Noba

Based on research

Monash University in Australia were the first to mention a diet low in fructose and fructans specially adapted to patients with IBS in the early 2000s (1). In the years that followed, the diet gained international attention with the help of collaborators and colleagues from all over the world (see ref. 2 for details).

Today, the low FODMAP diet is recognized for use in the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) by doctors and clinical nutritionists. Monash University and FODMAP Friendly test foods and products in the laboratory and report results in their apps and websites, and in open access articles in scientific journals. These can be found on websites such as www.pubmed.com and www.scholar.google.com.

Noba takes these published research articles as a starting point in its work when assessing food products. The specific articles used are referred to in Noba. This means that Noba does not test food itself in a laboratory, but bases itself on the ingredient list of the product and research carried out on the specific ingredients the product contains. The assessments are made from the restrictive phase of the low FODMAP diet.

Assessment details

There are several considerations to take into account when evaluating foods: the food's ingredient list, the amount of the ingredients and where they are placed in the ingredient list, which FODMAPs the food contains, and how much of the product is eaten per portion. If the product contains several ingredients with quantity restrictions, the total assessment is made on the basis of the ingredient with the strictest quantity restriction. That is the ingredient you can eat the least, in grams, before you reach a moderate or high FODMAP level.

When foods are assessed, the goal is always that the users of the app should be able to eat as much as possible of the products within a low FODMAP diet, while at the same time being able to have as varied a diet as possible without any more unnecessary restrictions than the low FODMAP diet would entail for a period of time.

With us, there are clinical nutritional physiologists with good knowledge of the low FODMAP diet who evaluate products. Get to know us better by reading here.

References:

[1]. Shepherd SJ, Gibson PR. Fructose malabsorption and symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome: guidelines for effective dietary management. J Am Diet Assoc. 2006 Oct;106(10):1631-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jada.2006.07.010. PMID: 17000196.

[2]. Gibson PR. History of the low FODMAP diet. J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2017 Mar;32 Suppl 1:5-7. doi: 10.1111/jgh.13685. PMID: 28244673

[3].https://utdanning.no/yrker/beskrivelse/klinisk_ernaeringsfysiolog