Irritable Bowel Syndrome
LESSON 10

In the Office with Dietitian Nancee Jaffe

Nancee Jaffe, MS, RDN, CSDH · Registered Dietitian · UCLA Division of Digestive Diseases

TOPICS DISCUSSED

Click to navigate the video

 

About Nancee Jaffe

Registered Dietitian · UCLA

Nancee Jaffe, MS, RDN, CSDH is the founding registered dietitian for the UCLA Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases. Nancee was recruited in 2012 to help develop a comprehensive GI Nutrition Program to enhance care for patients with specific nutritional issues and to provide ongoing nutritional education to UCLA GI fellows, gastroenterologists, and other health care professionals.

She also started her own private practice, Nancee Jaffe & Associates Nutrition Services (NJNS), in 2025, where she, along with 2 associate dietitians, counsels patients with diagnoses such as celiac disease, inflammatory bowel diseases, disorders of the gut brain interaction and GI manifestations of long COVID and dysautonomia.

Nancee shares her expertise on nutrition and digestive disorders by speaking at national conferences. Nancee formalized a GI-specific dietitian group housed jointly under the American Gastroenterological Association and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics in 2020. She is also a committee-lead for the Rome Foundation Diet & Nutrition Section.

In The Office segments are in-depth conversations with our experts on how they approach IBS with their own patients.

Key Takeaways

  1. When preparing for the initial visit with a GI dietitian, a diet recall (2 weekdays and 1 weekend day) is helpful but is by no means necessary. Helpful information to include: what you ate and approximate portions, time of when you ate, when you experienced symptoms, what symptoms did you experience and how long did the symptoms last.
  2. Prior to a visit with a GI dietitian, come prepared with: names and doses of medications, and brands and doses of supplements since both medications and supplements can affect GI symptoms.
  3. Foods that are considered healthy for other reasons (e.g. heart health or anti-inflammatory benefits) may trigger IBS symptoms. Onions and garlic, which are known for their anti-inflammatory benefits, are common IBS triggers.
  4. Most people with IBS do not need to avoid all high FODMAP foods long term. The elimination phase of the low FODMAP diet should only take 4 weeks, after which the focus should be on reintroduction to identify triggers. Research shows most people are only intolerant to 1 to 2 FODMAP groups.
  5. The people with IBS who benefit most from the low FODMAP diet tend to have the diarrhea subtype and primary symptoms of pain, bloating and distention. Patients with the constipation subtype may benefit more from a modified low FODMAP diet that targets the FODMAPs known for causing gas and bloating.
  6. Diet is only one factor that may affect IBS symptoms. Sometimes food is not the trigger but instead is exacerbating an overly sensitized gut. Working with a gastroenterologist and GI psychologist to decrease gut sensitivity may be helpful if many foods trigger symptoms.
  7. SIBO and IMO can present similarly to IBS-D and IBS-C. Identifying and treating the underlying cause of SIBO or IMO can help prevent recurrent SIBO or IMO.

Clarification: Wheat fructans are short-chain, with an average degree of polymerization (DP) of roughly 4 to 7, whereas garlic fructans are much longer-chain on average — with a mix of shorter and longer chains. The characterization of the fructan chain length in the video was reversed.