The Un-Constipated Gourmet: Secrets to a Moveable Feast

Stacey Palevsky, on JWeekly.com (J as in Jewish):

was thrilled when the book "The Un-Constipated Gourmet: Secrets to a Moveable Feast" arrived in our newsroom last month.

My editor was appalled by the title. I was unfazed. And excited. Finally, a cookbook for people with troubled intestines.

I'd be thrilled, too. What a great concept.

The book's author is Danielle Svetkov, a Jewish native of Larkspur now living in San Francisco. She writes out of a Jewish tradition, for Jews...

Studies indicate both Jewish men and women suffer digestive maladies in disproportionate numbers.

Jews are two to four times more likely than non-Jews to have a spectrum of digestive ailments, such as Crohn’s disease, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, food allergies or lactose intolerance.

...and not for Jews:

But her recipes are not exclusively for the Jewish dinner table, because “there’s a broad audience for this cookbook,” she said. Pregnant women, couch potatoes, travelers and seniors also are often plagued with digestive ailments.

The recipes seem to be high-fiber dishes, using a variety of fibrous ingredients to give it taste.

Product Description

Now, millions of Americans can beat constipation, without giving up gourmet food.

Millions of Americans have to pass up good food because of their bad problem - constipation. In 2004 alone, there were 41.3 million visits to physicians for digestive system symptoms.

[The Un-Constipated Gourmet: Secrets to a Moveable Feast – 125 Recipes for the Regularity Challenged] is the kind of cookbook home chefs can count on every day to deliver regular meals with exotic variety and homey comforts. For the family cook, it has the main courses, sides, and deserts that will keep everyone moving: pasta puttanesca on Monday, pizza with shrimp on Tuesday, and pork chops on Thursday. [The Un-Constipated Gourmet: Secrets to a Moveable Feast – 125 Recipes for the Regularity Challenged] is the go-to cookbook for anyone who wants the pleasure of a great meal without worrying about the side effects.

(Puttanesca, pizza with shrimp, and pork chops? Can Jews eat any of the recipes?)

Constipation isn't normally an issue that those with lactose intolerance ever have to deal with, but other with dairy issues definitely do. And fiber is yet another of those things Americans don't get enough of in their diets.