About
Why GutWise exists
Because the moment after an IBS diagnosis is usually spent looking at a contradictory printable list of forbidden foods, and that is a bad place to start.
Most people arrive at the low-FODMAP diet the same way: a doctor mentions it in the last ninety seconds of an appointment, and the rest is left to a search engine. What the search returns is a mixture of genuinely good clinical material and a large volume of thin content built to rank — lists that contradict each other, portion sizes quoted without sources, and an unmistakable undertone that food is now dangerous.
That last part matters more than it sounds. This is an audience already anxious about eating. Presenting the diet as a minefield makes people more restricted, not better informed, and the most common failure mode we see is not someone who cheats — it is someone who eliminates successfully and then never stops.
What we do differently
GutWise is built around one idea: FODMAP content is a dose, not a property. Every recipe states the serving size that keeps it low FODMAP. Every ingredient is labelled individually. Every guide points forward to the next phase, because the diet is a diagnostic process with an ending.
Our editorial standards
We cite the primary source
FODMAP thresholds come from laboratory measurement, and almost every list online is a copy of a copy of the Monash data with errors introduced along the way. Where we state a portion limit, it traces back to the people who ran the test.
We publish portions, not verdicts
Almost no food is universally forbidden — most have a threshold. Saying "avocado is high FODMAP" is unhelpful and slightly false. Saying "a quarter of an avocado is fine, half is not" is what you can actually cook with.
We push you to finish
The elimination phase is scaffolding and it is meant to come down. Every guide here points forward to reintroduction, because a permanently restricted diet is a worse outcome than the symptoms it was meant to solve.
We say when to see a doctor
Roughly a quarter of people do not respond to this diet, and several conditions mimic IBS. We would rather send you back to a clinician than keep you reading.
How the site is funded
It is not, yet. GutWise currently runs no affiliate links, no sponsorship and no advertising. Nothing on this site earns us a commission, and no brand has paid to appear on it.
That is worth stating plainly rather than leaving you to guess, because it is the thing you would most want to know when reading a page that recommends products. It also means the product page can say what it actually thinks — that most of an elimination diet is ordinary supermarket food and most specialty products are a waste of money — which is advice a commission-funded page has a quiet incentive to avoid.
If that ever changes, every paid link will be disclosed above the fold before the link itself, and the funding page will name each programme before anything goes live.
Talk to us
Corrections, questions, or your own story — all welcome. We respond within 1 business day.
Low-FODMAP Elimination Phase Starter Kit
A 14-page PDF: the full safe-foods list, a two-week meal plan, a printable symptom tracker and a shopping checklist you can take to the store.