Symptoms for patients with the gastrointestinal disease IBS improved as much by eating less sugar and starch as for those who followed FODMAP - the diet currently recommended to patients. The results, presented in a new study from Lund University in Sweden, also show that weight loss is greater and sugar cravings are reduced among those who follow the starch and sucrose-reduced diet. Bodil Ohlsson is a professor at Lund University and consultant at Skåne University Hospital.
Her choice to investigate the role of sugars and starches in IBS is linked to a geneticist's discovery: a genetic variation that hinders the breakdown of sugars and starches in the gut is overrepresented among IBS patients. 'Let's try giving these patients less sugar and starch,' we thought." Bodil Ohlsson, Professor, Lund University A few years ago, she led a study involving 105 people with IBS.
For four weeks, they ate significantly less sugar and starch, known as the starch and sucrose-reduced diet (SSRD). In addition to sweet treats, highly processed food - "ready meals" - were also to be avoided. The results of that study showed that the SSRD diet greatly reduced IBS symptoms.
The most common symptoms of IBS are recurring pain and tightness in the abdomen, and diarrhoea and/or constipation. The current study, now published in the scientific journal Nutrients, addresses a question that no other research has previously: how does SSRD compare to the current dietary recommendation for IBS, the FODMAP d.