For quite a while now I’ve been following the blog Strands of My Life written by Suzanne Perazzini.  She’s a woman of many talents – she’s been a ballet teacher, a teacher of English as a second language, a maths, English and art teacher, a fashion designer and now a food writer.  Oh and she works full time as a marketing manager in New Zealand where she lives with her husband Adriano and son Dario.

She’s always had trouble with her digestion and she finally got to the point that if the doctors couldn’t find the problem and fix it, she’d have to do that all by herself.  And she did.

She began with sugar-free foods to see if that would make any difference and not much changed.  Then she went to grain free to see if that would help and again, not much changed.  She did learn to cook great food without grain like this salmon and feta pizza using cauliflower as a base.

When no sugar and no grain didn’t help much she returned to the doctor saying she really thought fruit was the problem.  They finally confirmed what Suzanne has always known that fruit and her guts are not on speaking terms.  She’s got fructose malabsorption.  So she’s on a diet called FODMAPS which stands for fermentable, oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosacharides and polyols.  Those of use with no issues with the “ides” often can’t appreciate what happens to those with irritable bowel syndrome.

Eliminating all the bad boys is really the only way to make any improvement so Suzanne did what she always does and got busy creating recipes that would make her life sing again.  She’d quit a job that was so stressful she couldn’t stand it and got another one that she loves and life is going much better.

So much better that she decided to share her recipes in a brand new book called Afternoon Tea.  If you or someone you love has issues with food but they still want to feel human and enjoy real, tasty food, you should get this book.

These recipes are great for those who have food issues but I’m here to tell you that they’re delicious if you’re just hungry!  Check out this Pumpkin Tart from page 45.

I have a copy of Suzanne’s book, generously given to me.  I hope you’ll check out her book and make one of those tarts, slices, cakes, marshmallows, truffles and much more.  It’ll do your body good.  🙂