UNDERSTANDING GUT HEALTH & IBS
WHAT IS GUT HEALTH - AND WHY DOES IT MATTER?
Your gut is far more than a digestive system. The trillions of bacteria living in your gastrointestinal tract - collectively known as your gut microbiota - play a critical role in immune function, mental health, hormonal balance, and chronic disease risk. Research increasingly shows that a disrupted gut microbiome is linked to conditions including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, depression, anxiety, and even reproductive health conditions like PCOS and endometriosis.
What you eat has a profound impact on the health and diversity of your gut bacteria. The good news is that targeted dietary changes can make a meaningful difference - often relatively quickly. Our Perth gut health dietitians can help you build an eating pattern that actively supports a healthy, diverse microbiome and reduces the symptoms that are making your daily life harder than it needs to be.
1. Dietary diversity is one of the strongest predictors of gut microbiome diversity. Aim for 30 or more different plant foods per week - including vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, nuts, and seeds.
2. Increase your fibre intake. Both soluble and insoluble fibre feed beneficial gut bacteria. Prebiotic fibres from foods like garlic, onion, leeks, oats, and legumes are particularly valuable for supporting the growth of health-promoting bacterial strains.
3. Include fermented foods. Yoghurt, kefir, kimchi, sauerkraut, tempeh, and kombucha all introduce beneficial live bacteria into the gut and have been shown to increase microbiome diversity and reduce inflammatory markers.
4. Go for polyphenol-rich foods. Dark chocolate, almonds, blueberries, onions, broccoli, and extra-virgin olive oil are all rich in polyphenols - plant compounds that act as fuel for beneficial gut bacteria and have anti-inflammatory properties.
FOUR EVIDENCE-BASED WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR GIT BACTERIA THROUGH DIET
Irritable bowel syndrome affects approximately 1 in 7 Australians and is twice as common in women as in men. Despite how widespread it is, IBS remains one of the most misunderstood and poorly managed conditions in primary care - with many sufferers spending years cycling through elimination diets, conflicting advice, and unnecessary food restriction before finding a plan that actually works.
If you're dealing with IBS, you deserve more than a generic handout. Our Perth IBS dietitians take a thorough, evidence-based approach to identifying your individual triggers and building a long-term management strategy tailored specifically to you.
COMMON SYMPTOMS OF IBS
IBS symptoms vary significantly between individuals and can range from mildly inconvenient to genuinely debilitating. If you recognise several of the following, it's worth speaking to both your GP and a specialist IBS dietitian in Perth:
- abdominal pain
- constipation, diarrhoea or a mixture of both
- bloating
- excessive wind
- urgency to poo
- fatigue
IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROME (IBS) - PERTH DIETITIAN SUPPORT
THE LOW FODMAP DIET FOR IBS - PERTH'S MONASH-CERTIFIED DIETITIANS
"We still don't know what causes IBS, although a number of factors including gut sensitivity, infections like gastroenteritis, and/or an unhealthy gut are thought to play a role.
IBS symptoms are real and in many cases, debilitating. The good news is IBS can be treated.
You may be restricting foods unnecessarily, avoiding entire food groups, developing a poor relationship with food, avoiding work/social situations...Don't put up with IBS-like symptoms anymore!
We can help."
Before commencing a low FODMAP diet, it is essential to rule out coeliac disease and other gastrointestinal conditions with your GP. Our Perth dietitians work closely with your medical team to ensure your gut health management is properly coordinated.
The low FODMAP diet is the most extensively researched dietary treatment for IBS, with studies consistently showing that 3 in 4 people with IBS experience significant symptom relief when the diet is followed correctly under dietitian guidance.
FODMAP stands for Fermentable Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, Monosaccharides and Polyols - a group of short-chain carbohydrates that are poorly absorbed in the small intestine and can trigger IBS symptoms in susceptible individuals. The goal of the low FODMAP approach is not to permanently eliminate these foods, but to systematically identify which specific FODMAPs trigger your symptoms - and in what quantities - so you can build a personalised, varied, and nutritionally complete long-term diet.
The process has three phases:
Phase 1 — Elimination (2–6 weeks) All high FODMAP foods are temporarily removed from the diet to establish a symptom baseline. This phase should always be guided by a dietitian to ensure nutritional adequacy and avoid unnecessary restriction.
Phase 2 — Reintroduction Individual FODMAP groups are reintroduced one at a time, in a structured and systematic way, to identify your personal triggers. The timing, order, and quantities used during reintroduction depend on your specific symptoms and circumstances - this is where working with a Monash-certified dietitian makes a significant difference to your outcomes.
Phase 3 — Personalisation A long-term, personalised eating pattern is established based on your identified triggers and tolerances - allowing you to eat as varied and enjoyable a diet as possible while keeping your symptoms under control.
PERTH GUT HEALTH & IBS DIETITIAN
Book an Gut Health & IBS Dietitian in Perth
Our Perth dietitians currently see clients at the following locations. Telehealth appointments are also available Australia-wide.
Please note, we still see non-fertility patients in our private rooms within Fertility Specialists and Genea.
Promotion Health - Claremont
Phone: (08) 9284 4405
9 Leura Avenue
Claremont WA 6010
(opposite Claremont train station)
Fertility Specialists WA - Claremont
fertilitywa@cityfertility.com.au
Level 1, 4/278 Stirling Hwy,
Claremont WA 6010
Fertility Specialists WA - Applecross
Phone: 1300 392 393
fertilitywa@cityfertility.com.au
Level 1, 764 Canning Hwy,
Applecross WA 6153
Genea Perth - Wembley
Phone: (08) 9389 4200
Level 2, 190 Cambridge Street,
Wembley WA 6014
*We are covered by all the major private health funds and rebates are available for clients referred by their GP on EPC and Department of Veterans Affairs programs.
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