What is bland food ?

My father has a lot of digestive problems and eats "bland" food, I guess. For him that means no garlic, onions, or spicy peppers - nothing with heat.
Cardamon, cumin, cinnamon, tumeric etc are all fine because they are not hot.
Ginger is actually great if you have any stomach issues....

Yes - I think Panfusine is on the right track. I'd start by asking if there is a site that describes the diet restrictions (for example, the National Cancer Institutes has one for individuals with a compromised digestive system -- typically as a result of cancer and/or treatment for same --guess that was obvious!). I have a cousin who is on that "diet" and while very restrictive, if you're creative you can find ways to provide flavor that won't cause problems (in her case, I made a strawberry reduction from strawberry juice with all the seeds removed -- seeds were a specific problem -- and served on angel food cake. Normally, I would have added lots of whipped cream, but her diet prohibits fats. This was after a chicken breast that had been "seasoned" with lime juice and fresh, ripe, vegetables and fluffy rice -- the strawberry reduction literally had her licking her plate -- due to the seeds, it had been a very long time since she had strawberry flavor).

Anyhow, that got much longer than I intended, but the point is that there are ways to add flavor to foods other than herbs and spices that -- depending on the particular "bland" diet may be acceptable. Since a "bland" diet suggests medical concerns, I wish you all the best.

The issue here would probably be to find out if the dish needs to be bland in terms of taste (i.e bland on the tongue), or bland in terms of the ingredients used, such that they do not play havoc with the digestive system,
e.g, you could technically make a bland dish using no hot spices, but any vinegar in that dish would aggravate a sensitive stomach on account of acidity. on the other end of the spectrum, you could crunch up a blazing hot taco with fresh jalapeno, end up sweating with pain, & yet it may not affect your stomach much.

Basically, just imagine all your food without spices, but more importantly no salt. Cook things like lentils or chickpeas in just plain boiling water and taste them. They will taste bland.

Milk Toast. Is Bland.

Careful here. I have a child with acid reflux. Lots of things can set off her stomach pain and when she's in that mode, it's just best to steer clear of spices, acidic foods, onions, garlic and whatever she typically can't tolerate (including the sweet mild spices...) no matter how yummy. And she loves yummy. Maybe ask the person for an idea of what they can or can't tolerate?

welcome back Pauljoseph...
I'd describe bland food as those that do not activate the pain fibres in the nerve endings of the tongue..Bland could mean un seasoned, but then one never really applies that term to desserts ever..even if they do not have spices added to them (except for the CHocolate & spices contest from Food52)

Bland food is generally defined as unseasoned. It seems to be prescribed by doctors for patients whose digestive systems are compromised. I think it's presumed they cannot tolerate spices of any kind.

I'm pretty suspect of that. I would not use peppers, but seems to me you could experiment, as sdebrango suggests, with turmeric and cardamom in very small amounts to see if their inclusion does in fact cause discomfort. So many spices have healing properties that I can't imagine they'd be "bad."

Hi pauljoseph, so nice to see you!! I am not an expert on bland diets but I would think one spice that could be used is turmeric because of its medicinal properties. Cardamom also comes to mind in moderation.