Many people have great difficulty maintaining their social lives and eating out while on the low Fodmap diet for irritable bowel syndrome. In this video, I give you some very solid advice on how to make it an enjoyable experience. There are simple tips that you may not have even thought about.
The Transcript
Today I want to talk about eating out in restaurants and people’s homes, et cetera.
Many of the people on my coaching program complain about not being able to eat out with ease, that they get very anxious about eating out, and of course we know that stress causes IBS symptoms, so we’re going to have a double whammy if we eat the wrong food plus we’re stressed out. So, take some measures before you go out. If you’re going out to eat at a friend’s place, then make sure you take some food with you. Have you checked with her about your worst triggers? Don’t tell her every detail about the diet because that will completely overwhelm her. But if at least you can talk about the things that can be hidden in food like garlic, onions, lactose and the fructans in wheat, barley and rye. Leave the rest out. If she puts a vegetable on your plate you can’t eat, just don’t eat it but you are eating the rest of the meal. Perhaps, take your own bread as an offering for the whole group and maybe a dessert because the dessert is where you can fall into a lot of problems. For example, there’s often a lot of dairy in them and a lot of high-FODMAP fruits. Offer to take the dessert and you solve that problem. Make sure you only have one glass of a dry wine and then just explain that you’re driving. You don’t have to go into the details of the diet. That gets a little boring for people.
If you’re eating out in a restaurant, do your homework beforehand, go online, have a look at the menu, get an overall view of you might be able to eat, then ring up the restaurant and ask to talk to the chef. Don’t talk to the wait staff or the receptionist, ask to talk to the chef and sort out between you what will be safe for you to eat. So that when you arrive at the restaurant, there’s no fuss involved, everybody else is trying to work out what to eat but you know what you’re eating.
If it’s a case of going out spontaneously like after work for example, make sure you have with you a laminated card you keep in your purse or your pocket, which has those main triggers on it that are hidden, like garlic, onions, lactose and you would say gluten because that’s what the public understands. The rest of the high Fodmap foods, you will be able to see on the menu or just by checking with the wait staff. But get the wait staff to take that laminated card back to the chef and ask for his/her suggestions. I’ve been doing this for years and I’ve never yet had anybody reject my card. Some of them smile or laugh at it, but they all take it into account. And the best thing is to say that you have an allergy. Don’t say that you malabsorb or even are intolerant to these things. Say that you have an allergy because otherwise they don’t take it very seriously, and if you’re allergic, they don’t want you falling onto the floor and frothing at the mouth. So they will take care not to give you those foods.
There are some tips for eating out and bringing back the pleasure in eating out. Because you do not want to be paying for a belly ache. Good luck with all of that.
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