Patsy Catsos, MS, RDN
Patsy Catsos, MS, RDN is a medical nutrition therapist, FODMAP expert, and author. The focus of her practice is digestive health, including irritable bowel syndrome, gluten-related disorders, and inflammatory bowel disease. Patsy completed her undergraduate studies at Cornell University and earned a Master’s degree in Nutrition at Boston University; she interned at Boston’s Beth Israel Hospital. She is the 2020 recipient of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetic’s Excellence in Clinical Practice Award.
Patsy was attending a lecture at a Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America event in late 2007 when she first heard the term "FODMAP" mentioned in passing. Curious, she tried to learn more about the subject and discovered several very interesting papers published by a group of researchers at Monash University, but found absolutely no tools for Americans to put this emerging research into practice: no food lists, no protocols, no recipes, no meal plans, no menus, no tips for reading labels or selecting products. She knew her patients would need more that just a list of high-FODMAP foods to avoid. They would need to know what they could eat, and they would need a strategy and a plan to get the most out of this new dietary approach. She drafted her first set of patient handouts, working carefully from the published scientific literature, and began to field test them in her practice. It is already fading from memory, but at that time, most people with IBS had to learn to live with their symptoms, and rarely presented themselves for nutrition help. Patsy's early FODMAP clients were seeing her for other problems. They just happened to have (often terrible) IBS.
Wow! It was immediately apparent that the FODMAP approach was a game-changer. Patsy remembers the thrill of having patients come back to their follow-up visits with huge smiles on their faces, relaxed, happy and feeling better! Word quickly spread, and Patsy's practice was soon devoted to helping people with IBS, IBD and celiac disease. As a person with ulcerative colitis and IBS herself, Patsy knew first-hand how devastating digestive health symptoms could be; she knew she had to help get the word out beyond the scope of her own practice.
Patsy wrote IBS—Free at Last!, her first book, in 2008 and it launched in January, 2009. Her step-by-step book introduced the FODMAP approach to many thousands of IBS patients, dietitians and physicians. Over the next few years, studies continued to be published, gastroenterologists heard about FODMAPs at professional events, people around the globe became ever more connected via internet, and Patsy began to train other dietitians on the delivery of the diet. A second edition of IBS—Free at Last! was published in 2012, a Spanish-language edition in 2013, the Flavor without FODMAPs Cookbook in 2014, IBS-Free Recipes for the Whole Family in 2015, and a Japanese language edition of IBS—Free at Last! in 2016.
“Patsy’s book helped me regain control when I felt I had none.”
In 2017, The IBS Elimination Diet and Cookbook was published by Harmony Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group. This book is a revised and expanded edition of IBS—Free at Last!
Patsy lives the motto, "Learn more about FODMAPs and pass it on." In 2013 she traveled to Australia's Monash University to meet the research team, tour the FODMAP lab, and attend a seminar. For years before the pandemic, Patsy traveled the globe to learn from and network with multi-disciplinary colleagues sharing her interest in food as medicine for GI disorders. Each of these professional events, along with the hundreds of peer-reviewed publications she reads each year, helped her turn her own commitment to life-long learning into presentations, books, tools and social media posts for people with IBS and the health care providers who help them.
Since 2012, she has produced a variety of advanced full length workshops for health care professionals which focus on the delivery of the low FODMAP diet to patients with digestive health conditions. She is a frequent guest speaker at professional association meetings, webinars, and nutrition grand rounds; she is frequently consulted by media for expert comment. She has was an invited speaker at the Dietitians of Canada Annual Conference, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Food and Nutrition Conference (FNCE, most recently in 2019), FODMAP Around the World in the Netherlands, and an industry event in Panama. She served on the faculty of University of Michigan’s Food the Main Course as an invited speaker on several occasions.
Media page and partial list of past speaking engagements
Patsy absolutely treasures her one-on-one work with patients. Though she has lived in New Hampshire since 2021, she continues to consult at Nutrition Works, LLC in Portland, ME, via telehealth. She has openings for new patients who will be receiving services in Maine, New Hampshire, and certain other states where licensing permits.
She also provides nutrition consulting services to several corporate clients, and is especially proud of her work with ModifyHealth, which provides nutrition services and home-delivered meals for health conditions where dietary modification is a recommended treatment.
In 2020, Patsy was honored to receive the prestigious Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Excellence in Clinical Practice Award. Patsy is a proud member of the Maine Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, and has served in a variety of leadership roles over the years, including President in 2010-2011. In 2014 she was honored to be named Maine's Outstanding Dietitian of the Year. Patsy is a professional member of the Crohn's and Colitis Association of America.
“The FODMAP elimination diet, and this book, saved my life. Chronic swelling and constipation and pain have followed me for 50 years. Going strict gluten-free for 3 years only made it worse in the end. I had NO IDEA what was causing my gut such distress. My doctor...suggested looking into FODMAPs. OMG. The second day I was on the FODMAP elimination diet, at 4:30 in the afternoon—by which time my gut had ALWAYS swelled up—I looked down at my still-flat abdomen and said out loud, “WHOSE BODY IS THIS???!!!” I am so, so grateful; there are no words...If these fermentable sugars and fibers are your problem, you’re on the road to Glory Land! Good luck!”