A condition where excessive bacteria colonize the small intestine, leading to fermentation of carbohydrates, malabsorption, bloating, diarrhea, and nutritional deficiencies. SIBO often underlies many IBS cases.
General information about how people eat, not medical advice. Talk to a clinician before changing your diet to treat a condition.
The Low-FODMAP diet helps manage SIBO symptoms by reducing the substrate available for bacterial fermentation in the small intestine. While not a cure for SIBO, it provides significant symptomatic relief during and after antibiotic treatment by limiting the fermentable carbohydrates that feed the overgrown bacteria. Many patients use this diet as part of a comprehensive SIBO treatment protocol to control symptoms and prevent rapid recurrence.
How SIBO bacteria ferment carbohydrates in the small intestine (rather than the colon where fermentation normally occurs), producing hydrogen, methane, or hydrogen sulfide gas along with other byproducts. By restricting FODMAPs, the diet reduces the fermentable substrate available to these bacteria, thereby decreasing gas production, bloating, and the osmotic diarrhea caused by bacterial metabolites. This helps manage symptoms while other treatments address the bacterial overgrowth itself.
Key foods White rice and gluten-free grains, lactose-free dairy products, bananas and kiwi, carrots and green beans, spinach and bok choy, chicken and fish, eggs, garlic-infused oil
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