If you’ve been struggling with bloating, cramping, unpredictable trips to the loo, or just a general sense that your digestion is “off”, you’re not alone. IBS, or Irritable Bowel Syndrome, affects a huge number of people in the UK (approximately 1 in 10), and while it may not be life-threatening, it can seriously impact your quality of life. As a nutritional therapist, I work with many clients dealing with chronic digestive symptoms linked to IBS—and I’ve seen first-hand how personalised nutrition can make a world of difference.
IBS doesn’t have to be a lifelong sentence. With the right support and a focus on root causes, it’s possible not just to manage symptoms, but to move towards genuine gut healing. If you’re curious where to begin, you can book a free discovery call with and get started on your healing journey.
IBS is what we call a “functional” digestive disorder—meaning the gut doesn’t work quite as it should, but there’s no structural damage visible. It’s commonly diagnosed when other conditions like coeliac disease or IBD have been ruled out.
There are four different types of IBS:
Typical symptoms include:
According to the NICE guidelines for IBS, treatment often starts with general lifestyle and dietary tweaks:
If that doesn’t help, medications like antispasmodics, laxatives, or anti-diarrhoeals are used, along with low-dose antidepressants in some cases. Psychological support such as CBT or gut-directed hypnotherapy may also be recommended.
Then comes diet—often, clients are referred for a trial of the low FODMAP diet.
With a low FODMAP diet the aim is to reduce the amount of Fermentable Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, Monosaccharides, and Polyols-containing foods. This means drastically reducing or cutting out specific fermentable carbohydrates that can trigger symptoms in sensitive guts. When used short-term, a low FODMAP diet can be a brilliant tool, and many people see symptoms improve quite quickly.
But here’s the issue: I often see clients who have been put on and left on a fairly strict low FODMAP diet for over a year, sometimes longer—with no review or reintroduction in sight. That’s a big problem.
Why? Because long-term restriction of high-FODMAP foods means less variety in your diet—and that means less variety in your gut microbiome. A diverse microbiome is crucial for immunity, metabolic health, mood regulation, and more. When we starve those helpful gut bugs, we may reduce symptoms, but we’re also limiting our body’s resilience in the long run.
The key is to use the low FODMAP diet as a temporary reset—not a permanent solution. A proper reintroduction phase, guided by a nutrition professional, is essential, and can ultimately help you identify what foods, and in what quantities, trigger your digestive symptoms.
IBS can lead to a really complicated relationship with food. Many people begin cutting things out in hopes of feeling better—often without guidance. Over time, this can lead to:
On top of that, chronic diarrhoea or poor digestion can reduce how well you absorb nutrients. Constipation can affect detox pathways, and lead to the recycling of used up hormones and cellular waste products. And low stomach acid or poor enzyme secretion can limit breakdown of food in the first place.
This is the good news: nutrition can profoundly support IBS. When we feed your body well, balance your gut bugs, and address any deficiencies or imbalances, the gut can begin to repair.
Nutrition can help to:
It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach—and it shouldn’t be. Your gut story is unique, and your nutrition plan should be too.
Nutritional therapy goes deeper than symptom management. We look to uncover what’s driving your symptoms—and that means asking the right questions and using testing when appropriate.
We’ll explore your symptoms, stress, lifestyle, food habits, and medical history in detail. This helps build a clear picture of what might be contributing to your IBS, and helps us narrow down on which foods may be contributing to a worsening of symptoms, and which foods are your safe foods. It also helps us better understand what testing, if any, would be most appropriate for you.
Depending on what we uncover in your initial consultation, we may look into doing further functional tests. These may include:
Based on the information collected in your initial consultation and any test results, we’ll build a nutrition, lifestyle and supplement plan that’s entirely tailored to you. This might include:
This isn’t about rigid plans or lifelong restrictions. It’s about helping your gut thrive again.
If you’re tired of managing IBS with band-aid solutions and want a deeper, more sustainable approach, nutritional therapy can help.
Book a free discovery call with nutritional therapist Ilaria to find out how we can work together to support your gut, your health, and your quality of life.
Drop us an email and we will get back to you shortly!
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