Fodmap’s Restricted Diet in Patients with Irritable Gut Syndrome: A Systematic Review

Introduction: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is an inflammatory bowel disease that has a high prevalence among the world population. Dietary interventions are considered an important intervention for the treatment and control of IBS. The diet restricted in FODMAPs, a group of fermentable carbohydrates, has been studied, since it is able to reduce symptoms such as abdominal pain, bloating and diarrhea.

Objective: To verify the role of the FODMAP’s restrictive diet in the treatment and control of irritable bowel syndrome.

Methods: The most relevant studies originally published in English, Portuguese and Spanish were analyzed using the MEDLINE (National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health) and SciELO databases as reference. In order to select the studies with the greatest scientific evidence, we only contemplate clinical trials and review studies. The search strategy used the following keywords: “irritable bowel syndrome” and “FODMAP’s restricted diet”. To identify the designs of the studies, the following terms were used: clinical trials.

Results: Initially, 117 studies were identified involving irritable bowel syndrome and the Foodmap diet. However, after applying the Clinical Trials filters, 10 studies were found. After reading the articles found and excluding them from the abstracts, 5 articles were selected involving the theme for analysis and inclusion in the scope of this review.

Conclusion: The restricted diet in FODMAPs proved to be very effective in improving general and specific symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, especially abdominal pain, bloating and diarrhea.

Keywords: Irritable bowel syndrome; Restricted Diet in FODMAP