About this ebook
There were months when my dinner was a cup of weak tea and two plain crackers. Not because I was trying to lose weight. Not because I had no appetite. But because every single time I ate real food, my stomach punished me for it.
I'm Theodore. And I have gastroparesis.
The word arrived in a small consultation room in Cardiff, on a rainy Tuesday afternoon. The gastroenterologist was kind but rushed. She said: "Your gastric emptying study shows significant delay. You have moderate gastroparesis. Keep fat under 30 grams per day, fibre under 10 grams, and eat soft textures. Any questions?"
I had about forty. But she was already reaching for the door.
So I went home and did what most of us do: I guessed. I blended things. I steamed things. I threw out half-eaten meals that left me curled up on the sofa for three hours. I searched online and found conflicting advice. "Eat small meals." "No, eat six meals." "Try ginger." "Avoid raw vegetables." "Drink more water." "Actually, don't drink with meals."
Nobody was giving me a plan. Nobody was showing me what a low-fibre, low-fat, soft-food Tuesday looked like from breakfast to bedtime.
So I created it myself.
That was seven years ago. Since then, I've documented over 400 experiments in my own kitchen. I've learned which grains turn to glue (avoid) and which cook into silky, digestible porridge (keep). I've discovered that a puréed chicken soup can taste genuinely good – not just tolerable, but good. I've figured out how to attend a friend's birthday dinner without crying in the loo afterwards.
This book contains the best of those lessons. Over 100 recipes, none of which require expensive equipment or exotic ingredients. Every single one has been tested on my own difficult stomach and on the stomachs of other gastroparesis patients who kindly volunteered to be my taste testers.
But here's what matters most: I am not a doctor. I am not your doctor. And gastroparesis is wildly different from person to person. What works for me – a man with idiopathic gastroparesis who cannot tolerate dairy or red meat – might not work for you. That's not a failure of the recipe. That's the reality of this condition.
So treat this book as your starting place. Your gentle first step. Your permission slip to stop forcing yourself to eat "normally" and start eating smartly.
You are not broken. Your stomach is just slower than average. And slow stomachs need a different kind of cookbook.
Let's begin.
Theodore Rhys Cavendish
Cardiff, Wales
Discover more
About the author
Theodore Rhys Cavendish was born in Bath, England, and now lives in Cardiff, Wales, with his partner and two very spoiled rescue cats. He has lived with idiopathic gastroparesis since 2017, following a severe viral infection that damaged his vagus nerve and changed his relationship with food forever.
Before his diagnosis, Theodore worked as a project manager in the construction industry. He travelled frequently, ate whatever he wanted, and thought nothing of a long dinner that stretched late into the evening. After his diagnosis, he could barely keep down water. He lost nearly two stone. He stopped accepting social invitations. He stopped cooking, which had been one of his greatest joys.
For two years, he survived on commercial protein shakes and plain crackers. He was miserable. He was malnourished. He was convinced that he would never enjoy food again.
The Beginning
Then, on a particularly difficult night, he found himself boiling rice for the third time that week. He added too much water by accident. He let it simmer too long. What he ended up with was not rice. It was a soft, warm, comforting porridge that did not hurt his stomach. That accident became his first safe recipe.
Over the next five years, Theodore documented everything. Every cooking experiment. Every success and every failure. Every meal that caused a flare up and every meal that did not. He tested his recipes on himself, on friends with gastroparesis, and on members of online support groups who were desperate for practical help.
He is not a doctor. He is not a dietitian. He is not a chef. He is a person with gastroparesis who refused to accept that eating had to be painful. This book is the result of that refusal.
Life Today
When he is not cooking or writing, Theodore enjoys gentle walks along the Cardiff Bay barrage, reading historical fiction, and arguing about the correct way to make tea. He does not miss steak as much as he thought he would. He misses salad more than he thought was reasonable.
He can be reached through his publisher for speaking engagements, media inquiries, or simply to share your own gastroparesis story. He reads every message and answers as many as he can.
You are not alone. He wrote this book to prove it.
