Happy Food for Intolerant People: Living with Ibs - Baking Without Wheat, Gluten, Lactose/Dairy, Egg and Soya

By Laura Matthews

Happy Food for Intolerant People explains Lauras life living with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and how she discovered, by using an exclusion diet, the multiple allergens in food that trigger her symptoms. This book is full of tips and recipes to help combat the awful effects that food allergens may have on the digestive system. Allergen-free food need not be tasteless or boring. Experience baking, and eating, delicious quick and easy recipes to replicate the traditional foods that you cant get from the free-from shelf; recipes without WHEAT, GLUTEN, LACTOSE/DAIRY, EGG and SOYA for snacks and lunches springy bread, wraps, pancakes, gnocchi, puddings and many more.

Easy-to-read recipes in metric, imperial and cup measures.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Jul 17, 2015
• ISBN: 9781504942706

Book preview

AuthorHouse™ UK

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403 USA

www.authorhouse.co.uk

Phone: [phone]

© 2015 Laura Matthews. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 11/24/2015

ISBN: 978-1-5049-4271-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5049-4270-6 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

The information in this book is based on the authors own experiences and searches. The author accepts no legal responsibility for any personal injury or loss from the use or misuse of this information. Anyone wishing to make changes to their diet for medical reasons should first consult their own physician or dietician.

21078.png

. . .

In any diet good nutrition is important. Living a busy modern-day life on a restricted diet without wheat, gluten, lactose/dairy, egg, and soya can cause anxiety and depression. Being able to eat foods that don’t cause illness and give a sense of mental well-being are just as important.

Happy Foods

. . .

Contents

Introduction

To Eat or Not to Eat, That is the Question

Common Ingredients Explained

What To Eat During an Exclusion Diet

The Art of Survival on an Allergen-Free Diet

Recipe Ingredients

Weights, Measures and Temperatures

Wheat and Gluten-Free Plain Flour Blend

Breads

Snacks and Accompaniments

Sauces

Pastries

Cakes

Biscuits

Desserts and Puddings

Introduction

Food allergy or intolerance? Yes, it is difficult to understand the difference, especially when the terms are used interchangeably. In a nutshell, an allergy is a response by the body’s immune system to an allergen (such as a chemical, a sting, or an ingested food) which causes an increase in the body’s production of histamine. In severe cases the amount of histamine produced in the body can cause anaphylactic shock and may even be fatal. Intolerance to food doesn’t cause anaphylaxis but can be responsible for some very debilitating symptoms that generally get pushed under the title irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). If you have been told you have IBS and don’t know what causes a flare-up, then the exclusion diet in the next section To Eat or Not to Eat, That is the Question, will perhaps help you to determine what does. It could be that you are intolerant to one particular food or, like me, intolerant to several foods with different reactions to each type. For a comprehensive explanation of allergies/intolerances go to the Allergy UK website www.allergyuk.org/what-is-an-allergy/

The worst thing about having IBS with multiple intolerances to foods, apart from the awful side effects if you lapse your diet, is watching everyone else eat the things that you love and miss the most. The temptation to have some and think, ‘Surely, a little bit won’t do any harm,’ is overwhelming, but a few days later, you kick yourself and feel really rough.

I have often stood in front of the free-from section in the local supermarket, smiling, with excitement building up at the sight of another new product. My mouth watering, I read the ingredient list. The smile drops, anger and disappointment combine to form a lump in my throat, and the tears start. It’s a wonder that I don’t throw yet another new biscuit or bread across the shop floor in frustration, as the free-from product is only partially that. Don’t they realise that it may be free of wheat and gluten but I, like many others, can’t eat egg, soya, or lactose! So, to avoid tantrums on our weekly shopping trip and prevent my husband from suffering huge embarrassment, I refrain from going anywhere near the dietary-needs section other than to grab a bag of gluten-free flour or pasta from time to time.

Eating had always been one of my favourite pastimes; however, cooking and baking had not. Now that baking has become a necessity, I like to experiment with ingredients and techniques. My kitchen bin has seen countless hard masses during my attempts to make gluten-free bread without an egg. Many years of trial and error in developing the technique in combination with the right blend of ingredients has finally paid off and led the way to fruit loaf, garlic bread, and pizza base.

This recipe book is not about a weight-loss diet or about dinners. It’s quite easy to adapt any of the millions of recipes out there. This book is about the foods that people on a restricted diet miss the most, such as soft wraps and bread for easy snacks and lunches, Yorkshire pudding, and pancakes, to name a few. These are all what I call happy foods. The aim is to provide alternatives to standard products that you can’t get off the free-from shelf because they contain multiple allergens. Tastes, flavours, and textures are difficult to replicate with ingredients free of gluten, lactose, egg, and soya, but years of trial and error have gone into creating not just the next best thing but also the only thing to replace the foods that are missed or perhaps have never even been tried.

To Eat or Not to Eat, That is the Question

It goes against the grain with me to write about my long trudge of illness in a recipe book, but so many people have asked about my food intolerances and how I have dealt with them. They, or others they know, are feeling ill and don’t seem to get answers from doctors. I added this chapter to explain my experiences and hope you can, in some way, relate to it and discover your intolerances. But please make sure your doctor is the first person you speak to about your symptoms in case there are any other underlying problems. Your doctor should be able to perform a simple blood test to show if you have an allergy;