a good recipe in “How to Cook Everything”). Grilled or roasted chicken with herbs & spices on top but be careful to read ingredients, powdered/dried garlic and onion is MUCH worse than fresh, it only takes small quantities and seems like it’s in every seasoning blend."
Reddit Post 5: Food preparation burnout
- Ada_911 in her Reddit post claims that she gets food preparation burnout "I have posted before here mentioning my boyfriend is doing low FODMAP (which essentially means I'm doing it too) for his IBS. I don't know if this post even qualifies as valid in this sub, but I'm going to try anyway. We are both so tired with all the cooking. We don't want to get bored with food, and we want to find tasty foods he can eat and really enjoy. But this means we cook a lot of new stuff every week. And it's starting to become more tiring than exciting."
Amazon customer Review 1: Too boujee
- The Complete Low-FODMAP Diet (A Revolutionary Plan for Managing IBS and Other Digestive Disorders) is a book that has a low-FODMAP diet plan with over 80 delicious low-FODMAP, gluten-free recipes.
- Comments by Britany F on the book are "It's a good book, but the recipes are too fancy. I was hoping for something easier to use with less ingredients. Simple, easy. This isn't it. I mean, a soufflé?! Really? Way too complicated for the everyday cook."
Amazon customer Review 2: DISAPPOINTING...
- Molly's comments on The Complete Low-FODMAP Diet (A Revolutionary Plan for Managing IBS and Other Digestive Disorders) claim that she wanted something quick and easy to prepare "This book had very unrealistic recipes for day to day meals. If you are looking for fancy and long prep time meals, this is the book for you. I wanted something that is quick and easy that I can learn to make fast and that tastes good. I would not recommend purchasing this book!"
Amazon customer Review 3: The low FODMAP recipes are difficult to prepare
- Td Few reviews on The Complete Low-FODMAP Diet (A Revolutionary Plan for Managing IBS and Other Digestive Disorders) are that "The low FODMAP recipes are difficult to prepare, too time-consuming, and call for hard-to-find, expensive ingredients. There are several logical inconsistencies that confused me."
- He also claims that the book confused and overwhelmed him even more "This book was cheap and came in Kindle format. It was useless in helping me plan my meals. I'm more overwhelmed and confused than ever."
Amazon customer Review 4: Bad planning, bad recipes
- The Low-FODMAP Diet for Beginners: A 7-Day Plan to Beat Bloat and Soothe Your Gut with Recipes for Fast IBS Relief is suitable for anyone starting the low-FODMAP diet.
- In a comment made by Patricia Kemp, she claims that some recipes in the book are unpalatable "When I started the 7-day diet, I was so impressed by the delicious banana bread muffins and peanut butter energy balls. The chicken piccata was OK, though not very filling (I made rice to fill it out). The turkey tacos are awful!!! How do you make a taco out of turkey "kibbles" ??? Yuck yuck yuck!!! So, I tried the cornmeal-crusted tacos. Enormous quantities of greasy lumps of cod with no instructions on how to make them into palatable tacos. Almost as bad as the enormous quantities of turkey "kibbles" from the precious recipe!
Saucy Kitchen Article
- In an article by Saucy Kitchen, one of the comments by a user named Sarah describes how eating has not been fun since she can not use the ingredients she wants "I'm a sucker for spicy food, and I used to put onions and garlic in nearly everything! Eating has not been very fun for me lately. ☹️ There seems to be something I can't eat in every single recipe."
Research Strategy
This research expands on consumer grievances about how time-consuming it is to prepare and cook low FODMAP meals. The research includes ten comments about the challenges of cooking low FODMAP meals. The comments were pulled from various Reddit posts, low FODMAP recipe articles, and low FODMAP book reviews. This research contains comments regarding specific low FODMAP meals and focuses on comments that explain the ongoing difficulty and the complexities of preparing low FODMAP meals from scratch. We discovered that during the research, many of the comments on low FODMAP meals were geared toward being positive given the difficult nature of preparing these meals. The provided comments are those of consumers who have struggled to adjust to a low FODMAP diet. We also had to use sources and comments older than 24 months since those found within 24 months were limited in the public domain.