{"id":536,"date":"2016-08-29T10:33:32","date_gmt":"2016-08-29T10:33:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/eating-in-italy-with-food-intolerances\/"},"modified":"2022-04-21T01:26:08","modified_gmt":"2022-04-21T01:26:08","slug":"eating-in-italy-with-food-intolerances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/eating-in-italy-with-food-intolerances\/","title":{"rendered":"Eating in Italy with food intolerances"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite my\u00a0earlier<\/span><\/a>\u00a0post detailing the finest pizzas and gelato and cheesecakes in Florence<\/a>, I must confess those magnificent meals were not indicative of my daily diet. They were naughty, delicious pit stops on a food journey through Italy that was primarily \u2013 gasp! \u2013 lactose, wheat, gluten and fructose free, and where possible, low in\u00a0FODMAPs<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Oh no no no, it\u2019s not for any special reason, I just like to make life hard for myself! No: since the start of the year I\u2019ve been sorting out some longstanding gut issues, (I thank Gut<\/em>, the brilliant book by Giulia Enders\u00a0for finally urging me to do so; also recommend Brain Maker\u00a0by David Perlmutter, he of Grain Brain fame) and my gut guy (technical title) recommended I go on the\u00a0low FODMAP<\/span><\/a>\u00a0diet to fix them.<\/p>\n

At first I was miserable, and confused, hungry and\u00a0extremely<\/i>\u00a0hangry, and then, after time, I figured out what I could eat, and what upset my tum, and how to cook without onion and garlic, and now it\u2019s just a way of life. (Except that it\u00a0isn\u2019t<\/i>, because it\u2019s not a forever-diet, it\u2019s a highly restrictive, temporary diet while your gut heals and then you begin re-introducing the problem foods back in. But you know what I mean.)<\/p>\n

I feel much better for it, and so armed with a slew of supplements (oregano oil, Bactrex, digestive enzymes\u2026 sing if you know the words) I headed to the land of wheat, cheese and fruit.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s what I discovered. You can still eat well and not feel like you are missing out in Italy,\u00a0even<\/i>\u00a0if you have malabsorption issues, or intolerances, are vegan, or have full-blown allergies. The Italians are incredibly progressive in this area, in fact; no one blinks when you make a special request. Except for that one time I asked for Nutella on my omelette.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sick, it\u2019s a dietary preference, and I am the furthest thing from an expert on this, but here\u2019s what I learned:<\/p>\n

Gluten free will set you free.<\/h2>\n

I was stunned, in a really cute, greedy, oh-man-I-can-still-eat-spaghetti-every-night, way, at how many restaurants offered gluten free pizza and pasta options. That\u2019s because despite being a nation whose two main food groups\u00a0are<\/i>\u00a0pizza and pasta, the Italians understand that not every body (literally) can process gluten, so they offer (really, really good, non stodgy) GF alternatives. (Side note: Low FODMAP doesn\u2019t<\/i> mean GF, but it\u2019s fairly common to skip the gluten as well as the\u00a0Oligosaccharide-containing\u00a0<\/span>wheat\/barley etc in the low FODMAP plan.) Celiacs even receive gluten-free food vouchers of up to 150 euro per month! Incredible. I was easily able to find gluten free snacks, crackers and cereals to snack on everywhere, even in tiny minimarkets, and it wasn\u2019t relegated to a special section: it was just there, with all the other stuff, almost as if it was\u2026\u00a0real food.\u00a0<\/i>And while pizza and pasta dominate menus, there are plenty of GF options like bresaola, caprese, parmesan pasta, (aged cheese and buffalo are low FODMAP\/low in lactose), seafood, chicken, fish, etc etc<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite my\u00a0earlier\u00a0post detailing the finest pizzas and gelato and cheesecakes in Florence, I must confess those magnificent meals were not indicative of my daily diet. They were naughty, delicious pit stops on a food journey through Italy that was primarily \u2013 gasp! \u2013 lactose, wheat, gluten and fructose free, and where possible, low in\u00a0FODMAPs. Oh… Continue reading Eating in Italy with food intolerances<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1767,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,24,2,4,30],"tags":[32,120,10],"authors":[],"class_list":["post-536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-destination","category-europe","category-experiences","category-explore","category-food","tag-foodie","tag-italy","tag-tips","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nEating in Italy with food intolerances | Expedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/eating-in-italy-with-food-intolerances\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Eating in Italy with food intolerances | Expedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Despite my\u00a0earlier\u00a0post detailing the finest pizzas and gelato and cheesecakes in Florence, I must confess those magnificent meals were not indicative of my daily diet. 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