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Witten Assignment for the FodMap Diet...

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Fundamental Nutrition

Written Assignment The low-FODMAP experience General Information Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is the most common gastrointestinal digestive disorder, affecting roughly 15% of the adult population globally. If you are lucky enough to never have IBS wreak havoc on your guts, chances are, someone close to you will suffer through it at some point in their lives. Symptoms of this syndrome include intense abdominal bloating, disrupted bowel habits (ranging from constipation to diarrhea) and abdominal pain. Because there are no tests to diagnose this condition, it is usually inferred by a process of elimination– i.e., when the diagnostic tests for all other conditions come out negative. Once diagnosed, you have no recourse other than to dramatically alter your diet. The new diet reality for people affected by IBS is to follow the low FODMAP diet. FODMAP is short for fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols. Fermentable oligosaccharides are found in the seeds of most legumes. Di- and mono-saccharides are the simple sugars that we find in most fleshy fruits and honey. Polyols (not covered in this course) are naturally occurring sugar alcohols found in some fruit and sugar free chewing gums. For this assignment, you will be creating a three-day meal plan that is suitable for someone affected by IBS. Table 1 shows a brief list of foods that are high and low on the FODMAP scale. A similar but more extensive list is available here: https://www.ibsdiets.org/wpcontent/uploads/2016/03/IBSDiets-FODMAP-chart.pdf. The meal plans for each day should include a breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner. Each day should provide between 2,000 to 2,500 Calories and capture a range of the macronutrients and a respectable amount of the micronutrients. The meals should be simple and made from scratch, as much as possible. (i.e., no processed foods allowed). It is recommended that you search online for low FODMAP recipes that are accompanied with pictures to include in your report. While you are not required to cook the meals, you must include pictures –or links to the pictures– of the dinner meals (it is not necessary to include pictures of the breakfast, lunch and snacks). In the interest of keeping the upload files small, it is preferable to include only the link to the website where the picture of the dinner meal can be found. You are certainly more than welcomed to cook the meals at home and post your own pictures. Using the NutritionCalc Plus software you will identify and present the spectrum of macronutrients and micronutrients captured in each meal plan. Note that the software allows you to generate several different kinds of reports. You are expected to use these reports to explore the nutritional composition of your meals.

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Table 1 Examples of low- and high-FODMAP foodsa

aNot

a complete list of foods. Portion size matters; several foods have a specific serving size in which they would be high versus low in FODMAPs. FODMAPs, fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols. labels of packaged foods to ensure they do not have added high-FODMAP ingredients (e.g., high-fructose corn syrup, wheat, onion, garlic). (Source: Annu. Rev. Med. 2020.71:303-314).

bAbbreviation: cRead

Instructions for using NutritionCalc Plus Step 1. Before using the NutritionCalc Plus software, you need to activate your Connect platform account. The instructions and registration code for activating your account is given in the PPT located here:

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NutritionCalc Plus is hosted within Connect. Once registered with Connect, you can access NutritionCalc Plus. Step 2. Create a new profile in Nutrition Calc Plus. The profile will be for a 25-year-old female. Note: given that this assignment is focused on the nutritional composition of the ingredients, the specific details of this individual will not greatly matter. But, in the interest of consistency across all student reports, please enter the following details about this individual. Birthdate: 09/01/96 Gender: female Height: 5’4” Weight: 130lbs Weight loss/gain: 0 Activity level: low Step 3. Go to Intakes and enter the ingredients and amounts per serving. Make sure to select USDA ingredients only (see screenshot below). The nutritional information for non-USDA ingredients may be inaccurate. Make sure to include all major ingredients in the recipe. Minor ingredients (e.g. a dash of parsley may be omitted).

Step 4. Go to “Reports” and select a report. Once selected, you will be prompted to pick which meal you want to analyse. You can select all of them at once and download the spreadsheet as a PDF or excel spreadsheet. These reports will give you the nutritional composition of each ingredient. **Note the “Spreadsheet Report” is the only one that gives you the specific amounts of essential (and non-essential) nutrients (e.g., simple sugars) per ingredient. This will give you important information regarding how suitable the meal is for someone with IBS.

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Instructions for write-up Given how little we know about IBS and the long-term impacts of low FODMAP diets, the purpose of this assignment is to glean information about the nutritional adequacy of IBSfriendly meals over the course of three days. With the high enrolment number of students in this course, it will be interesting to see what nutritional patterns emerge from the analysis of thousands of meals. I will be sharing a summary of the main findings from this assignment. I will also compile a list of the best recipes along with their nutritional information to give to students before the end of the term. With the NutritionCalc reports in hand, take some time to explore the diversity and richness of the essential nutrients in these meals. You are expected to extract the most relevant numerical data to discuss the nutritional merits of the meals you selected. 1. Title (5%). Your report should include a title that captures the essence of the paper. The title may be creative, but it still must be specific enough that the reader should immediately know what your paper is about. 2. Introduction (30%). The introduction should be clear, specific, and brief. Brevity does not mean that it should be lacking in detail; it means that the information provided is relevant to the purpose of the written report. It should also contain key words that are directly relevant to the objectives. What should the reader know about low-FODMAP diets and essential nutrients before reading the analysis that follows? Your introduction should therefore prepare your readers for the very specific analysis your report will undertake. End your introduction by clearly articulating –in your own words– the objective of your written report. Maximum 2 pages. 3. Main Body (50%). In the write-up of this section, you will make the transition from data to information using the knowledge acquired in this course. The main body will contain your analysis of the data generated from the NutritionCalc Plus reports. It is strongly recommended that you summarize the data from the NutritionCalc Plus reports and present them clearly in a table and/or figures. A short but non-exhaustive list about what to think about and include in the main body. • Does following a low FODMAP diet present challenges to getting sufficient amounts of certain essential nutrients? If so, which ones?

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• • •

What long-term health impacts can you expect from the absence of these essential nutrients in the diet? How diverse are the meals with respect to botanical and taxonomic diversity? (e.g., fleshy fruit, seed of dry fruit, etc). Does knowing more about the botanical origin of foods help in inferring what is potentially a low FODMAP food? Minimum length (excluding tables/figures): 3 pages Maximum length (excluding tables/figures): 4 pages

4. Conclusion (5%). The conclusion should write itself. A well-thought-out paper leads to a perfect conclusion; a disorganized paper with no cohesive thread (just random listing of facts and numbers) leads to a general and vague conclusion. Maximum length: 1/2 page. 5. Literature cited (2.5%). Cite (in-text citations) and reference all your sources. Use any referencing style you like, but be consistent. 6. Appendix (7.5%): Page 1 of the “Spreadsheet Report” for each dinner meal. Late Penalties: A 5% penalty will apply for every day late.

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