HOW DID I GET HERE?
In 2017, I was living in the UK and suffered from severe bloating and excruciating abdominal and back pain. At the time, just walking and breathing were painful because of my symptoms and this drove me to the doctor. Finally, 3 months and several examinations later, I was diagnosed with lactose intolerance and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). Although I was happy to finally identify my disease, I had no idea what I could do to relieve my suffering. Furthermore, I was surprised that the exact cause of IBS is unknown and has no clear treatment. In my frustration, I went to a registered dietitian to learn how to control the symptoms. Since then, I’ve been following the low FODMAP diet and it has saved my quality of life.
WHAT DID I DO?
For the first few months of the low FODMAP diet, I had difficulty adjusting.
First, there is no decent information about the low FODMAP diet in my native language since it is not a well-known meal planning method in Korea. At the same time, my English was not good enough and it took an excessive amount of time to process whenever I found some relevant information. Second, if you’ve ever tried Korean cuisine, you know well that garlic and onion play huge roles in Korean dishes. I had no idea what to eat or how to cook without them! Furthermore, I had resided in the UK and now live in the US. All this time, it hasn’t been easy to find low FODMAP friendly ingredients and condiments for my Korean meals. Every day was a roller-coaster, but I didn’t want to just give up.
So I started finding and following people with IBS who published low FODMAP recipes online. Since they were all westerners, their recipes were quite new to me. Nevertheless, I tried their dishes every day with the help of my English-Korean dictionary. It wasn’t easy at first, but I gradually learned many techniques, and after much trial and error, I ended up being able to adapt my regular Korean meals to the low FODMAP restrictions.
KOREAN CUISINE LOW FODMAP
With hindsight, I can clearly see that all my challenges were turned into new opportunities. Lemons to lemonade!
Since I’ve lived abroad and explored new food sources from farmer’s markets to Japanese grocery stores, I am now not afraid of trying a new ingredient no matter which language is printed on the label.
Since I’ve tried new cuisines from French to Vietnamese, I now found joy in using unfamiliar vegetables in my Korean recipes.
What I’ve learned from my experience is that the more types of cuisines I have tried, the less I have felt the limitations of my dietary restrictions. This is the key for me becoming more comfortable and living within the confines of this strict diet.
In this blog, I would like to share my knowledge and recipes with others who find their diets likewise limited. My recipes look as new to non-Koreans as western recipes did to me, but believe me, the more you try various cuisines, the freer you feel.
I hope my Korean dishes will give you some new ideas and broaden your food options.
Best of luck on your low FODMAP journey.
– Misun xoxo
theslowfodmap.com 