submitted by GastroMD
World Baking Day is May 17th, 2022, a day to celebrate the fun of making a sweet treat. When we think of baked goods, we think of tasty items like cakes, cookies, dessert rolls, pies, muffins, and pastries. Traditional baked goods are typically composed of flour, eggs, dairy, oil, and flavorings. Unfortunately, one of the major ingredients in baked goods is a trigger food to avoid for people suffering from inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) – sugar.
Sugar is one of the most common culprits behind IBD flares and causes symptoms like abdominal pain, bloody stools, persistent diarrhea, fatigue, and weight loss. With the disease comes a long list of foods to avoid, limiting what you can eat at parties and restaurants. However, baking at home gives people with IBD the control to choose IBD-safe ingredients that won’t irritate their condition. Here are three treats you can make on World Baking Day that won’t trigger IBD flare-ups.
1. Ginger Spice Cookies
Ginger is not only a tasty spice, but it also helps ease gastrointestinal symptoms. Many people with IBD, such as Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis, have found that ginger helps manage their symptoms. What makes these ginger spice cookies so good for you is that the recipe can also include other anti-inflammatory spices like turmeric and cinnamon. The recipe we recommend for ginger spice cookies uses almond flour and coconut flour. These cookies come out crisp, making them the perfect partner with tea. A good turmeric and ginger tea will help accentuate the flavors of the ginger spice cookies. Alternatively, calendula tea and green ginger mint tea are other teas that help soothe the gut, making them ideal for people who suffer from IBD.
2. Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Muffins
Health experts recommend a low-carbohydrate diet known as the FODMAP diet to help people with IBD. The trick to baking, if you have IBD, is to think low-FODMAP with your ingredients. If you love the combination of peanut butter and chocolate, you can bake a low-FODMAP version that likely will not trigger symptoms. Use IBD-friendly ingredients like oat flour, lactose-free milk, and all-natural peanut butter. And rather than use milk chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate chips, use dark chocolate chips instead.
3. Banana Bread
A low-FODMAP diet is essentially a low-carb diet. When you think about carbs, bread probably comes to mind. However, banana bread makes it to our list of baked goods that won’t irritate your gut because there is a low-FODMAP variation of this classic. Also, bananas are high on the list of foods you can eat during a flare-up. For low-FODMAP banana bread, use low-FODMAP flour like almond meal. You can also use milk alternatives like unsweetened almond milk or coconut milk. And remember that FODMAP levels in bananas depend on their ripeness. The riper the banana, the lower the FODMAP level. Add crunch to your banana bread with walnuts, the anti-inflammatory nut that’s been observed to offer protection against IBD.
GastroMD can provide you with more information about IBD and how to avoid foods that trigger flare-ups.
