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Tag: food sensitivities

Gluten-free / Wheat-free Banana Bread Muffin Recipe

Gluten-free baking success at last!

BananaBreadAmaranth
Banana Amaranth mini muffins

If you’ve followed my blog you know that while I’m not the greatest of bakers it’s mostly because I have a hard time following a recipe “as written”. With baking, not following the directions to the letter can often end with inedible results.

But not today. Today I translated a regular recipe for banana bread into something that is gluten-free, wheat-free, tapioca-free, rice-free, dairy-free, and lower in fat than the original to boot.

And it’s a delicious recipe. I think my kids each ate 9 of them already.

So then I made another version that is wheat-free but not entirely gluten-free (it uses spelt flour), that is perhaps even a tad bit better, though the jury is still out. Since my son is sensitive to wheat but tolerant of spelt, it’s one of my favorite alternative flours to use.

I needed to make a lot of banana bread because Door-to-Door Organics produce delivery service was kind enough to sponsor my presence at the Land of Nutrition at the Denver and Boulder Walk MS events this month with beautiful crates of organic apples, strawberries, and bananas to distribute to hungry walkers. Most were eaten at the event, but a week later I was still looking at more than a dozen organic bananas getting browner by the day. To me, that says “banana bread.”

Or rather, mini-muffins this time. So much fun to eat!

Ever since we discovered my son was sensitive to wheat through the MRT test, we have gone wheat-free in our household. It’s really wonderful that there are so many wheat-free products on the market these days that cater to those with problems digesting gluten (Celiac’s disease). It makes it easier than ever to find wheat-free alternatives to many packaged foods.

BananaBreadSpelt
Banana Spelt mini muffins with chocolate chips or cashews

Unfortunately for us, my son is also sensitive to the most common substitutions for wheat in baked goods, namely tapioca flour, corn flour, and potato starch, which puts a lot of those products off limits to us and makes successful baking that much more challenging.

Spelt has some gluten since it is related to wheat, but in much smaller doses. Because it does have some gluten, it is one of the easiest non-wheat flours to bake with. I often add a little xanthan gum and arrowroot starch to my non-wheat flours when baking to give the dough that stickiness that gives baked goods structure.

While my son used to be sensitive to eggs, we eliminated them for a while and have been able to add them back in for baked goods. To make this recipe egg-free, see my egg-free egg-substitute post.

Gluten-free, Dairy-free Banana Bread or Mini Muffins
makes 1 loaf or about 48 mini muffins

1/4 cup apple sauce
1/4 cup safflower oil (or other oil)
1 cup sugar (or other sweetener)
2 eggs (or egg substitutes)
1/4 cup coconut milk (or other dairy or dairy alternative)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (not “flavoring”)
3 bananas
1 cup amaranth flour or spelt flour
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup buckwheat flour (name notwithstanding, buckwheat is not related to wheat)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon arrowroot starch
1/2 teaspoon xantham gum powder
Optional add ins: 1/2 cup nuts, chocolate chips, coconut flakes

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Cream applesauce, oil, sugar, and eggs together.

Add milk, vanilla, and mashed bananas and blend.

Mix remaining dry ingredients together in a separate bowl, then add to bananas and mix well.

Grease loaf pan or mini muffin tins well and bake for approximately 20 – 50 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Are Food Sensitivities the Same as Food Allergies?

The New York Times recent reporting on a medical paper claiming that most food allergies were not real has caused an uproar among those us who understand what it means to live with physical discomfort that is directly related to the foods that we eat. it makes me think that it’s time for a little clarification between food allergies, food intolerances, and food sensitivities.

While there is no doubt that people can be allergic to certain foods, with reproducible responses ranging from a rash to a severe life-threatening reaction, the true incidence of food allergies is only about 8 percent for children and less than 5 percent for adults, said Dr. Marc Riedl, an author of the new paper and an allergist and immunologist at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Yet about 30 percent of the population believe they have food allergies. And, Dr. Riedl said, about half the patients coming to his clinic because they had been told they had a food allergy did not really have one.

Dr. Riedl does not dismiss the seriousness of some people’s responses to foods. But, he says, “That accounts for a small percentage of what people term ‘food allergies.’ ”

Now, reading this you might actually believe that people don’t have unpleasant reactions to the food they eat nearly as often as they do. I’ll be you probably even know someone who runs to the bathroom all the time, or suffers from migraines, or has acid reflux. You yourself might even steer away from foods that you already know don’t agree with you.

I believe what we have here is a case of word choice. If one-third of the population believes that something that they are eating is contributing to their illness or malaise, but Dr. Riedl says that fewer than 1 in 10 people actually have “food allergies,” than what does he think is making the rest of those people sick?

While Dr. Riedl mentions food intolerance as an alternative to an actual allergy, he doesn’t even suggest that these people might be suffering from food sensitivities, the type that are implicated in Type III and Type IV non-Ige-mediated immune reactions.

Let’s put it in perspective by understanding the terminology of food reactions correctly.

Food Allergy A food allergy is a Type I Hypersensitivity reaction that causes anaphylaxis and is marked by the presence of IgE antibodies. It is immune-mediated, meaning it involves the immune system. Peanuts are a common source of food allergies. IgE antibodies can sometimes be found by doing a scratch test.

Food Intolerance Food intolerances are often due to an enzyme deficiency causing incomplete digestion of certain foods. They are commonly seen with dairy products. A food intolerance does not trigger the immune system but usually causes great discomfort soon after eating those problem foods that lasts until they are expelled.

Food Sensitivity Called Type III Immune Complex Mediated Hypersensitivity and Type IV Cell Mediated/Delayed Hypersensitivity Reactions, food sensitivities happen when our immune systems react to the foods and additives we eat by releasing cell mediators like histimines and cytokines that cause systemic inflammation around the body. Due to the inflammation, various symptoms may arise.

Since food sensitivities don’t create IgE or IgG antibodies, the only way that we can tell exactly which foods or chemical additives are causing the problems is to look at if there has been a release of mediators like histamine, cytokines, proglandins, etc. when the allergen is present.

Each of these food issues can be dose dependent, meaning that you may do fine with only a little bit but start reacting when you have a lot, and food sensitivites in particular can have reactions delayed up to 96 hours after ingestion, so I can understand the confusion in the general public and the media, and the tendency to label every food-related issue as a “food allergy.”

Learn more about what food sensitivies look like and how to accurately determine if a mediator-release occurs when determining food sensitivities here.

As Dr. Reidl noted in his paper (but wasn’t widely reported), food allergies may not be as common as people believe, but that doesn’t mean that your food may not be making you sick.

If you suspect your malaise is connected to what you’re eating, you’re likely right. Just like with food allergies, the trick to feeling better from food sensitivities is to be able to identify the culprits and remove them from your diet. The more you eliminate the guesswork, the more quickly you’ll heal and go on to lead a normal life.

Just don’t say you have “food allergies.”

Elvis Died From Constipation… but You Don’t Have To!

Elvis Presley had a long, well-documented history of chronic constipation. His personal physician, Dr. George Nicholpoulos, found the 42-year old singer dead on the toilet in 1977. Autopsy reports show the King’s colon at the time of his death was twice the diameter and twice the length of a healthy colon.

Much of this has been blamed on Elvis’ deep-fried, Southern-comfort diet and well-known penchant for opiates. Lots of fatty and highly processed foods mixed with motility-slowing drugs will surely affect a body’s ability to purge, but what if there were other factors as well?

“All the medications he was taking wouldn’t have caused the degree of constipation he had,” claims Dr. Nick, who noted that at the autopsy pathologists found barium in Presley’s stool that had been there for three or four months.

“The nerves have to stimulate the colon to propel the material out,” the Dr. notes. “Either there were no nerves or there was a viral disease that affects the nerves. I’m just using this as an example, but polio, for instance, is a virus that affects the nerves.”

Of course, I have my own theory on the matter. Did you expect anything less?

As much as Dr. Nick is being accused of presenting this theory now as a way to exonerate his role in Elvis’ death as his drug prescriber, I do think he’s spot-on about the nerves of the colon and that they were obviously not functioning in normal peristalsis, the muscular contractions that propel waste matter through the colon and out of the body through the anus.

In a healthy colon, the sensations of peristalsis signal that it is time to get thee to a toilet. In a chronically stopped-up colon, peristalsis slows or ceases completely, and the colon becomes so stretched and distorted that the sensation that you “have to go” is muted or nonexistant.

Many readers of this blog have commented that fiber and water can help clear occasional constipation, and they are correct when you are looking at a normal colon in a healthy person. Adding fiber to a diet can actually  make constipation worse if there is an underlying inflammatory condition that is not being addressed.

In untreated Celiac disease sufferers, for example, the continual and chronic irritation of the lining of the bowels and intestines can cause permanent damage to the nerves and tissues of the gastro-intestinal system, including the sensitive fingerlike villi lining the gut that are responsible for breaking down and absorbing nutrients and assisting peristalsis.

Scientific American magazine reported in the August, 2009, issue that Celiac sufferers and in fact most, if not all, autoimmune disease sufferers, have unusually permeable guts due to constant inflammatory response to environmental substances, i.e., undiagnosed food and chemical sensitivities. Because this inflammation negatively affects the assimilation of nutrients, symptoms can manifest that are as diverse as anemia, arthritis, bone loss, depression, fatigue, infertility, joint pain, seizures, and numbness in the hands and feet. Etcetera, etcetera.

As Celiac patients know, the only  way to heal the bowel and feel better is to eliminate the cause of the inflammation and irritation, in this case gluten in the diet, and allow the tissues to calm down and recover. If identified early enough, the bowel can completely heal and regain normal function. After too many years of continual inflammation, however, the damage may become permanent.

While only 1% of the global population actually suffers from gluten intolerance, the numbers unknowingly afflicted with gluten or other food or chemical additive sensitivities could be exponentially higher. These “Type IV delayed hypersensitivity reactions” spark a histamine/cytokine/chemokine mediator release that can manifest as inflammation localized in the bowels and producing constipation and/or diarreah or as a general system-wide inflammation that can look like anything from migraines to  fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, ADD/ADHD… and on and on.

Perhaps Elvis suffered from undiagnosed food sensitivities that instigated a constant inflammatory response in his colon, effectively closing it to excretions and causing the stool to back-up and expand the colon exponentially in diameter to contain all that rotting fecal matter, and hence lose muscle tone and sensitivity in the villi.

In my experience, once you cross that tolerance threshold for one substance, the thresholds for others drop lower as well, causing a cascade of substances which you can no longer tolerate and so that you become constantly inflamed internally. Returning to a point below these lowered tolerance thresholds takes information, time, and dedication, but it is possible.

What can we learn from these revelations into The King’s toileting life?

First, it’s probably wise to lay off the opiates, especially if you’re already constipated. They’re not going to help.

Second, a deep fried diet laden with processed foods and famous for peanut-butter-banana-and-bacon sandwiches is not conducive to robust health.

And, third, don’t wait until it’s too late to act to save your colon — and your body — from permanent damage like the kind seen in Elvis. Dr. Nick offered Elvis a colonectomy while he was alive in a desperate attempt to find a solution to his chronic problem. Elvis demurred (it would have meant wearing an external colon bag). It’s infinitely more preferable to change your diet than lose your colon, don’t you think?

If you are suffering without finding relief, you might want to consider looking into possible food and/or chemical additive sensitivity issues (not food “allergies” that create IgE antibodies, but “sensitivities” that cause the release of mediators like histamines and cytokines and cause inflammation).

We can’t all be “The King,” but at least we can rule over our own bodies and take control over our own health!