Sometimes three people just come together at the right time, at the right place, to make something special happen. Here the story of how we, the co-authors of IBS-Free Recipes for the Whole Family, met.
The story begins several years ago when Lisa and Karen met at the local gym in the Boston area and struck up a friendship. (Little did they know they would be future collaborators on a book project!) Lisa confided in Karen regarding her worsening IBS symptoms, and Karen, who is a pediatric dietitian, recommended she consider a FODMAP elimination diet, which was helping some of her pediatric IBS patients. Lisa, in addition to being an amazing cook and gluten-free baker, has a background as research scientist, and she was immediately impressed by the science behind the diet. She got a copy of my book, IBS--Free at Last! , and started the elimination phase of the diet. She was skeptical at first, because the diet omitted many of the high-fiber foods she had been told for many years should be helping her IBS (they didn't). But within days, she knew she was on her way to a whole new chapter of her life, feeling better and better.
It wasn't long before she had developed a huge collection of low-FODMAP recipes, and they were getting rave reviews from her friends and family,and even from her two teenagers and their friends. When Karen learned of this growing recipe collection, she realized how much it would help her pediatric IBS patients and their families. It's not easy to follow a low FODMAP diet, especially in a family with children! A book full of recipes developed with kids in mind, all suitable for the elimination phase of the diet, would make it so much easier. So Karen and Lisa decided to write a cookbook together.
At about the same time, Karen and I met each other for the first time when we were seated together at a professional event in Chicago. (Little did I know I was meeting a future colleague and co-author!) A short time later, Karen and Lisa contacted me and we began discussing a collaboration.
One day soon after, when Lisa was visiting Maine, we arranged to meet in person. In her words, "Uncannily...we each showed up with a plate of home-made low-FODMAP cranberry-orange scones to offer the other." That really happened! Obviously, we were meant to work together, so I joined the team as a co-author and publisher. (By the way, Lisa's cranberry orange scones are fantastic, page 62 in the book!)
We hope that our joint effort in writing IBS-Free Recipes for the Whole Family will help you enjoyably manage a low-FODMAP diet in a family with children, no matter which one of you is the "patient."
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