What to Eat at Passover with Bowel Disease

Passover is the holiday of freedom, spring, and renewal. How symbolic that renewal is linked to humility and modesty: traditional Passover foods are directly connected to poverty. Matzah is the bread of affliction, bread that had no time to rise. Through modest eating, we are meant to connect with inner freedom, freedom from possessions and from clinging to old, limiting beliefs.

For people with bowel disease, however, the holiday brings a special challenge: how can its foods, drier or less dry, fit into the diet without causing familiar abdominal trouble? To help you enjoy the holiday comfortably, I have prepared a few tips and recommendations:

1. Eating matzah is a positive commandment. As Aviezri, a religious man who knows a thing or two about Crohn's, explained to me, there is more scope for leniency in such commandments. If matzah upsets your stomach, this means you can avoid it or at most eat a "kezayit," the ritual olive-sized quantity, = 35 g.
2. Wheat is a cloned grain, rich in gluten and with a particularly rigid structure. This structure can damage the intestinal walls of many people with bowel disease, causing what is called "leaky gut." Larger molecules then enter the bloodstream, and the body reacts with intolerance. I therefore do not recommend eating wheat at all. If you insist, try matzah made from spelt or rye, potato flour, or oat flour, which has greater nutritional value, but check that you tolerate the fiber.
3. Besides the common problems with wheat, remember that matzah is very dry. Its intestinal transit time is longer, and it can irritate or even obstruct a narrowed bowel, regardless of dietary fiber. If you must have matzah, eat a small portion, about 1/4-1/3, and only after moistening it with water.
4. For fish stuffing , the famous gefilte fish, use potato flour,
   rice flour, or almond flour, which is highly nutritious, contains calcium and iron, and is gluten-free.
5. Many foods are also kosher for Passover and can be eaten, including thin rice cakes, oven-baked young potatoes and sweet potatoes, peeled fruit, vegetables steamed or cooked in soup, tahini, and avocado.
6. It is important to drink plenty of water or herbal tea. If you have trouble tolerating plain water, try water melted from ice, which is better tolerated by people with sensitive stomachs, or drink only lukewarm herbal tea.
7. Wine : Drinking plenty of wine is customary at the Seder and holiday meals. Be careful if you are in the red stage, the disease's flare-up phase under the traffic-light method. If you tolerate wine well immediately, choose dry red wine, drink little, and only after fatty food, which slows stomach emptying and therefore delays wine absorption. Wine contains a sulfur-based preservative that may cause heightened sensitivity. Red wine generally contains less of it. Alcohol also negatively affects the liver.
8. Small meals : Throughout the year, and especially at Passover, eat small amounts frequently. Do not worry about being hungry again in two hours. This is easier to digest than loading up on a heavy meal and then suffering abdominal pain and diarrhea.
9. A tip for the Passover Seder: To make thoughtful decisions about what and how much to eat at the holiday meal, arrive moderately hungry. Eat something light before leaving, such as fruit puree, a banana, or a slice of a light savory bake.

To finish, here is a recipe for Orna Zvida's maakouda bake, from the chef behind "The Simplicity of Veganism," who generously shared it for our upcoming cooking workshop...

Ingredients:

2 potatoes boiled in their skins (about 600 g)

2 carrots cooked in their skins (about 250 g)

1/2 red onion, finely chopped (omit during the red stage)

1 heaped teaspoon freshly ground dill

1/2 teaspoon turmeric, 1/2 teaspoon paprika, a little Atlantic sea salt

4 tablespoons almond flour

Method:

Peel the potatoes, transfer to a large bowl, and mash. Peel the carrots and cut into small cubes. Cook the chopped onion with drizzles of water until browned, then add a teaspoon of olive oil. Add the carrot, dill, and seasonings, stir for about a minute, and transfer to the bowl of mashed potatoes. Add the flour and mix.

Heat the oven to a medium temperature (180 degrees). Fill baking cups or a muffin pan with the mixture and bake until browned. Serve hot with homemade tahini sauce.

This is general news information and is not a substitute for personal advice from a doctor or dietitian.