The newsletter
A free weekly email about what actually sets off gut symptoms. Each issue takes one trigger and explains the mechanism, the dose that matters, and what to do about it.
The writing comes from gut science and from what real patients report, drawing on Monash University FODMAP research and the GI literature. No detox teas. No “15 foods that secretly destroy your gut.” No wellness fluff. Every claim is sourced and checkable.
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The weekly briefs alongside the in-depth guides. Looking up one food? Browse the full food index →
Pesto removes tomato acid but can add more fat, garlic, and cheese. Olive oil removes tomato too but is still fat. The better pasta test keeps portion, timing, and the rest of the bowl in view.
Decaf changes caffeine. Cold brew changes extraction chemistry. Tea changes the drink. Match the swap to urgency, heartburn, jitters, or what you add to the cup.
The gentler bean is often the one that spent time in water you throw away. Canning, soaking, cooking, draining, and portion size can all change how much fermentable carbohydrate reaches the plate.
Sourdough fermentation may lower wheat fructans. Gluten-free bread removes gluten. Those are different changes, and the right comparison depends on whether the problem is celiac disease, wheat fructans, or the finished loaf.
The most useful restaurant order is not the dish with the healthiest name. It is the dish the kitchen can explain and modify without rebuilding it from scratch.
Garlic and onion do several jobs in a recipe, which is why one bland substitute never works. Match infused oil, chives, scallion greens, asafoetida, or vegetables to the job you need replaced.
Lactose-free milk keeps the dairy and removes one sugar. Dairy-free products replace the milk itself. Which carton to reach for depends on what in the original drink is bothering you.
Plant milks remove lactose, but the source, processing, added sugar, gums, oils, and fortification vary by carton. Compare products, not category reputations.
Carbonation adds gas and can increase belching or temporary fullness. That is not the same as proving plain sparkling water causes GERD or intestinal fermentation.
Cooking softens plant tissue, but it does not turn every vegetable into a low-gas food. The vegetable, amount, cooking method, and rest of the salad matter.
A dairy-free protein bar can still combine chicory-root fiber, sugar alcohols, concentrated fruit, nuts, and a large fiber dose. Read the formula, not the halo.
Whey isolate usually changes the lactose dose. Plant protein changes the protein source. Neither fixes sweeteners, added fibers, serving size, or a shake swallowed too quickly.
The food every doctor tells you to eat more of is also a top bloat driver. The gas usually isn't your gut rejecting fiber — it's fermentation, and a sign the bacteria are still catching up.
Decaf does it too, which clears the obvious suspect. Coffee runs three separate jobs on your gut at once, and the one that sends you to the bathroom isn't the caffeine.
Sugar-free products may use polyols, added fiber, or high-intensity sweeteners. Those ingredients do not share one digestive effect, and the amount can stack across the day.
A clean scope and normal bloodwork rule out structural disease, not a real, pattern-based disorder. IBS and its kin are disorders of gut-brain interaction, and standard tests aren't built to see them. What 'normal' actually rules in, the red flags that mean go back, and how to bring a pattern to your next appointment.
Onions, wheat, apples, milk. The FODMAP avoid list reads like foods you can never eat again. It's actually a short diagnostic: cut the whole list briefly, then add families back to find which fermentable carbs your gut can't handle, and in what amount.
The famous 'cut coffee, chocolate, and citrus' list is mostly a population guess. Reflux is mechanical: a valve at the top of your stomach, how full and fatty the meal is, and whether you lie down after. That's why when and how you eat usually does more for the burn than which food you swore off.
Gout isn't about 'rich food' in the abstract. It's purines turning into uric acid, and only some high-purine sources actually move your flare risk. Why beer and soda matter through a different door than a pork chop, and why purine-rich vegetables barely count.
The wine that was fine last month floors you tonight. Histamine intolerance isn't an allergy to particular foods. It's a bucket that overflows when the histamine you eat outpaces the DAO enzyme clearing it. Why your threshold is personal and moves by the day, the foods that run high, and how to find your own line.
GLP-1 medicines can slow stomach emptying, which may contribute to nausea, fullness, or reflux. Clinical guidance commonly emphasizes meal size, fat, and timing, alongside advice from the prescribing clinician.
A food-and-symptom diary is the right instrument failing on the wrong problem. The job was never willpower. It's that you have to log faithfully, read ingredients you can't see, and catch reactions that show up hours late. Where a plain diary works, where it breaks, and what fixes it.
Barcode scanners score a product against general rules. IgG panels aren't validated for food sensitivity. A structured meal-and-symptom record can surface repeated associations against your own baseline.
When researchers fed gluten-free eaters secret gluten, nothing happened. When they fed them fructans, they bloated. Why most 'gluten sensitivity' is your gut fermenting a carb — and how a slice of sourdough can tell you which one is yours.
Histamine builds up in protein-rich food the longer it sits, and reheating does not destroy it. Freezing leftovers the day you cook locks the histamine at its lowest level.
Histamine can build in certain foods during handling, aging, or fermentation, but the evidence is strongest for specific fish and much less certain for ordinary leftovers. What chilling, freezing, and reheating can actually change.
Garlic is loaded with fructans, a fiber the human gut cannot break down, and the symptoms usually arrive 4 to 24 hours after the meal. That delay is the reason most people blame the wrong food.
Each food on your plate can be low-FODMAP on its own and still add up to a reaction. Your gut doesn't grade foods one at a time; it adds them up. How fermentable carbs stack within a meal, with the smoothie that proves it.
Fermentable carbs aren't digested until they reach your colon, hours after you eat them — so lunch's garlic gets blamed on dinner. The clock between bite and symptom is the clue most people throw away.
Smoothies, salads, beans, cauliflower, oat milk: the foods on every wellness list also top the gut's most-fermentable list. The reason isn't that they're bad for you. It's that healthy says nothing about how your gut handles them, and the dose adds up.
