Eating a low-carb diet, or the low FODMAP diet, can help with IBS symptoms, a new study finds. d3sign/Getty Images/Moment RF hide caption Dietary changes relieved abdominal pain and other symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome more effectively than medications, a new study shows. Seven out of 10 study participants reported significant reductions in IBS symptoms after adopting either a type of elimination diet called the FODMAP diet or the simpler-to-follow, low-carb diet.
“Diet turned out to be more effective than medical treatment,” said dietician Sanna Nybacka, the study’s lead author and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. “It's probably more cost effective to provide foods and guidance on how to eat to people than giving them a lot of very expensive medications.” Moreover, the diet need not be complicated, according to the study published last month in The Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology .
A low-carbohydrate diet provided nearly as much symptom relief as traditional IBS dietary advice , which limits a group of short-chain carbohydrates known as FODMAPs, found in many common foods including dairy, legumes, onions and garlic and grains. An estimated 6% of Americans , the majority of them women, suffer from IBS. Symptoms include abdominal pain coupled with diarrhea or constipation or both and no visible signs of disease in the digestive tract.
Chronic stress can trigger symptoms. Researchers randomly divided 294 Swedish adults,.