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April 10, 2003

German Potato Salad

4-6 Servings

8 medium potatoes (thin-skinned and waxy, not Russets)
6 oz. Fakin Bacon (smoked tempeh) OR low fat turkey or soy bacon, diced
1/4 C diced sweet white onion
2 T olive oil
1/4 C water
3/4 C cider vinegar
1 1/2 t sugar
1/2 t salt
1/2 t paprika
1/2 t dry mustard
1/2 t celery seed
1/4 C thinly sliced chives (or green onions)

Boil potatoes till tender, and slice into 1" chunks while hot. Set aside. In a medium skillet over medium high heat, fry "bacon" and onion in oil until "bacon" is crispy and onion is golden. Add all remaining ingredients except chives and potatoes to skillet and stir well. Pour skillet mixture over hot potatoes and fold gently but well. Top with chives and serve warm.

Hello to everyone -

Here's a warm and comforting recipe for a blustery spring day! German Potato Salad is an old-fashioned favorite that we've given a digestion-friendly twist.

Potatoes are a wonderful soluble fiber staple, and small waxy red-skinned or Yukon gold potatoes work beautifully in this dish. Because their skin is so thin you can leave these potatoes unpeeled, which will safely add some insoluble fiber. The tangy sweet-and-sour notes of the salad come from cider vinegar with a dash of sugar, and the addition of paprika and celery seed adds a dash of color as well as spice.

The traditional smoky flavor of German Potato Salad comes from bacon. In our version, the high fat pork (a huge trigger for digestive upsets) is replaced with soy or turkey bacon (and if you've never tried these, you're in for a wonderful surprise). We've lost the fat but kept the delicious taste! If you've been craving a traditional deli salad, this dish is just the ticket. Enjoy!

Best Wishes,
Heather Van Vorous

For more recipes, click here for the IBS Recipe Board!

Special News - Heather Cooks is now on television weekly!
If you're in the Seattle area, you can now watch Heather Cooks, the only cooking show for good digestive health, every week! The show airs each Saturday at 2 pm, on cable channels 29 and 77. Each show features a fast and easy recipe that's low fat, high soluble fiber, and delicious. I'll be cooking everything from all-American favorites to ethnic specialties, from snacks to soups to luscious desserts. So step into my kitchen for great food that's also good for you!

NOTE: For all article links, please refresh your browser page if the article does not appear when you click on the link. For Medscape articles you may have to register in order to view articles (registration is free).

Gastrointestinal Motility and the Brain-Gut Axis
Dysfunction of bowel movement and intestinal transit related to physical or psychological stress has been established. There is evidence to support that serotoninergic mechanisms might be involved in the pathogenesis of IBS and other GI motility disorders, especially in visceral sensitivity. To achieve information of more specific mechanisms of the central action of the brain-gut interaction of GI motility, further investigation of the nucleus of the brain stem is required. Click here for more information...

Sex Differences of Brain Serotonin Synthesis in IBS
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is the most common functional bowel disorder and has a strong predominance in women. Recent data suggest that the brain may play an important role in the pathophysiology of IBS in the brain-gut axis. Click here for more information...

Is IBS More Common in Patients with Bacterial Gastroenteritis?
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) has been reported to follow infectious diarrhea. This study concluded that IBS is more frequent before diagnosis in people with bacterial gastroenteritis presenting to their primary care physician than in community controls. Therefore studies that examine the rate of IBS after bacterial gastroenteritis need to carefully exclude people with prior IBS in a systematic way. Click here for more information...

High-Protein Diets Can Hurt Kidneys
High-protein diets like that of the popular Atkins diet may accelerate the loss of kidney function in people with early problems. The damage stems from proteins found in meat. As many as 20 million Americans are at risk for reduced kidney function but don't know it. Therefore, people on high-protein diets may be unknowingly damaging their kidneys. Click here for more information...

Is Wheat Safe for IBS or Not?
I'm really confused - is wheat a safe food or a trigger for my IBS symptoms?"
- Diane Gallagher

Wheat is one of the greatest sources of dietary confusion for many people with IBS. It is hard to give a flat "yes" or "no" answer to this question, because the truth is that it depends. Whole wheat, with its outer layer of bran, is high in insoluble fiber. This means that it's a very likely trigger for most people. That's why whole wheat bread, whole wheat cereals, and bran can cause such awful problems for people with IBS. However, when you remove the bran from whole wheat you end up with refined white flour (the regular kind you can buy in any grocery store, that you using in baking cookies, breads, muffins, etc.). Though this is still wheat flour, it is not whole wheat flour, and this makes a world of difference.

White flour contains no insoluble fiber but it does have soluble fiber, which is the stabilizing force of the IBS diet (just picture the thick gel that results when you dissolve a piece of white bread in a glass of water). This is why white breads are such great safe staples. When you read the ingredients on packaged foods they might not specify if the wheat flour used is "white" or "whole", but it's usually pretty easy to tell. For breads, a brief glance will tell you if there is whole wheat in it (you'll see little brown flakes). If the bread is pure white, like French or sourdough, you should be safe. For most crackers, pretzels, muffins, etc. only white flour will be used. The exception is health food store products, which are likely to use whole wheat. However, they will almost always state this fact so you won't be left wondering.

The whole wheat (and other insoluble fiber) intolerances so common to IBS are markedly different from true food allergies. If you're allergic to wheat (or have a gluten intolerance disease such as celiac), it will make no difference if the grain is left whole or refined by removing the bran. In addition, with many allergies even minuscule quantities of the trigger, whether eaten with other foods or alone, can trigger violent reactions. Fortunately, with IBS this is rarely the case, so we just have to be careful with whole wheat and other insoluble fibers. If we do take care we can easily and frequently eat them in small quantities when they're combined with high soluble fiber foods. In addition, with wheat, once the bran has been removed so has the risk of an IBS attack, and this gives us great dietary freedom when it comes to white breads and other refined wheat flour foods.

Heather & Company is dedicated to serving people with IBS. Our mission is to offer education, services, and products that allow people with IBS to successfully manage their symptoms through lifestyle modifications. We currently offer the books
Eating for IBS and First Year IBS, web site resources, seminars and classes, and Heather Cooks!, a healthy cooking show on the internet and television. We also host the only patient-expert moderated IBS Bulletin & Message Board on the internet with forums for diet, recipes, hypnotherapy, and yoga. We will soon have other IBS services available. Heather Van Vorous, an IBS sufferer since age 9, is the company founder and president.

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LEGAL DISCLAIMER - This email is not intended to replace the services of a physician, nor does it constitute a doctor-patient relationship. Any application of the recommendations in this email is at the reader's discretion. Heather Van Vorous and Heather & Company are not liable for any direct or indirect claim, loss or damage resulting from use of this email and/or any web site(s) linked to/from it. Readers should consult their own physicians concerning the recommendations in this email.