Food is one of life’s greatest joys and it’s even better if you can feast on everything to your heart’s content.
You could feel sorry for people who are troubled with intolerances and allergies against certain foods, as no one like eating with restrictions. Aside from those who are voluntarily refraining from eating certain foods like vegetarians or vegans, there are those of us who have to come up with alternative eating habits due to medical reasons. For the most of us, this sacrifice simultaneously means having less pleasure in eating. Others in turn take such an intolerance as an incentive to creatively break new culinary ground. Just like Deniz Fıçıcıoğlu. Five years ago she got the following diagnosis: fructose malabsorption – fructose intolerance. In her blog »Fructopia« she writes about what this means for her, and how she lives with it.
»Tales from my fructose free life« is her blog’s subtitle. She has been documenting stories from her fructose free life since 2013 and managed to combine trivia about the intolerance with aesthetic photos, helpful advice for everyday life and especially her creative recipes.
On her blog, Deniz calls her fructose intolerance a »monstrosity«. This sounds terrifying at first, just as her diagnosis did at the time. But the young woman also sees herself as a problem solver, and recounts how she learned to venture onto the dance floor with the monstrosity every single day, »instead of running in circles like a headless chicken«. »Even though my monstrosity and I are not exactly on the same page about who is leading who, usually we are at least swaying in the same rhythm«, says the blogger about the struggle with the intolerance.
»Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ«, a book by Giulia Enders inspired her to open up publicly about her story as well, and to help other affected people. Sadly, digestive disorders are still a taboo topic in our society, although they – and other symptoms related to food intolerances – affect a majority of us. Deniz tells in her blog about her search through the few internet forums that deal with fructose intolerance, mostly not sufficient enough, her search for kindred spirits and the beginnings of her change of diet, and therefore her new lifestyle. The young woman also wants to be an information and contact point for others, but she emphasizes that she obviously isn’t a professional nutritionist, as she studied social and business communication at Berlin University of the Arts. Other kindred spirits also share their experiences on her blog, for example in her interview series »My Morning«, in which she interviews other food bloggers about their morning routines and eating habits.
Besides the blog »Fructopia«, the woman from Berlin, who now lives in Istanbul, also operates the Instagram account with the same name, which, thanks to its colourful food pics, makes you want to give her delicious recipes a try and already has more than 3000 followers. That’s why she released her first cookbook in April of 2015, published by Trias publishing house. There are more than 90 recipes (most of them also without gluten or lactose, or with vegetarian/vegan options) on its 136 pages, but it additionally explains in an enjoyable manner, why we all would be better off to cut back our sugar intake, even without a fructose intolerance. All the recipes and information on the blog are available in German as well as in English.
