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  4. What would be an appropriate list of fermentable carbohydrates to offer to our clients?
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  4. What would be an appropriate list of fermentable carbohydrates to offer to our clients?

What would be an appropriate list of fermentable carbohydrates to offer to our clients?

Amy Nett: [6:24] The next question from Amanda, “What would be an appropriate list of fermentable carbohydrates to offer to our clients?”

[For] this one, sometimes context is helpful for these because I’m not sure if you’re saying fermentable carbohydrates to avoid in the setting of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth or fermentable carbohydrates to help support the gut microbiome, and I guess, to some extent, it’s probably the same answer. I think we’re going to get into this in more detail once we dive deeper into the GI [gastrointestinal] treatment section.

[For] fermentable carbohydrates, the first thing that’s jumping out to me is if you’re talking about FODMAPs, and FODMAPs stands for fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols. And so, we talk often about a low-FODMAP diet in the context of treating small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, and, again, we’re using it as a therapeutic diet. I’m pretty sure, again, when we go into treatment for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, we are going to give you a handout that CCFM offers our patients in terms of using a low-FODMAP diet as a therapeutic diet. We’ll give you a handout for that, but certainly, for now, you can look up a low-FODMAP diet and whether you want the patient eating those fermentable carbohydrates or not, that would be your list: either eat these or don’t eat these, but certainly the really common fermentable foods that we think about—broccoli, cauliflower, onions, garlic, Jerusalem artichoke, Brussels sprouts—there, you’re going to be getting a lot of the fibers and really supporting the gut microbiome. If you’re talking about fermentable carbohydrates in the sense of how should we support the gut microbiome, you can also think about if somebody’s diet isn’t including adequate fiber, thinking about the different prebiotics, whether it’s acacia fiber, psyllium husk, glucomannan, ​___ [8:39]​, there’s an endless option out there for prebiotic fibers to help support the gut microbiome, so a lot of different options. But if you’re thinking about FODMAP specifically, the fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols, we’ll give you that handout as we keep moving through the course. But hopefully, that gives you a starting place for where to go with that.

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