For all of 2018, our registered dietitian Colleen will be answering your health and wellness questions. New questions and answers every month!
Q: Dear Colleen, I’ve been seeing a lot lately about a ‘low FODMAP’ diet. What exactly is it, and is it something to follow?
A: FODMAPs stands for Fermentable Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, Monosaccharides and Polyols, which refers to a particular group of carbohydrates based on their chemical structure. FODMAPs are found in a variety of everyday day foods both naturally and as additives but can be difficult for some individuals to digest; particularly those with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). The low FODMAP diet was developed to help manage IBS since those particular undigested carbohydrates make their way to the large intestine and can contribute to the gas, bloating, and abdominal pain associated with IBS.
FODMAPs include fructose (in fruits and vegetables), fructans (like fructose found in some veggies and grains), lactose (dairy), galactans (legumes), and polyols (artificial sweeteners). Aside from the artificial sweeteners, many of these foods are otherwise good for you. For certain people, however, eating or drinking these foods causes gastrointestinal distress.
The actual diet itself can be as difficult to understand as those carbs are to pronounce, and should only be done under the care of your doctor and dietitian- especially if you experience digestive distress. The low FODMAP diet is indeed increasing in popularity, but that is largely because scientific research has given us a greater understanding. Essentially, a low FODMAP diet is a therapeutic diet for specific ailments rather than a trendy diet for weight loss.
Q: Why doesn’t Mum-Mum add more nutrients or make a more nutrient dense biscuit?
Baby Mum-Mum teething biscuits are offered in the first year of a baby’s life at a time when teeth are beginning to arrive and baby has shown an interest in solid foods. Also at this time and until one year old, 100% of baby’s nutrient needs are coming from breast milk or infant formula. During this developmental phase, solid foods encourage motor skill development and expose baby to a variety of tastes and textures; but they are not meant to be the sole source of much-needed nutrients. Baby Mum-Mum is a supplement to help during a key phase of the development process – by soothing during the teething process, by developing hand-eye coordination, and by training the body to digest solid foods so that they are not hungry all the time as they grow.
Since our inception over 25 years ago, Baby Mum-Mum offers one of few teething biscuits on the market that remains as minimally processed as possible, with as few ingredients as possible. Over the years we have grown with our customers and continue to evolve our products to be as healthy as they can be. We’ve recently removed any added salt or sugar from some of our flavors, and we keep a dietitian on staff to keep us abreast of the latest scientific research.
It is important to understand that adding synthetic nutrients to artificially enhance a food with nutrients it otherwise wouldn’t naturally contain is a means of processing – something we wish to avoid. Also, it is misleading to parents to offer a biscuit that provides ‘extra nutrients’ when a baby should be getting those nutrients right from the source: fresh fruits and vegetables!
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