New this week to the blog: There is now nutritional information at the bottom of the recipes to make it easier for you to track your eating and stay healthy/lose weight/avoid symptoms!
Please note, the only recipes that will have this information are those posted on or after 8/8/15, as they are the only healthy, Low FODMAP, Gluten Free, Lactose Free, IBS Friendly, GERD/Acid Reflux/Heartburn Friendly recipes.
The nutritional information provided is based on calculations using the specific brands and types (gluten free/dairy free vs. not, white vs. whole grain, pink Himalayan sea salt vs. other kinds of salt that are higher in sodium, etc. etc.). Therefore, they are only a guideline for you and the values will be different based on what brands/types of products you’re using. For ingredients such as these, there are notes on the recipe providing the brand name and type I’ve used and/or links to websites with the nutritional information for them, so you can compare with the brands/types of ingredients you’re buying to try and stick within the same range of fat, sodium, carbs, fiber, etc. Or, if there’s not (I am, after all, only human and sometimes forget), leave a comment on the recipe page and ask away!
A word of advice: Don’t ever let the figures (especially percentages) in recipe nutritional information scare you too much. Something like the Skinny Sesame Chicken w/Veggies & Noodles or the Crispy Baked Savory Chicken may look super high in sodium and fat at first glance, but put in perspective it’s actually completely fine. I’m on a 1300 calorie eating plan and there are days (now that I’m in maintenance mode of my GERD) that I have had one of those for dinner and the other for lunch (as well as having something else that’s fairly high in fat, the Toasted Quinoa w/Roasted Butternut Squash and Toasted Pine Nuts, Sage & Chives as the side dish to the chicken) and I don’t even hit the recommended amount of sodium or fat for the day by a long shot. The key is that my snacks and/or “mini meals” are all very low fat (things like fruit, plain rice cakes, lowfat cottage cheese that has had flavor infused by way of herbs/spices).
Bottom line, numbers are only that. Numbers. Make sure to talk with your doctor and/or dietitian to get an accurate figure of how many calories you should be getting in a day and any categories (fat, sodium, carbs, sugar, etc.) you may need to drastically reduce (and what those figures are). Then, sign up for My Fitness Pal (free website and smartphone app) or some other similar food tracking system (My Fitness Pal is great due to how many brands of foods they already have nutritional information for) and go from there. You can specifically tell My Fitness Pal how much of your day’s nutrition needs to be from fat, carbs and protein and then it will let you know when you’re gone over/haven’t gotten enough). There is a wide range of recipes here on the blog (and that range continues to expand), so almost anyone should be able to find some that work for them or that, once adapted a bit, work for them.
Usually, though, the best way to gauge whether you need to cut back on something is by listening to your body. If you have too much fat one day and the next day or day after you’re really hurting, chances are you need to be more careful with your fat intake. The combination of tools available (doctor, dietitian, online food logging websites and listening to your own body), when utilized (and utilized properly), can help you lead a life free from digestive issues. This new implementation of the nutritional information is solely as an additional tool to help you stay accountable and keep track of what you’re taking in, to make it easier to pinpoint what may have triggered IBS and/or GERD symptoms one day or what may be the cause of a weight loss plateau.