Episode 5: Q&A: Emotional Eating, Non-FODMAP Triggers, and more!
This episode is a Q&A from our Instagram community, where I answer the following questions:
Why do symptoms seem to get really bad on an empty stomach?
How do you move past emotional eating and wanting to eat “normally” with triggers?
Can certain non-FODMAP foods trigger symptoms?
Is it possible for those with IBS-C to have consistent BMs without laxatives?
You can check out the podcast on iTunes here, Spotify here, and on YouTube here! Below is a full transcript of the episode if you prefer to read through it or want notes.
Don’t forget to connect to others in The GUT Community, a Facebook group for those with IBS and digestive disorders to support one another and dive deeper into each episode together.
Welcome back to the gut show! I am pumped for this episode because this is a Q&A episode, which comes from questions in our Instagram community. If you do not already, follow me on Instagram at @erinjudge.rd or at @gutivate, please do because we will be getting more questions from you, and we provide more answers and more content there that might help support you. We also have our Facebook community. so make sure that you are joining there so that you can connect with us as well as other followers and other listeners of this show!
So we're going to jump right into our questions and go through those a little bit more, grab your notebook, take your notes, and then prepare any questions you have for follow-up and join us on our social media channels if you want to continue the conversation there. So the first question is, why do symptoms seem to get really bad on an empty stomach? I love this question because it's something that I get asked often. And the way that it's typically asked is how come I still have symptoms, even when I don't eat, like I skip the meal because of my symptoms, but then I still have symptoms anyways, what is the deal!?
There's a lot of things that could be going on here. So first skipping meals, it might actually allow your gut to fill with air, which can lead to more bloating and pain. Specifically for those with IBS, that air can stretch the lining of the intestines, which can lead to pain because of the visceral hypersensitivity issue that we've talked about in previous episodes. Another thing that can happen is when you skip meals, gastric juices that the hunger and fullness cues that are going on, all the hormones, those gastric juices that are released can actually irritate the gut lining, and that can lead to discomfort. What can also happen is that skipping meals may not stimulate the gut to move, so it's like inactive muscle activity, the guts not moving, which can lead to discomfort. We can see constipation and diarrhea in those cases, and we'll also see maybe more bloat and cramping and gas and things like that because the gut simply isn't moving. So those are direct reasons why skipping could contribute to symptoms and discomfort.
One indirect reason is that skipping meals may actually lead to bingeing on food later. So if we're creating this long period of time where you're not eating, eventually you're going to likely overeat. And so what can happen there is that you may end up having a delayed and a cyclical effect from the overeating. So what you may do, for instance, is skip breakfast and lunch during the day so that you can work without your symptoms, and then at night, after you get home from work, you are bingeing on food throughout the evening, well, those symptoms may take a while to show up. They might show up overnight into the next morning, which then leads to discomfort and symptoms throughout your day. And so that can be a cyclical effect that is only resolved by establishing those meal patterns and establishing the consistency with meals.
Something else that could happen is skipping meals may lead to overall under-eating. Undernourishment can lead to digestive issues, and that's because the gut is just not functioning anymore, because it doesn't have the energy to do that, and that's why we see such a strong link with eating disorders leading to GI issues is because of this effect. So those disorder patterns can actually cause more GI discomfort and more issues, which is not going to get you to the result that you're looking for. And then another piece that might be more indirect is that the symptoms may actually be due to non-food triggers. So this is definitely something to look at if you aren't necessarily skipping meals, but you notice that symptoms come up before you eat. So like mid-morning, after breakfast, before lunch, noticing symptoms kind of triggering in those places, or triggering as soon as you wake up before you actually eat anything, it could be that it's non-food triggers. There are so many non-food triggers out there for IBS, which is why it is so very important to make sure that you're getting strategies in both your life and your diet, not just diet (which is what we do in our programs). It's something that you want to make sure you kind of ask about and check on through the providers that you are working with.
Alright, question number two is: how do you move past emotional eating and wanting to eat “normally” with triggers? So this question is interesting, and I intentionally did not try to plan my answer ahead of time because I wanted to just talk through this whole idea. So the big thing that I see here is poor relationship with food. Last episode, we talked about establishing a healthy relationship with your body, the same is true for food, especially when you have a digestive disorder or anything where food is contributing to the symptoms that you might be having. So if you've got a toxic relationship with food, then the emotional eating component or things around eating might get kind of muddy and complicated, and that can lead to utilizing food in an unhealthy way for coping. For coping with stress, you might be using food as self-sabotage, you might have a lot of fear around food, and so even navigating food is really difficult, and the guilt and the shame that comes out of that might contribute to symptoms. There's a lot of things going on with emotional eating.
And so my biggest tip when it comes to dealing with emotional eating, it's not adding more rules or more restriction or anything like that, like we should never approach diet from a restrictive standpoint, so not going into low fodmap or elimination diets until we've established a healthy relationship with food. And we do that through mindset work, diving deeper into “what do I think about food?” just like what we did in the last episode about your body (go listen to that episode if you haven’t already!). And then did the same thing with food….What do I think about this? What do I feel about this? What are the thoughts? What are the fears? What's going on with the food? And why is that there? What have I chosen to believe? Maybe the trauma is in my past from my experiences with this food before? What do I believe about this, and then how do I change those beliefs, either through education, through support, maybe cognitive behavioral therapy……something like that to be able to choose, or to reframe some of those beliefs so that the belief is in a different light.
The next one would be establishing a healthy relationship with food, being really present with the food, and having a joyful experience with it. So if you are eating and just completely distracted and not present, then that can be a missed opportunity to have an experience with the food that is positive, beyond just the negative experiences of having symptoms or thinking you will have symptoms. And so just like what we talked about with your body, and having those experiences with yourself that are enjoyable, you want to do the same thing with your foods. Create mealtimes remove the distractions, be present, enjoy the flavors, enjoy all of the different components of that experience, and that can help you with establishing a healthier relationship.
Typically whenever we work on this relationship, the emotional eating, the issues around food tend to go away…the guilt, the shame, all of that. The book Intuitive Eating is a great resource for this to challenge some of those labels that you've put on food, challenge the language you use around food and being really thoughtful about how we approach it, so that we know that there are no good and bad foods, foods aren't on the table/off the table, your choice is your choice, and it comes out of an understanding of food and a kind of objective neutral sense of food doesn't have a moral value. And when you are able to get those pieces down, then that I think is how you “move past”.
And then the second part of this question is in wanting to eat “normally” with triggers. And so what I'm hearing from that question is, how do you enjoy social environments? How do you enjoy your favorite meals, how to enjoy cultural meals, holidays, things like that, if someone is going to make something for you. The goal with IBS is to identify those foods that might be more triggering, and then find a way to let them fit in a way that works for you. And so again, like I mentioned about non-food triggers, if your providers and who you're working with, the plan that you're working through doesn't leave you with a plan for expanding your diet, increasing diversity over time, measuring that ability to increase that diversity, bringing foods back to have a little bit more freedom, and really being able to navigate that confidently, then that plan may not be working well, and it may not be the best plan for you.
What we do is we actually teach our clients non-food strategies, so that helps strengthen the gut and improve digestion overall, so that the tolerance to certain foods can increase. We also teach our clients how to intentionally incorporate foods back so that they can increase their tolerance over time and improve their gut microbiome health, in order to be able to eat more foods and eat larger portions of those foods that maybe were triggering before. We also teach them how to navigate social situations and holidays and their favorite recipes to make it work for them to have that sense of normalcy, and enjoy enjoyability, having joy in their diet and with their food again. And so we teach it in that way, I would just say make sure that you have a strategy and that can take time, takes a lot of time and it takes some trial and error to figure out what works for you. It also takes some intention with establishing what your priority truly is. Is it zero symptoms at all costs? Or is it more freedom and symptoms that are manageable? Because that might give you a little bit more of a sense of normalcy that's involved.
Okay, next question! Can certain non-fodmap foods trigger symptoms? So we already talked about non-food triggers, and yes, they are there: stress, lack of sleep, poor movement, types of movement, all of that is in there, the same is true for food! So fodmaps are gas-causing carbohydrates. So they're groups of carbohydrates that tend to cause more gas or pull more water into the gut. They are one single component or characteristic of food, they're not the only one. And there are other characteristics of foods that can trigger symptoms too. We know really high-fat foods can trigger for some people, you know, caffeine might trigger for some people, coffee, regardless of caffeine or not can trigger for some people, fruit acts a certain way, there are different fruits and vegetables that have different like gas causing effects or laxative effects that might cause symptoms. We know that there's a difference between the fodmap in wheat versus the gluten in wheat that might be an issue for some, there's a lot of different components to food! And there's some components to eating that can cause symptoms, like what we talked about on the first question of skipping meals can contribute to symptoms, eating really large portions all at once, and not eating mindfully, so eating too quickly can contribute to symptoms.
And so yes, there are non-fodmap foods that can be triggers, there are also non-fodmap pieces of eating that can contribute to symptoms. And that is something that again, you want to make sure that the strategies that you're working through, it's not just one thing. I like to think about IBS like a puzzle, and in order to manage your symptoms, you have to put together the whole puzzle. And your puzzle looks different than my puzzle. If all you're looking at one piece, so just low fodmap diet, and you're fixated on that one piece, then the puzzle is not going to come together, we have to have all the pieces. And so it's really important that whenever you're working through your IBS, that you have access to all those pieces, so that you can put your pieces together to create your puzzle in a way that makes sense and will work for you. And that is what we teach in the master method group program that we offer as well as in our one to one offerings.
Alright, last question, nice and quick: is it possible for those with IBS-C, so constipation predominant, to have consistent bowel movements without laxatives? Yes, 100%. Yes, it is possible. The deal with constipation and the same is true with diarrhea, constipation sometimes can get a little bit more nuanced and tricky. But it is still possible, what we have to do is dig deep and see, okay, what's causing the constipation to begin with? And there are a lot of strategies that we can use to alleviate constipation and get to that root. And so once we do, and we can get the bowels moving, and we know what the issue really is, then we can typically have consistent daily wonderful bowel movements without laxatives.
Does that mean every single time or for every single person that's true? Maybe not. So there are some conditions and some people who are in a stage of their life in their journey with IBS or other digestive disorders and digestive conditions where a medication or a supplement is the support that they need to get their gut moving in that moment, while they dig deeper into the root of what's happening. But that does not mean that for their entire life, that that is the case, it means that right now that is the support. And so I don't want to say that that means you know that laxatives are bad, or medications are bad, and we should just strive to have them gone completely, because they can be amazing support. What I am saying is that that shouldn't be the only strategy out there. And it is actually possible, and it's actually very important to understand what is going on, because there might be some issues like dehydration. So poor hydration, that can lead to other issues in the body if it's not resolved. So just you know, putting a laxative on you to get your gut moving without addressing what's truly happening might be detrimental in other ways. And so it's very important to dig deep and understand that and again, we teach that and that is something that we are very passionate about, is getting to that root, get to that understanding so that you can be confident in your plan and also feel really good about how it's working for you.
So those are our questions for this week! Maybe listen to it again, and if you have any follow up questions or want to continue that conversation, if you're looking for any specific resources on any of this, please come over to Instagram, go to the Facebook community page, go join us there and ask so that we can continue talking about these different topics, because these are all ones I'm very passionate about!
Something big that you should be aware of is that we are enrolling for our summer and fall master method cohort! The master method is our signature group program at 16 weeks, and it's for women with IBS who are looking for that holistic approach, who want strategies that are clear, and that are really based on science and understanding of the body. Over 16 weeks you get those strategies, you get that knowledge, you get those tools. And you get to do that alongside a community of other women who have IBS and your master nutrition coaches, including myself and our other dietitian on our team. We support you through food log reviews and group coaching calls so that you can feel confident in your body, confident in your choices, and find more freedom in your life. If you are interested in that, schedule a complimentary consult with our team to talk through how this program could work for you and to make sure that it's the right fit, because we want the best for you!
As always, if there's anything from this episode that you took away that was valuable for you a review and a share means the world to us. Leave a review and then screenshot the episode, share it on Instagram, tag us at @erinjudge.rd or @gutivate and let us know what your takeaway was so that we can cheer you on! Thank you for that contribution. I hear you. I see you. I am cheering for you wherever you are right now, and I am thrilled to share this space with you. So thank you for tuning in and I'll see you on the next episode!