When I work with clients I often end up recommending some supplementation alongside dietary changes. These aren’t essential, but may help speed up the way we address your symptoms.
These could be
- vitamins
- minerals
- probiotics
- digestive aids
You may be wondering why you need to pop pills if you’re eating a healthy diet. Well, there are a few reasons.
Diet deficiency
Unfortunately most people don’t eat a well balanced diet.
Most people don’t reach the ‘9 a day’ for fruits and vegetables recommendation from the WHO.
In fact most of us don’t even eat 5 a day. In 2018 the average intake was 3.7 portions of fruits & vegetables
Change in eating style
We tend to eat out more, have more pre-processed foods than people did 100 years ago. This leaves us with less control over the content of our food.
We also eat a more narrow range of foods these days which may limit the nutrients we are eating.
Processed foods make up your diet
Many of our core foods are heavily processed, removing most of the goodness (e.g. white bread, white rice) and moving away from the whole food.
Your diet or lifestyle may deplete nutrients
There are lots of things in modern life that take nutrients away from our diet. So even if you’re eating well, you might need more than your friend or sister.
Alcohol, calorie restriction diets (e.g. low fat diets), genetic pre-dispositions or common medication can deplete our levels of minerals (e.g. the oral contraceptive pill).
Should I take supplements?
I use supplements as a boost to your dietary changes to speed things along, but I consider their use carefully, and always recommend an end date.
If you’ve got a chronic condition chances are there could be nutrient insufficiency.
Don’t just take nutritional supplements without proper advice, or in place of making dietary changes.
In some cases supplements can help you feel better more quickly, but different nutrients can interfere with each other, creating more problems.
IBS Nutritionist
Hi, I'm Anna Mapson, registered Nutritional Therapist.
I help people with IBS and SIBO get control of unpredictable gut symptoms to find long term relief from painful and embarrassing IBS without restrictive dieting.
I can help you to:
- understand your digestion better, so you recognise your triggers
- eat a well balanced diet, with tasty meals that are simple to prepare
- reintroduce your trigger foods so you can get back to enjoying food again
Find more about my 3 month 1:1 Gut Reset programme.
Bile Acid Diarrhoea – A Forgotten Reason For IBS-D?
Struggling with IBS-D? Did you know it could be related to bile acid diarrhoea (BAD)? You might not have heard of this, but some studies show that around 34% of people with Diarrhoea predominant IBS may have bile acid malabsorption. What are bile acids? Bile is made...
Best gut health hack for better digestion
Stop scrolling all those blogs about better gut health! This is my best gut health advice, the one thing you need to do to get better digestion. If you're looking to improve your gut health my number one tip is to eat more variety. Specifically, we need to aim to...
Red flags for bowel movements, and what’s a perfect poo
You might not often discuss your bowel habits with your nearest and dearest, but sometimes it's worth getting a second opinion. In this blog post I'm talking about a list of red flags for bowel movements you should speak to your doctor about. I'll also cover how to...
