Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards | Re: Wondering if this recipe would be IBS friendly

Pasta noodles are a great SF food - you need to be sure there's no egg yolk in them, but I haven't found any in store-bought dry pasta. And assuming the sauce doesn't have any triggers, it should be fine, too.

Some red sauces may have cheese and bolognese usually has a little cream in it and may have beef - any of that would be a problem. Alfredo sauces are disastrous - they have cream, cheese, AND egg yolk. But in a restaurant, a marinara sauce should be fine, just make sure there's no cheese or beef in it and be sure to ask that cheese not be added on top. (I always forget to do this and end up picking little shreds of cheese off my spaghetti.) Around here, what restaurants call "tomato sauce" often has some beef in it, while "marinara sauce" doesn't - go figure.

For store-bought sauce, check the labels for the usual suspects: milk, butter, cheese, beef, MSG. You also need to check percent of calories from fat, but remember you're going to be putting it over pasta. So, for example, I really, really like Ragu 7-Herb Tomato jar sauce. The sauce itself gets 33% of its calories from fat. But put the sauce over a serving of pasta noodles and the dish as a whole gets only 14% of calories from fat and is more than safe.

If you want to make your own, there are some spaghetti sauce recipes in the Recipe Index including at least 2 that use ground turkey. I'm quite fond of the one I posted and you can freeze the leftovers.

If you have your own recipe, then substitute ground turkey (I prefer breast or all white meat) for the ground beef and either leave out any dairy or cheese or use IBS-safe substitutes (e.g., soy cheese). I increase the amount of spices, including garlic and onion - the lower fat level from turkey means the flavors don't "pop" the way they do when you use beef. Also, go easy on any oil the recipe calls for - I figure no more than one teaspoon of added oil (I prefer olive) per serving.

Last but not least - if you've got a favorite spaghetti sauce recipe, please do post it.

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