I searched around and didn't see anything like this posted here so I wanted to start a discussion on it just in case it might help someone else if the run into the issued I did.
For background I started my research donkey on a low dose of reta in march. By around July weight goals had been reached and also a bit of a stall. The dose hadn't needed a change up from 1mg 2x week (lucky donkey is a good responder). But with the stall we decided to up the dosing a bit.
As expected appetite dropped a fair bit and hitting macros got to be hard. So, we hit up the protein bar aisle and grabbed atkins bars, fit crunch etc. Things with good macros on paper and that tasted great to help hit nutrient goals. Some gut distress started but nothing major so we though adding in some more fiber from foods and Metamucil type stuff would help. But things just kept getting worse. Bloating, low energy just general miserableness.
After a few weeks of suffering, even dropping the reta back to 1mg 2x a week didn't help. Doing some research we ran across FODMAP style foods/fiber causing issues like this.
From claude:
FODMAP is an acronym for a group of short-chain carbohydrates that are poorly absorbed in the small intestine, then ferment in the gut — producing the gas, bloating, and water-shifting you've been fighting this whole thread. It stands for Fermentable Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, Monosaccharides, And Polyols.
Breaking down the acronym
Letter Type Examples Found in
F Fermentable (the process — bacteria ferment these, making gas) —
O Oligosaccharides Fructans, GOS Wheat, onion, garlic, chicory/inulin, beans
D Disaccharides Lactose Milk, soft cheese, yogurt
M Monosaccharides Excess fructose Apples, pears, mango, honey, HFCS
A And — —
P Polyols Sorbitol, mannitol, maltitol, xylitol Stone fruit, mushrooms, sugar-free "diet" products
So essentially everything I'd been doing to try and make poor Mr. Donkey feel better was compounding the issues. But within 48 hours of removing anything even close to FODMAP from the diet and moving foods like this made a world of difference. Essentially I just had claude list off ingredients to use, and did scan's of common foods I was eating to make sure they passed the no fodmap test.
Claude's summary of the good stuff: The fiber you want is the gentle, low-fermentation kind that doesn't sit in your gut making gas — think resistant starch (cook potatoes or rice, then cool them in the fridge overnight; the starch changes so it passes through and feeds the far end of your colon slowly instead of bloating you up front), plus soluble fibers like PHGG/SunFiber, acacia, chia, oats, and flax. On the food side that's berries, kiwi, oranges, firm bananas, spinach, zucchini, carrots, green beans, rice, quinoa, and cooled potatoes. The whole trick is avoiding the fast-fermenting stuff — chicory root/inulin, soluble corn fiber, sugar alcohols, onion and garlic, and most "high-fiber" bars — because that's what actually causes the gas and bloating. And if you want a fiber with literally zero fermentation, methylcellulose (Citrucel) is the no-gas option.
Maybe everyone knew this already but just in case some other poor donkey starts down this path I wanted to toss this out there.
