Check your FODMAP facts! Also an overdue health update and the ONLY recipe I've made all year!

Hello Reader, It's been a while, crocodile!

Let's start by clearing up any confusion. The eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed that both my email address and email provider have changed since we last spoke. My (infrequent) email newsletters will now be coming via Kit from the address michelle@theirritablevegan.com. You may want to add that address to your approved senders list or drag this email from the depths of your spam folder into your inbox so we can stay in touch more easily.

This email is gonna be a long one, but I feel like it's long overdue! If personal musings are not your thing, then the health update part of this email probably won't interest you. No hard feelings, but don't miss the important updates in sections 1 and 2 below. If you're just here for the recipes, you'll want to skip to the end to see the ONLY recipe I've managed to produce this year!

1. Updated free resources for 2025

While I've been away from the blog, YouTube, and social media, I've been working behind the scenes. I've recently updated the freebies inside the Got Guts subscriber vault. This includes the stacking cheatsheets, printables and PDFs. These are now all updated in line with the recent research and changes to the Monash FODMAP app.

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2. Monash Reintroduction Update

Speaking of Monash, things seem to have gone CRAZY over there! Have you been keeping up with the latest changes regarding the reintroduction phase? There's been A LOT going on and some big surprises...

• Cauliflower is now listed as a low FODMAP food!
• Sweet potato contains fructans, not mannitol!
• Blackberries, grapefruit and raisins now appear in the fructose category!
• The only foods now listed for your fructan in fruits and vegetable reintroduction are bananas and leeks!

No one can say the life of a fodmapper is ever dull! These changes are causing quite a lot of controversy and confusion. If you haven't already, check out the official blog post linked above. You'll need to fully update the app via your app store to view these new changes.

I must admit that so many of these changes affect multiple ebooks, recipes and articles written in the past that I've not had a chance to go through and update every post on the blog. I'm just one woman! So I concentrated my recent efforts on the resources in the vault. If you come across any discrepancies on the blog, feel free to email me, and I'll add it to the (never-ending) to-do list.

The best place to ask them is by following the link above and starting a conversation in the comments section of the blog post. That way, the rest of the community can benefit from the answer.

3. Health Update

Now for a bit of a life update to explain my absence these past 12 months (Trigger Warning: Health topics including cancer, mental health, death and grief)

As much as I love you guys and the lovely little community we've created, at my heart, I'm a very private person and don't consider most parts of my Gen X life interesting enough to share. However, when real life begins to affect the if, how or when I show up for you, then I feel like I owe you an explanation (albeit very overdue).

To make sure I can get through this email emotionally unscathed, I'm just gonna word vomit out what I've been dealing with, with minimal editing and may (or may not) go into more detail at some point.

Non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis (AxSpA)

After decades of back pain, widespread joint and tendon pain, frequent flare-ups and debilitating fatigue, I have received a diagnosis of non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis (AxSpA). MRI tests in 2024 showed degeneration of my lumbar spine and sacroiliitis of the pelvis.

I am under the care of a consultant rheumatologist and specialist physio with 6-monthly check-ups to monitor the progress and possible degeneration of my condition.

AxSpA is a progressive form of inflammatory arthritis which affects the spine, other joints, tendons and ligaments. For me, this manifests as daily pain, weakness, numbness, discomfort, stiffness, balance and mobility issues, and fatigue.

In addition to regular flare-ups, where my movement is limited, AxSpA affects the quality and quantity of sleep, which contributes to fatigue and overall quality of life.

The preferred first-line medication for this condition is NSAIDs. Unfortunately, they cause and contribute to gut irritation and flare-ups, particularly in people with IBS. As such, I avoid these medications unless absolutely necessary, by which time my flare-up is usually beyond the scope where they can help.

There is also a link between AxSpA and inflammatory bowel disease. This is something I'll be keeping in mind concerning any changes in bowel habits and symptoms in the future.

How does this affect the content I create?

Whilst I've been dealing with some form of back, knee and joint pain since my pre-teens, I'm finding that the older I get, the harder I find it to cope and the longer I take to recover from flare-ups. After dealing with this for so long, I try my best not to let it affect me. However, there are days when my symptoms are too much for me to power through.

Creating content requires me to work on my feet for hours at a time. My studio workspace is upstairs, whilst my main kitchen, oven and sink are downstairs, so lots of stair climbing is also involved. A lot of physical work goes on behind the scenes of a recipe blog post or video, including recipe testing, food prep and cooking, setting up bulky camera equipment, tripods and lighting equipment, styling, photographing and videoing recipes which take hours longer than simply making a recipe from scratch, then finally cleaning the studio, carrying everything downstairs and washing up. Days like these often leave me in pain and suffering from extreme fatigue. This can take me several days to recover from, with very little energy for anything else.

Once the photos and videos have been taken, the editing begins. This, on the other hand, requires me to sit for hours on end at my computer. You'd think this would be preferable, but immobility is actually worse for AxSpA sufferers. I often get so engrossed in editing that I forget to take breaks or move around, which leads to stiffness, loss of mobility and pain.

This also applies to all the other computer-related tasks involved in blogging, such as writing blog posts, writing and replying to emails and comments, uploading to YouTube and social media, research, SEO, continued learning, bookkeeping, and more.

Although I am getting better at taking scheduled breaks, this has an impact on my productivity and concentration. I find it difficult to pick up a task where I left off, and I can't always get back into the flow of things.

All this has resulted in me stepping away from my blog, content creation and social media. This means that, in effect, I have not been working and have had no income from my work for over a year. This makes it hard for me to invest in the tools I need to help me, and even to buy the specialist foods and ingredients needed to test and create my recipes.

GSM & Peri-menopause

After 5+ years of persistent infections, pain, dysfunction and quality of life symptoms, I have a diagnosis of genitourinary syndrome of menopause (GSM). I am currently undergoing treatment, which is having limited success.

In addition to these specific issues (which I'm experiencing prematurely as they don't typically start until the post-menopausal phase of life), peri-menopause is generally kicking my arse!

I'm lucky to sleep more than a few hours a night, I've put on over 1.5 stone in weight, I have the hormone control of a weepy teenager, my mental health, self-confidence and self-image are through the floor, my anxiety is at an all time high, my brain, memory and cognitive function have turned to mushy peas, and everything hurts!

Unfortunately, due to an elevated family history risk of breast cancer, I am postponing my use of systemic HRT as long as I possibly can. This means that there's little I can do to alleviate the majority of these symptoms, and I'm just trying to navigate my new (ab)normal as best I can.

How does this apply to my productivity on the blog and YouTube?

Well, firstly, the disruption to my hormones appears to have shifted my IBS from IBS-D to IBS-M. This means my bowels are a lot less predictable and my IBS is feeling more uncontrolled than in previous years. In addition to dealing with the general day-to-day symptoms of IBS, this makes it difficult to test or review new products, foods and recipes as I'm not sure if they work reliably or if my bowel habits are just off.

Secondly, the idea of stepping in front of a camera fills me with a dread I cannot begin to express. If I were brave enough to attempt to film myself, I struggle to focus my chain of thought, memorise or follow a script, or even remember to turn on the microphone (true story). My anxiety is having a massive effect on my procrastination and productivity.

In turn, this lack of new published content and videos means that my YouTube account and its place in the algorithm have suffered massively, with watch time, views, and my confidence in my content at an all-time low.

Going forward, you'll likely be seeing much less of me in videos. Whilst I'm planning and hoping to get back to filming recipe videos soon, I don't have any plans to speak directly to the camera or film any topical videos such as these. I'm toying with the idea of making these types of videos private, available only to subscribers, to keep the trolls at bay.

Health anxiety, death and grief (Trigger Warning)

This year, I turned 47, not a typical milestone birthday, but for me, it's a day I've been dreading for the past 24 years. You see, at the age of 23, I lost my lovely mam to aggressive, metastatic breast cancer. She was one month into her 47th year. Younger than the age I am now.

As expected, my birthday in March this year has brought up so much unresolved grief and health anxiety. Due to several factors regarding my mams diagnosis, I am considered to be at a higher than average risk for breast cancer and as such have been having annual mammograms from the age of 40. Whilst I try to take each day as it comes, I do my self-examination breast checks and minimise other risk factors, my health anxiety and worry for what the future holds have been much worse than usual this year. Any new symptoms that arise from my other conditions get blown out of proportion in my mind; I always go to the worst-case scenario, and I think about death all the time.

Knowing that from now on I will be older than my mam ever was has also brought up a lot of repressed guilt, feelings of inadequacy and failure at not having accomplished everything I want out of life so far. I am in constant turmoil between trying to live in the moment and be grateful for the life I have, whilst coping with all the loss and health issues that are my reality.

As if this grief were not enough, on April 6th, we lost our beloved soul dog, Star. She graced our lives with 14.5 years of pure joy and unconditional love. Star and her sister Luna were born in 2010, just 5 days after my dad died unexpectedly. Together, they helped me through my grief at that time, gave me hope and something to focus my love and energy on. Over the years, they became my surrogate children, my best friends, my personal trainers and therapists. All rolled into the thickest, softest fur balls you ever had the pleasure of sticking your face into!

They taught me patience, kindness, forgiveness, compromise, how to live in the moment, and to appreciate the small things. They got me up in the morning, out of the house and into the world.

After losing Luna prematurely, too many years ago at the mere age of 6, Star became our entire world, our one and only. We spoiled her rotten, took her on every day trip and holiday and transformed our whole lifestyle to fit around her, ensuring she lived her best life. Some of you who have been around for a long time may remember her little cameos in videos like this one.

In November last year, she had a suspected stroke, which she steadily recovered from. Since then, my husband and I slept downstairs on a makeshift bed on the floor with her (for 4.5 months in the end!). We didn't want her to be alone, and she could no longer make it upstairs. She also needed regular monitoring and couldn't always make it through the night without needing to go out.

In December, she had some bloodwork done, which led to an emergency ultrasound scan. The week before Christmas, we were told she had widespread liver cancer and would likely only be with us for weeks. True to her usual way, she did everything on her terms and continued to live a happy, quiet, peaceful life until the beginning of April, when she decided it was time.

To say we are heartbroken is laughable. There are no words to express the loss we feel at the hole that's been left in our world. For the last few months of her life, I had an alarm going off on my phone every 30 minutes to 1 hour of something I needed to do for her. Multiple feeding times, medications, supplements, physio, walks, and mental stimulation games were all scheduled.

In her absence and that of the hourly tasks that ruled my days, things feel lonely and empty in comparison. I have frequent moments of panic and anxiety where I feel like I've forgotten something important.

Recovery and hope for the future

Over the past 12 months, as her age began to show and she needed me to be present, I refused to leave her alone to go work in my upstairs studio. Even working on tasks, with her by my side, became increasingly harder, with the need to break off every 30 minutes to see to her needs. I did it all, unbegrudgingly, with love and patience in my heart, and if I could have her back, I'd do it endlessly, all over again.

But as the weeks pass, I am slowly trying to replace and refocus the time and energy that I put into her love and care back into my blog and recipes. It's proving to be so much harder than I envisioned, especially as my default, mental health coping mechanism is daydreaming and procrastination.

I am very out of practice and feeling anxious, but hopeful that I can start to slowly rebuild and reclaim all that I've neglected this past year. Helping people just like you and me has brought me so much fulfilment over the years. Your kind comments and emails alone are worth all the hard work.

The only recipe I've managed to create this year (so far)!

All that being said, I have managed to test and release this recipe for Low FODMAP Pea and Pickle Soup. Let me tell you, it's the recipe of the summer that you never knew you needed! Punchy pickle flavours in a creamy, herby base. What's not to love?

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For those of you who have stuck it out this long (both reading this email and sticking with me throughout my absence), I am beyond grateful to still have you here as part of our community. I know I owe you all so much for your patience and support, and I hope to make it up to you as we move forward.

Take care of yourself, and hold those you love a little tighter today.

We'll be back to our more typical emails next time. Speak to you soon.

Michelle

xoxo