A food intolerance means your gut has trouble processing certain types of carbohydrates. Unlike a food allergy, it does not involve your immune system and is not dangerous. It does, however, cause real discomfort.

When these carbohydrates reach your large intestine undigested, your gut bacteria break them down. That process produces gas and draws water into your bowel, which is what causes bloating, cramping, and changes in digestion.

Intolerances vary enormously from person to person. What causes a strong reaction in one person may be completely fine for another. That is why your map is personal to you.

Your baseline is your gut's typical resting state, when you have not eaten any triggering foods for several hours. nrsh tracks this continuously so it always has a reference point.

Your baseline can shift over time due to stress, sleep, illness, or changes in diet. nrsh accounts for this, which is why the same food might get a different signal on different days.

Sensitivity is how strongly your gut reacts to a trigger food, relative to the amount you ate. Someone with high sensitivity to fructans may react to a small piece of garlic. Someone with low sensitivity may tolerate a full serving without any symptoms.

Your sensitivity is not fixed. It can improve with dietary management, or worsen temporarily during stress or illness. nrsh tracks this over time and updates your map as it changes.

Fructans are chains of fructose sugar found in wheat, garlic, onion, leek, and some other vegetables. They are not absorbed in the small intestine, so they travel to the large intestine where bacteria ferment them.

Fructans are one of the most common triggers for people with gut sensitivity. Garlic and onion tend to be the strongest sources because they contain fructans in very concentrated form, even in small amounts.

Sourdough bread is lower in fructans than regular bread because long fermentation partially breaks them down.

GOS stands for galacto-oligosaccharides. They are found mainly in legumes like chickpeas, lentils, kidney beans, and edamame. Like fructans, they pass undigested to the large intestine.

Rinsing canned legumes and keeping portions small can meaningfully reduce GOS content. Germinating or sprouting legumes also lowers their GOS level.

Lactose is the sugar found in dairy products. It requires an enzyme called lactase to digest it. People with low lactase activity cannot fully break it down, leading to fermentation in the large intestine.

The amount of lactose varies significantly by dairy type. Hard cheeses and butter contain very little. Milk, yoghurt, and soft cheeses contain more. Lactose-free versions of dairy products are widely available and work well as substitutes.

Fructose is a natural sugar found in fruit, honey, and some vegetables. Most people absorb it well, but when fructose is present in excess of glucose in a food, absorption becomes less efficient and some passes into the large intestine.

Fruits high in excess fructose include apples, pears, mango, and watermelon. Fruits where fructose and glucose are balanced, like bananas and berries, are generally well tolerated.

Sorbitol is a sugar alcohol found naturally in stone fruits like peaches, plums, cherries, and apricots. It is also added to some sugar-free products and chewing gum as a sweetener.

It is absorbed slowly and incompletely, and the portion that reaches the large intestine can trigger symptoms. Sorbitol and fructose often appear together in the same foods, which can make the effect stronger.

Mannitol is another sugar alcohol, found in mushrooms, cauliflower, sweet potato, and celery. Like sorbitol, it is absorbed poorly and ferments in the large intestine.

Mannitol and sorbitol are tracked separately on your map because your sensitivity to each can differ. Some people react strongly to one but not the other.

The spider graph shows your sensitivity across all six trigger groups at once. Each axis represents one group. The further out toward the edge, the stronger your sensitivity in that area.

The solid line is your long-term baseline, built from all your logged meals over time. The dashed line shows where you are right now. If the dashed line sits outside the solid line, your gut is more reactive than usual in that area today.

Trigger stacking happens when a single meal contains multiple trigger foods, even if each one on its own would be fine. The combined load can push your gut over its threshold when individual ingredients would not.

A common example is a meal with garlic, onion, and wheat all together. Each is moderate on its own for many people, but together they can produce a strong response. nrsh tracks the combined load of each meal and factors this into your signal.

Your gut's response to food is not fixed. It depends on your baseline at that moment, what you ate earlier in the day, your stress levels, sleep quality, and how your sensitivity is trending at that time.

A food that gets a Clear signal after a rest day might get a Caution signal on a day when you have already eaten other triggers. This is normal. nrsh accounts for the cumulative load across the day, not just the individual meal.

Learning mode means nrsh does not yet have enough data to make a confident assessment for a particular trigger group. This typically happens early on, or for trigger groups where you rarely eat relevant foods.

The best way to unlock learning mode is to log meals that include foods from that group. You do not need to eat large amounts. A normal serve of a high-mannitol food like mushrooms, logged in a simple meal, gives nrsh a clean signal to learn from.

Food takes several hours to travel from the stomach through the small intestine and into the large intestine, where fermentation occurs. This transit time varies between individuals, which is why symptoms can appear anywhere from one to six hours after a meal.

nrsh tracks this timing in your history. Over time it learns your personal pattern and can give you a better sense of when to expect a response.

Your body's signal and how you feel do not always match perfectly. Logging symptoms helps nrsh understand the connection between the two for you personally, so its guidance becomes more accurate over time.

Even logging "feeling good" is valuable. It helps nrsh confirm that certain foods or meals are well tolerated, and gives your map more confidence in those areas.

Yes. Many people find that careful dietary management over several weeks reduces the intensity of their reactions. As your gut settles and the load of triggering foods decreases, the threshold for a reaction can shift upwards.

nrsh tracks this for you. If your sensitivity to a trigger group has been falling over time, you will see that reflected in your insights. The goal is not avoidance forever, but understanding, so you can eat as broadly as your gut allows.