It can be hard to navigate the world of yoga and nutrition when you have little background in the subject – especially when you have to be careful about what you eat and how you exercise to keep your IBS symptoms at bay. These apps provide easy access to libraries of information that can be used to personalize your daily routine from the yoga mat to the grocery store.
Price: $2.99
Developer: Rainfrog, LLC
Available for: iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Android
Rating: 4.7 Stars (3.7K ratings)
Description:
Pocket Yoga is the most thorough pose dictionary available on the app store, allowing the user to either bring a yoga studio along with them anywhere they go while practicing premade sequences for all levels, or become their own yoga teacher as they sequence a practice consisting of only the poses they want. Regardless of which path the user chooses to take, the app provides timing recommendations for holding a posture, as well as alignment cues and pictures to ensure the user is doing the pose correctly.
This app also allows individuals to grow their yoga practice, offering a wide variety of poses not typically seen in the standard studio class. Along with each pose, Pocket Yoga provides the category under which the posture falls in order for easy navigation, the difficulty of the posture, and benefits of the posture including what it stretches and stimulates. This feature makes it easy to find postures that can help with chronic disorders, such as IBS.
Though the app does cost a fee of $2.99, this is a onetime payment and there are no further in app purchases necessary for use of all of the app’s features. Compared to the fees of a yoga studio membership, $2.99 is a steal! Not to mention, this allows the yoga practice to be tailored to your schedule, time restraints, and experience level.
Price: $12.99
Developer: Monash University
Available for: iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Android
Current Rating: 4 Stars (228 ratings)
Description:
Monash FODMAP is the #1 rated medical app in the Appstore, and allows the user to quickly navigate which foods and food ingredients may cause IBS flare ups. The app provides a comprehensive library of foods that are able to be consumed with no adverse symptoms and in what amounts, as well as what foods cause those with intolerances to experience unpleasant symptoms. The app uses a “red light, green light” system and has an easy to use search feature, allowing the individual to quickly search for a food item and see if it is either a green light food, which means safe to eat in large quantities, or a red light food, which means that only an amount under a certain determined quantity can be consumed without symptom expression.
For more information about the food, the user can tap on the item in question and learn about exactly which compounds the food contains in order to identify what they may be having issues with. In another tab of the app, there is a food diary option, where the user can record what they consumed, how they felt after consumption, and symptoms they experience as well as bowel habits and pain experienced that day. When consistently used, this app is a great tool to be able to consult your doctor with and find what individual intolerances you may have.
Though this app is on the pricier side, it is well worth it. The app is frequently being updated to include new foods, new research, and new low FODMAP recipes. This app allows for the individual to figure out dietary patterns and GI distress symptoms specific to them that a doctor may not be able to diagnose. However, for those who do not want to spend the money on this app, there are other apps with less comprehensive libraries such as Fast FODMAP Lookup and Low FODMAP A to Z available on iOS for free.
Price: Free
Developer: Spoonful Inc.
Available for: iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Android
Current Rating: 4.2 Stars (29 ratings)
Description
New as of this year, Spoonful has been helping those with intolerances quickly navigate grocery aisles while building a cart of only FODMAP friendly options. This app allows the user to scan grocery store product barcodes and then compares them against a large database that is continually growing. The app then identifies which ingredients are considered to be high FODMAP, and allows the user to click on the ingredient to read about why it may cause adverse symptoms associated with IBS.
The advice provided in the app all comes from registered dieticians, making it a very reliable source for those diagnosed with IBS. The online community available in the “Feed” section of the app also allows users to see what new fun foods their fellow IBS friends are enjoying pain-free this week. When you see something you like, you can click on the item and add it to your shopping cart.
As someone who has historically spent upwards of an hour scouring the grocery store for FODMAP friendly foods, I can personally preach that going grocery shopping is no longer a time-consuming affair. I can go in with a list of foods to try – and fun foods at that – as well as scan new finds on the spot without having to research each ingredient on my own to see if it is safe for me to eat.
Fear no more with this free app used to find fun, gut friendly foods!
These three resources are great for helping you personalize your dietary and exercise habits to your personal experiences and schedule in order to optimize your gut health and time! It is almost as if you have an entire yoga studio and doctor’s office in your pocket – can it get any more convenient that that?
Yoga for Health and Wellness 