Not long ago, my 26-year-old son came for dinner and I asked him what his favourite meal was that I used to cook for him when he lived at home. He thought about it for a while and then shook his head. “No idea,” he said. “You cooked something different every night so I couldn’t form a favourite.” That wasn’t actually true for his whole life I’m sure, but I do like variety in all things, including my food so he probably had plenty of different meals. But, five or six years ago I found the low Fodmap diet, which eliminated my IBS symptoms and my food world grew much smaller. What to do? I still had my husband and son to feed. So, I took it on as a challenge to create delicious low Fodmap meals. I decided to make a new meal every night, photograph it and post it on my blog. I did that for several years and so my son never had a chance to find a favourite recipe. This is not a bad thing – it’s good. I had a creative outlet and my family looked forward to dinner because every night … [Read more...] about Do you Have a Favourite Low Fodmap Recipe?
I’d love your input for the pilot Low Fodmap Cooking School
I had an overwhelming response from those of you who read the email about my idea for a pilot cooking school program. I had heaps of HECK YES responses within just a few hours from that email, with only a couple of HECK NOS. Bottom line - the overwhelming reaction is that you want a low Fodmap cooking school. Woohoo! Let's do this. But, I always get excited and have to reign myself in – we creative people can get very carried away but I have learned to ask first these days. So, I want to make sure this pilot program meets your needs as best as I can. I have already had some great suggestions from you for content which I have noted in my special notebook. But, I figure the next step is to do this a little more formally and ask exactly what you'd like to see included in a quick survey. Just as a reminder - this cooking school program is for: People who want to create interesting meals for themselves and their families. Those who are fed up with chicken, potato and … [Read more...] about I’d love your input for the pilot Low Fodmap Cooking School
Could Deadly Nightshades be affecting your gut?
Even though the low Fodmap diet may have removed most of your IBS symptoms, maybe something is still affecting your digestive system. There are various possibilities but in today's video I want to specifically talk about deadly nightshades and the part they may be playing in your continued issues. Today, I want to talk to you about the deadly nightshade plants, in particular, potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers or you might call them capsicums. These deadly nightshades - we know that there are some plants that are actually really toxic, and could kill us potentially - but these particular vegetables and fruits, we eat them but not everybody should be eating them because they contain glycoalkaloids. This is a natural pesticide for the plant to protect it against animals, and we are animals, so we do have to be careful about our levels that we're eating, and our own particular sensitivity to these glycoalkaloids. If we take potatoes in particular, most of the … [Read more...] about Could Deadly Nightshades be affecting your gut?
Have you swung from diarrhea to constipation on the Low Fodmap Diet?
Even if you have irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea, once you start on an accurate low Fodmap diet, you may swing over to constipation. If this happens, you will need to re-balance your fibre levels. Watch my video to find out how to do that. Today I want to talk about something that we've touched on before separately: constipation and fiber. More and more I get e-mails from people - and I see it with my clients as well - about their diarrhea turning into constipation once they're on a low FODMAP diet, which takes away all their bloating, their cramping, and their pain, but leaves them swinging to the other side. Now as I've said on that video that you've already seen on constipation, you've got to keep up your water and your exercise. Various different things like that - you can try magnesium citrate as well but you can have a look at that video. But the one thing I want to touch on more today is the fiber issue. Fiber is a real problem for us because too much and it … [Read more...] about Have you swung from diarrhea to constipation on the Low Fodmap Diet?
Tasty Low FODMAP Cottage Pie
Since being diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) in 2013, I have been following a modified low FODMAP diet. This means that even after four years, I still have to eat 80% low FODMAP food in order to stay below my safe threshold and avoid those awful symptoms. Thankfully, cooking low FODMAP food is not an effort anymore - I know what I can tolerate and what food I should avoid. I am the only member of my family suffering from IBS, but for convenience I tend to prepare mostly low FODMAP food for everybody at dinner time and generally nobody complains about the fact that they are missing high FODMAP ingredients in the recipes. One of my most popular dinners is a low FODMAP Cottage Pie. With some easy modifications, I transform this classic British dish into one that is also low Fodmap for me. Originally (pre-IBS), I used to prepare this recipe with garlic, onion, celery, carrots, peas and sweetcorn; now I use garlic and onion infused oils, carrots, a smaller quantity of … [Read more...] about Tasty Low FODMAP Cottage Pie
3 Reasons for (NOT) Putting off Doing the Low Fodmap Diet
We humans are amazingly good at procrastination – it could be one of our greatest talents. Do you want to endure IBS symptoms all your life, to die with your belly in turmoil, never knowing a day of peace? If you do nothing, that is the surest thing on earth that will happen. There is no cure for IBS so waiting around for it to disappear is like waiting for the sun to burn out. It will happen but not in our lifetime. Don’t get me wrong, we all make excuses so that we don’t have to make a decision. How true is that and that’s where procrastination comes in and the excuses trip the light fantastic (that's a dancing term, for the non-dancers). Here are a few of the excuses I have heard for not getting the diet sorted: Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you didn’t have to contend with a troublesome tummy and your need to know the location of every toilet in the vicinity while you are this busy? Imagine if you could work, teach, deal with the kids, move house, go on … [Read more...] about 3 Reasons for (NOT) Putting off Doing the Low Fodmap Diet
