Choosing Low FODMAP against the recommendation

When you set Loopa up it asks a few questions about digestion: whether a clinician has diagnosed IBS and which type, any other diagnosed condition, how often symptoms turn up, whether you have run Low FODMAP before, and whether a dietitian or doctor is helping you.

Those answers decide what Loopa recommends. They never decide what you are allowed to choose.

When Low FODMAP is recommended

When IBS has been diagnosed, or when gut symptoms turn up weekly or more often.

When it is not

If you tell Loopa you have been diagnosed with celiac disease, Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis and you have not been diagnosed with IBS, Loopa does not recommend Low FODMAP and suggests you talk to your clinician first.

That is not Loopa being cautious for the sake of it. Those conditions need treating on their own terms, and reducing wheat before a celiac test can interfere with the test. A Low FODMAP trial can still be a reasonable thing to run alongside them, and it is a conversation to have with the person treating you rather than a decision an app should make for you.

Choosing it anyway

The Low FODMAP tile is always there and always selectable. When it is not recommended it says so on the tile, and tapping it opens one screen.

That screen tells you why, in terms of the answers you actually gave, and not in general terms.

• Told us about celiac disease? It explains that Low FODMAP reduces wheat, which reduces how much gluten you eat, and that eating less gluten before a celiac test can make the result harder to read. It also says plainly that this protocol does not replace a gluten-free diet.
• Told us about Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis? It explains that this is a way of finding out which carbohydrates set off symptoms, and is not a treatment for the disease itself.
• No IBS diagnosis, and symptoms that are not frequent? It explains that the protocol works by comparing a normal week against several restricted ones, so if symptoms rarely turn up there is little for that comparison to find, and the assessment at the end has very little to score.

Then the same three standing notes everybody sees: what the diet is for, that the restriction phase is temporary, and that working with a dietitian is recommended. At the bottom is Start anyway.

There is no second confirmation, nothing is hidden behind a longer path, and the button is not made harder to find. You read the note once and you decide. The reservation is explained; it is not an obstacle.

What Loopa records

That you chose it against the recommendation. If you work with a Loopa coach, they can see that you did, so the conversation starts from the right place. It changes nothing about how the protocol runs for you.

Where you start

If you tell Loopa you have already run Low FODMAP and say which phase you reached, it will start you as far along as it safely can rather than at day one. Some phases have requirements Loopa cannot waive: reintroduction needs a baseline to compare against, so if there is no logging behind you yet, Loopa starts at Baseline and tells you why rather than pretending you are further on than you are.

See also: The three phases, What Low FODMAP is, What suits you