Grain Free Diets

Spring has arrived! Okay, I know that some of you on the East Coast are still feeling Old Man Winter. Out here, “Sunny CA” is living up to its name. We could certainly use some of the wet weather you are getting back there. I’m not sure I’ll be able to have much of a garden this year without it!

So, an increasing number of individuals are turning to a grain-free diet. Reasons for this can vary, but are due to a range of issues. Some may be mild gastro-intestinal symptoms, like bloating, or may be more serious problems like irritable bowel syndrome, Celiac’s disease, Crohn’s disease, and ulcerative colitis. Even anxiety attacks and diabetes are causing people to take grains, gluten and gluten-free out of the picture. . When I first decided on doing this blog, I envisioned it merely to be a way to introduce some alternatives for grain flour. With a number of friends having to go grain-free, I thought sharing some of their knowledge would be helpful. I hadn’t realized that filtering through all the, sometimes conflicting, information would be as time consuming as it was. However, I found the process to be quite interesting and hope the information I gleaned will be helpful to you as well.

 

My friend Ruth recently had to switch her families’ diet to grain-free and starch-free after her daughter’s Crohn’s disease diagnosis. Already gluten-free, this has been quite an adjustment for them. She was kind enough to let me borrow a recommended cookbook she uses, entitled Cooking for the Specific Carbohydrate Diet by Erica Kerwien. The book is based on the diet developed by Dr. Sydney Haas and then researched by Elaine Gottschall. Elaine’s book, Breaking the Vicious Cycle: Intestinal Health Through Diet was instrumental in helping Erica understand her son’s struggle with Crohn’s disease. This diet seeks to control many digestive disorders by eating only certain carbohydrates to help restore an injured intestinal lining and improve nutrition absorption. This diet does not remove all carbohydrates, but severely limits them to monosaccharides, or simple sugars, that are more easily digested.

Cinnamon Bun Muffins

 

I really enjoyed reading the information, but will say that the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) is not for everyone. Even Elaine herself quotes, “We also know that no single lifestyle, diet or food pyramid fits all people. No two people are genetically the same, so it makes perfect sense that each person should eat food that works well for his or her body.” So true! Her recipes rely heavily on nut flours and nut butters that will not work for someone who has a nut allergy, and although it uses dairy-free milk, it does use yogurt and certain cheeses (both lower in lactose), and quite a bit of dairy butter. There is also a high reliance on eggs as a “binder” and for leavening purposes (those of us used to a gluten-free diet will often use xanthan gum and guar gum to help “hold” and thicken; both are polysaccharides). So, the recipe for the “No-Corn Cornbread” I tried contains about 93 grams of fat alone in the small 8 X 8 pan batch. When cut into 9 pieces, it means each portion contains about 10 grams of fat; 4 grams of which are saturated. Sure, you could reduce some of the fat by using olive or canola oil and egg whites, but for those watching fat intake this still may be too high. My husband, who has a genetic cholesterol condition, has to watch his overall fat intake, bad and good. From his perspective, if he is going to eat something with that much fat, it better have chocolate in it! Plus, without the egg yolk you will have a reduced nutritional content.

Okay, stop. Let me take a moment to address eggs...

Once a regular, and considered healthy part of a diet, they have been reduced in recent years to something akin to evil due to their high fat and cholesterol content. However, the newest research coming out is removing the bad rap. One large egg on average contains: 5 grams of fat, most of which is in the yolk. Only up to ½ grams of fat is in the egg white. The yolk of an egg contains about 215-220 mg of cholesterol. Livestrong.com sites a study done at Yale that has data confirming that eating up to 2 (hard boiled) eggs each morning did not lead to higher blood pressure, cholesterol levels or weight gain, even in patients diagnosed with heart disease. 

Link:  Livestrong

 

Other studies are showing this as well. The cholesterol in one egg remains below the limits of daily allowance, and the latest research is finding the saturated fat plays the greater role in increasing a persons LDL levels, rather than consuming dietary cholesterol. Not that this is a license to eat cholesterol laden foods, but it is painting a more accurate picture than we had before. Here is another link (this is just one, but there are many) talking specifically about the nutritional content of an egg.

Link: Egg nutrition

So, let’s get back to the SCD. Coconut flour plays a pivotal role in her recipes as well. Many gluten-free eaters are familiar with this flour and may already be incorporating it in their diet. A few facts include: Coconut flour is high in fiber, which is great, but can be a problem for some individuals with intestinal issues (leaky gut, IBS, SIBO). It has a high fat content like the nut flours, but unlike other nut and seed flours, the majority is saturated. Let’s Do Organic Coconut flour for 2 Tbsp (15g) has 2.5 g fat; 2g saturated fat. Coconut is a “fruit,” even though the FDA recognizes it as a tree nut, so most individuals with tree nut allergies are able to consume coconut products, but should check with their doctor first. Coconut flour is like a sponge and it takes a ratio of flour to liquid of about 1:3, more than for other nut, seed or gf grain flours. Plus, it tends to lend a coconut flavor to everything you make with it. I personally don’t use it quite as much, more like a fiber and coconut flavor additive, but I know individuals that have found benefits to its use.

So, before you think I am against this diet, let me make it clear; I’m not! It has been a blessing for many people in helping to control a variety of issues. It just boils down to utilizing what works best for an individual person. For instance, what do you do if you have a nut allergy, but still need to go grain free? As long as you can tolerate some starches you will still have a number of items in your arsenal. There is coconut flour, of course, but also arrowroot flour, which is the most easily digested starch and has been used for centuries in healing of digestive problems. I have really come to like arrowroot and now use it most of the time in replacement of cornstarch. I researched it a bit when trying to come up with a gluten-free and allergen-free communion cracker and was impressed (I will go into more details in the next blog post). Tapioca or potato starch are two others, as well as seed flours such as sunflower or pumpkin (you might want to be careful of sesame as it is the 9^th most common allergen). Better yet, you could create a unique blend using a combination of these options above.

Below are a couple of recipes from the SCD recipe book. 
Link: SCD  

The first directly “as is” from the book, the other adapted a bit by me to cut back on the coconut flour:

Morning tea

 

No-Corn Cornbread

½ cup blanched almond flour

¼ cup coconut flour

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp baking soda

3 eggs

¼ cup unsalted butter, melted

2 Tbsp honey

½ cup almond milk (or other dairy-free milk or SCD yogurt)

1.     Preheat your oven to 325°F/165°V*. Line the bottom of a baking pan (8 x 8 size or smaller) with parchment paper or other nonstick material, or grease well.

2.     Blend the almond and coconut flours, salt, and baking soda in a bowl.

3.     Add the eggs, butter, honey and almond milk. Blend well.

4.     Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

5.     Let cool briefly on a wire rack and the cut into squares. The bread can be sealed and stored in the refrigerator for a week or so, or frozen for a few months.

*I baked it at 350°F.

Makes 9 or 12 servings

This makes a nice little cake. I preferred it completely cool as opposed to just warm out of the oven. It had a bit of a quiche texture to it, till it cooled and “condensed” a bit. Slightly rewarmed with a generous drizzle of honey was good as well. It was met, however, with a lukewarm reception from my kids, and like I said above, it is quite high in fat. You could reduce fat content by substituting olive or canola oil for the butter and using 4 eggs whites for the 3 eggs. I don’t think this the type of cornbread you would readily put chili over, but has virtues in its own right.

No-Corn Cornbread

The next recipe is for the cinnamon muffins. These were met with a bit better reception, but even still, my kids felt the “cake” part was too “spongy” and didn’t have much flavor. My youngest told me I needed to “work” on it a bit more! This version is a not only altered from the original, but also changed to try and satisfy the criticisms of my children.

Cinnamon Bun Muffins #1

Cinnamon Bun Muffins (reduced coconut flour, grain-free, but not SCD)

¼ cup arrowroot flour

¼ cup coconut flour

½ cup sugar or honey

¼  tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

2 eggs  or 1 egg + ¼ tsp xanthan gum or guar gum

1 tsp Ener-G egg replacer (dry)

¼ - ½ tsp vanilla depending on taste

1/3 cup milk or dairy-free milk

1 Tbsp canola oil (optional)

Topping:

2 Tbsp arrowroot flour

2 Tbsp sugar, brown sugar or honey

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp butter

1.     Preheat your oven to 350°F/175°C. Insert nonstick muffin lines in muffin tins (I found that they stuck to ordinary liners and preferred to just grease the pan).

2.     For the muffins, combine the flours, baking soda, salt, egg replacer, binder mix and sugar (if using sugar instead of honey) in a bowl.

3.     Add the egg, and milk (and honey if using it instead of sugar). Blend well, getting rid of all the clumps.

4.     Fill muffin tins about ½ to ¾ full with batter.

5.     In small bowl, blend topping ingredients together. Sprinkle over each muffin and then using a toothpick, poke some into the batter.

6.     Bake about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.  Serve warm or let cool. Sore at room temperature or for a week or so in the refrigerator.

Makes 6 muffins

Cinnamon Bun Muffins #2

The kids liked these better, but they still were a bit spongy for our tastes. Apparently coconut flour tends to make things rather sponge cake like. Next time, I might try adding some type of ground seed flour (so to keep it nut free) to the coconut and arrowroot mixture above to see if that would add a bit more firmness to the texture. The topping tends to descend into the batter, which I didn’t think was necessarily a bad thing. But, you would need to have a firmer batter if you didn’t want that to happen.  

 

SOME FINALLY THOUGHTS…

Since we are talking about a “one size does not fit all” approach, I want to take a moment to address the fact that everyone should be mindful of the pros and cons of the types of ingredients they are using and how the might affect you. For example, millet flour is touted on the gluten-free sites as a great gluten-free alternative, an ancient grain with lots of vitamin and minerals, heart-healthy, and easily digestible. Switch over to the thyroid issue sites and you get a different picture. Besides the fact that millet flour often is found to be contaminated with gluten, it contains goitrogens. Goitrogens are substances that affect the thyroid, and as the name suggests can lead to goiter or enlargement of the thyroid gland. This would not be good for my daughter who has hypothyroidism (Hashimoto’s thyroiditis) in addition to Celiac’s disease. I avoid cooking with it, although she probably eats some millet in prepared/packaged gluten free foods. Most Celiacs and other autoimmune patients are warned that if you have one type of autoimmune disease you can be at risk for getting another. So, I would warn of the Celiacs to be careful of how much millet they consume to keep the risk factor for thyroid problems lower. I am not saying don’t use it at all, just be aware of the issue and mindful of how it may affect you.

Another issue that many individuals on a gluten-free may not be aware of, but is quite well known in the Paleo diet circles, is the debate over coconut and almond flour. High fiber, low nutrition density and high saturated fat content verses high inflammatory PUFAS, oxalates, and cyanogenic gylcosides. Which is better? Should you be using almond flour at all? I think one of the best sources of information I saw on it was from The PaleoMom.com website; a non-biased, scientific approach to the issue. I loved her fact-based way of talking about it.

Link: Pros and Cons of Almond Flour

If you don’t read the whole thing, at least read what she has to say in the last “Final thoughts…” section. 

Sarah says in part, “…like everything in our diets, I think variety is important. You get different nutrients in different quantities from different foods.”

The best way to avoid problems is not to think of any one particular food source as the answer to all your nutrition needs. Too often we are looking to the next great super-berry, nut flour or leafy green plant to be the magic pill that makes us healthier. I don’t believe that exists. Eating a variety of foods in moderation, with the exception of what you know won’t work for your body (such as an autoimmune reaction, allergy, ect..) always seems to be the better, healthier approach. Yes, I will still be eating and using both almond and coconut flour, I just won’t be switching over them as the only flour source in our diet. For those on a more restrictive diet like Ruth’s daughter, options may be limited, but keeping a balance and providing as much variety as possible is still the best way to go.

In the end, like I said before, the best thing is to know your body and what works for you/your family and tailor your diet to fit those needs.

Happy Spring, Everyone!