We are delighted to launch Gut Masala: Navigating Cultural Diets with Chronic GI Conditions, our new repository of cultural recipes from our patient advocates and their loved ones. Understanding how to eat our cultural foods and how to adapt cultural recipes to suit our needs after being diagnosed with a chronic GI condition can be a struggle. We believe that chronic GI conditions should not stop us from partaking of our cultural cuisines and with a few modifications and tweaks, we too can enjoy our cultural foods.
Under Gut Masala, each recipe has been curated with love from patient advocates and loved ones around the world. They also share why these recipes are special to them. The recipes have been adapted keeping in mind common concerns IBD patients have and have been adapted to follow a low FODMAP gentle approach . This approach is less restrictive than the full low FODMAP diet but can be particularly useful for people who experience functional gut symptoms in IBD remission, or anyone living with DGBI and motility disorders, including IBS.
We recognize that some FODMAPs (like Fructans and Galactooligosaccharides) are prebiotics and stimulate the gut to produce its own beneficial bacteria and we don’t want to restrict them too much. Equally we recognize that highly restrictive diets can lead to nutritional deficiencies and increase risk of malnutrition as well as increase psychosocial burden patients must bear. Our hope is to help patients living with chronic GI conditions open up their diets and explore and enjoy foods.
Note: We have provided general recommendations for adaptations and modifications that may make some of these recipes easier to digest. However, we note that diet is highly individualized and we strongly encourage you to work with your registered dietitian and/or your GI team to ensure that these recipes work for you.