Go Ahead Honey It's Gluten Free! - Lemon Tart SCD

This month's Go Ahead Honey was hosted by the amazingly talented Emilia of Gluten Free Day. She chose fruit desserts as her theme and it posed me an interesting problem. Did I make a dessert secretly, under cover of darkness - that Fin couldn't eat? A dessert full of high salicylate fruit like blueberries, pineapple, raspberries, apples........ok most fruits! Or did I look to the few fruits he can safely eat without climbing the walls? Well of course I chose the latter and plumped for lemon tart as lemons are fairly low in salicylates, although honey and almonds are high - I guess it's always a balancing act? To lower the salicylate content, choose a honey that you know is low in salicylates and make the tart shells with cashew nut flour.

I made individual sized tarts as they are easier to unmold, but you could make one big tart or some tiny ones, just watch that the tiny tart shells don't burn. We took our tarts outside and ate them slowly, mostly with a fork and sometimes with our fingers, as the last rays of weak spring sun fell through the clouds overhead.

The tarts were rich, sharp and sweet, that lovely contrast between dense almond crust and smooth tart lemon curd. We ate ours with thick yogurt, but you could have them with créme fraiche or whipped cream. Something cool and creamy on the side is a lovely complement to the dessert.

Lemon Tarts (SCD and medium salicylate) Makes 6 x 4" tarts or 1 x 10" tart

Crust

8oz (225g) ground almonds

2oz (55g) cold butter

2tbs light set honey (clover, sunflower etc)

Line your chosen tart tins with baking parchment, a circle in the bottom should be fine.

Chop the butter into small cubes and place everything in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until the mixture resembles damp crumbs and is starting to clump together.

Divide the mixture evenly between the tins and press it up around the edges and evenly over the bottom with your fingers. If you have hot fingers then you may want to do this roughly and then refridgerate for about 15 minutes before finishing the job neatly.

Gently prick the bottom with a fork.

Pop in the fridge while you heat the oven to 150C. Then bake for 5-10 minutes until the edges of the crust are light golden brown. Cool on a rack.

Filling

8 egg yolks

1/2 cup (125ml) clover honey (or other light clean tasting honey)

1/2 cup (125ml) lemon juice

1/2 cup (225g) cold butter

zest of one lemon (optional)

Cut the butter into small dice.

In a bain marie (or a heat proof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water) stir together egg yolks, honey, lemon juice and zest. Whisk constantly until it feels hot to a finger dipped in.

Start adding the butter a couple of chunks at a time, whisking constantly. When each chunk has melted, add another couple and so on until all are used up and the filling looks glossy and thicker.

Continue cooking and whisking for another 5-10 minutes or so until the curd is thick - but remember, it will thicken further on cooling so you don't need to cook it until it is as thick as cold curd.

set the bowl into cold water to take the heat out of it and stir a few times over the next few minutes to prevent a skin forming.

Pour evenly into the waiting tart shells and leave to cool. You can refridgerate them, which makes everything easier to unmold, but the curd will have little beads of condensation on the top (personally I don't mind this at all). Leave for a couple of hours to firm up and then dig in!

To see the round up of this month's recipes, pop over to Emilia's at the end of the month and she will tell you how to get involved next month.

If you would like to host this event, please let me know with a comment or an email.

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Honey - how bees did a lot more than buzzing

“"Well," said Pooh, "what I like best -- " and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called”

When you eat SCD, honey is one of those little things that make life more than just a bit sweeter. Honey can be light and clear, drizzled from a spoon over a slice of fresh pear, it might be dark and syrupy, falling in caramel ribbons over a bowl of Greek yogurt, sometimes it is thick and creamy, melting on the tongue like summer scented fudge or spread generously over cool creamy butter on a piece of hot toast.

Good honey is always a distillation of the many flowers and plants visited by bees as they tirelessly harvest and carry, pollinating as they go. Their place in the great eco system of plant reproduction is as immovable as the plants themselves. Even after a rather painful and unexpected sting on the jaw the other day, when I saw the heather humming with bees I gave thanks for the part they play in the food we eat, the richly oxygenated air we breathe and the plants that clothe all the bits we haven't smothered in concrete yet. Thanks guys! we owe you one.

Honey can taste of pure sweetness, or it can take the flavour of a particular pollen. My very favourite is sunflower honey, deeply yellow, thick and creamy with a round buttery flavour and summery scent. But I also have a place in my heart for clover (mild and light), orange blossom (delicately perfumed with the slightest hint of bitter orange), heather (dark, rich and caramel flavoured) and on the odd occasion lavender honey with a deep floral tone that sings in a china cup of chamomile tea.

Buying local honey can be a great way to support local business, reduce food miles, avoid sugar produced on the other side of the world and even reduce pollen induced hayfever. By buying from small producers who look after their hives (flocks? swarms?...) you can do your bit towards preserving the bee stocks that may become increasingly endangered as they struggle to cope with our changing environment. You'll also be tasting a little bit of the land where you live, your honey will taste of something - it may taste of clover or sweet chestnut, or simply of wild flowers. It won't be a bland blend of EC and non EC honeys that often tastes as characterful as golden syrup and is to small producers of quality honey what battery chickens are to those lovely hens that scratch in the grass all day and have a bit of bite to them. 

When you bake with honey you need to use less of it than sugar - and then you find that you use less and less over time until your palate can detect the sweetness inherent in many foods. If you are converting a recipe, use a little less liquid too as honey is runny. Set honey is great for creamed cakes as it has just the right body and melds with the butter beautifully. Choose a lower temperature and bake for longer as honey has a lower burning point than sugar.

If you're looking for a recipe that uses honey (like the honey lollipops above), there are plenty on my sidebar under Breads, Cakes and Sweet Things (choose the ones with SCD at the end).

As soon as the roses come out I plan to make some rose petal honey. I'll tell you how it turns out.

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The Myth of Food Combining

Teff Pitta Breads

I'm posting this because I have been labouring under the misapprehension that vegetarians needed to combine grains with dairy or pulses to obtain the full benefit of the protein. I referred to to this theory in the post below.

I was a vegetarian myself for 24 years and spent most of those meatless years aiming to combine my grains with pulses or dairy in order to 'get the most' out of them, as each food does not contain the complete range of amino acids on its own and I believed, along with millions of other vegetarians that it was therefore incomplete until combined with a food that filled in the gaps.

I now realise that this is a myth based on the misguided assumptions of Frances Moore Lappé in her book, Diet For a Small Planet. I'm pretty sure that everyone had read this book in the commune where I grew up and probably continue to give life to the myth that they must eat their grains with pulses in order to use the protein within them. I even read articles to that effect during my nutrition studies! But Lappé actually published a retraction ten years later stating that it was not necessary to combine at all to obtain enough protein from a vegetarian diet. The only exception is if most of the carbohydrate in your diet comes from refined (or junk) foods, or a very high proportion of fruit, or if your only starch is cassava or sweet potato - in these cases you would need to increase the protein in your diet overall to compensate for the lack of amino acids in your carbohydrates. The liver is capable of storing the amino acids long enough to make complete chains, as long as you eat a varied diet.

I can even confirm this from experience because I tried the Hay diet for a while during my time as a vegetarian and found that I felt better whilst eating like this. The Hay diet focusses on a different type of food combining where proteins are not eaten with starches - almost the opposite of Lappé's original method. Although I didn't feel great on this diet, my digestion was slightly improved and I certainly didn't waste away due to lack of protein. As I was still eating wheat at this point, I imagine this was the real culprit in my lack of energy.

So to all you 'A' types and vegetarians out there - relax! eat some toast and don't worry about spreading nut butter, hummus or cheese on it! Just make sure that each day has a good spread of different vegetables, grains, pulses, nuts and some fruit in it and you should be just fine. 

Bear in mind though that you still need to focus on low GI grains - if you eat a whole bowl of popcorn or a big plate of white rice, you will still get a corresponding spike in insulin that will unbalance your blood sugar in a very unhealthy way. You can avoid this by making sure you consume foods that are as unprocessed as possible, that way you will be eating the fibre that slows down the conversion of starch into blood glucose and gives you sustained energy rather than a short lived burst.

Blood Type 'A' and SCD

This image is from Zazzle

I'm not an 'A' type, but I do have a fair few patients who are. As an 'O' who does very well on a high animal protein and vegetable diet I always struggle inwardly with the blood type principles for the 'A' type diet. That's not to say I disagree, but I have reservations. I think it's easy for 'A' types to unbalance their blood sugar and hormones with the 'A' type diet which can have long term consequences for health and weight. I'll explain below.

According to Peter D'Adamo, 'A' types should get most of their protein from pulses and legumes - as any vegetarian knows - these must be combined with carbohydrates to complete the amino acid chains that make the protein usable in the body. So 'A' types are advised to eat lots of grains - except wheat which is acid forming. Add to this lots of vegetables and fruit, some nuts, fish and the occasional egg and piece of poultry and you have the perfect 'A' type diet. It's a very sustainable diet because it doesn't partake of mass meat farming - unless those fish are trawled or those chickens barn raised. But for someone with a damaged gut who can't digest carbohydrates? How do 'A' types thrive on an SCD diet rich in meat and low in carbs?

In theory an 'A'  type SCDer could get by eating only fish and white meat, allowed pulses, nuts and lots of root vegetables and fruit. Dairy is pretty much forbidden - although small amounts of cultured goat products can be eaten, they should not be eaten more than a couple of times a week.

D'Adamo also recommends soya cheese, milk and flour for 'A' types, alongside lots of tofu and tempeh. But I have a real problem with this. Soya is pretty indigestible raw - it's mostly eaten only as a cultured product in countries where soya is widely eaten. I have found in my practice that the phyto oestrogens in soya can adversely affect women's menstrual cycles, making it a questionable addition to any diet. I advise anybody looking at following the 'A' type diet (especially SCD followers) to think about using nut milk instead and then weaning themselves off milky things gradually.

If you don't need to follow SCD and are just using the 'A' type diet for health, be aware that not all grains are created equal. Some carbohydrates have a very instant effect on blood sugar, notably rice and maize (corn) - these are both recommended for 'A' types. The type of starch in rice and maize is quickly assimilated and can cause a sharp rise in insulin, leading to unstable blood sugar levels. If you are trying to lose weight on the 'A' type diet or have concerns about diabetes or syndrome 'X', go easy on rice (eat only brown basmati sparingly) avoid rice cakes and eat maize products only occasionally (these include cornflakes, polenta, cornbread, tortilla chips and tacos). Non coeliacs should try to choose the low GI grains such as rye, barley, spelt, millet, buckwheat, quinoa and amaranth.

'A' type coeliacs should aim to eat buckwheat, millet, amaranth and quinoa. While D'Adamo doesn't mention teff, sorghum or chestnut flour, I feel sure these would be fine too. Chestnut should only ever be used with another low GI flour as it is high on the glycaemic index. Think about substituting some nut flour, grated or mashed root vegetables and bean flours in baked goods too.

I hardly need to add that although D'Adamo does not give any guidelines for the consumption of sugars, you should avoid them as much as possible - no matter what blood type you are. Treat any form of sugar as an occasional treat - whether refined, unrefined, honey, molasses or agave syrup - it's all sugar and as such it's the icing on the cake, not something to be eaten daily.

So SCD 'A' types, you should be fine with those occasional aduki bean brownies, but what do you do for lunchboxes, breakfasts and meals out? All answers and recipe links left in the comments section will be added as links to this post. I look forward to hearing from you!

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Blood Type Diet 'O', SCD and Low Salycilate Lunchbox

Fin usually has a little pot of raw veg and some nut bread sandwiches for his lunch - with maybe a little dried fruit treat or cookie and a golden delicious apple for his snack.

When he empties out his school bag at the end of the day the only thing remaining is an apple core.

I vary the nut bread, sometimes hazelnut or pecan, always with some almond in there. I lighten it with carrot, squash, banana, apple, pear or courgette and this reduces the enormous quantity of nuts that Fin must surely consume over a week! Whilst nuts are fine on the 'O' type diet, they are not the best source of protein or carbohydrate and would be better replaced with vegetables and meat or fish. I'd also been adding ground coconut to the bread in an effort to reduce nuts - something that irritates 'O' type digestive tracts according to D'Adamo!

However, as I said in the last post, I had been introducing foods that are best avoided on the 'O' type diet. Sometimes instead of sandwiches, Fin has some thinly sliced cold meat rolled around a dollop of homemade pesto and some salad leaves as a nod towards nut reduction. But I had been rolling up ham (best avoided) around that salad and filling those sandwiches with cheddar cheese, chorizo, peanut butter and more ham all foods to avoid for 'O' types.

I'd also experimented with pear and apricot spread, hoping that it wouldn't be too high in salycilates. After a few days Fin confessed to Nick that he had been sent to another class for messing about and not concentrating. No more pear and apricot spread then!

Although I could eat whatever I liked for lunch, soup, salad, stir-fry, revueltos..... Fin needed something quick and easy to eat that his friends wouldn't make retching noises over. He needed sandwiches, and they needed some serious rethinking.

So I put my cap on and thought hard about what I could spread on that bread and here's what I came up with:

Roast vegetable spread - squash, carrot, beetroot, onions, garlic, salt, and maybe some parsley lemon zest or ground cumin. Choose one or all of the veg above and chop into smallish dice. chop an onion or squash some cloves of garlic with their skin still on and add to the veg. pour over a glug of vegetable oil (olive or rapeseed) a good pinch of sea salt and roast until everything is starting to caramelise. Whizz to a paste in the food processor, adding some cumin, flat leaf parsley or lemon zest if you like. Store for up to four days in a jar in the fridge.

Home made pesto and pea purée with pesto - fresh basil, pine nuts, galic, sea salt and olive oil whizzed to a thick paste. For a sweeter and less oily mix, add this to a quantity of cooked and cooled frozen peas and whizz to a bright green fragrant purée.

Goats cheddar and Manchego Cheese. Goat's and sheep's milk is easier to digest than cow's milk for 'O' types. Manchego is delicious with a slice if ripe pear or a crisp piece of romaine lettuce. While lettuce is high in salycilates, a little seems to be ok.

Hung goat yogurt with chives or honey. Goat yogurt is very thin, so it needs to be hung for 24 hours to become thick enough to spread. Use like cream cheese. I use honey in moderation as it is high in salycilates.

Tahini and honey. I find this so delicious that I have to make an extra amount to nibble contentedly as I assemble Fin's lunch. All you do is to mix 2 parts light tahini (sesame paste) with one part honey (sunflower is my favourite for this). You can mix in a drop of rosewater, some finely chopped figs or sundried banana - but it's deliciously halva-ish as it is.

Thinly sliced cold roast beef, venison or lamb. With a little slick of home made mayonnaise and some finely chopped spring onions (scallions) or red onion. Sliced meatballs are also great.

Almond or hazel butter and peeled cucumber slices. Although cucumber is moderately high in salycilates, peeling it reduces this as they are concentrated in the skin. Fin can tolerate this well.

If I think of anything else, I'll let you know - all suggestions from you will be warmly welcomed by Finley!

Blood Type Diet - meet SCD!

Dr Peter J D'Adamo's, Blood Type Diet has been a bit of an inspiration to me over the years. The principle of the diet is that our digestion is affected by our blood type, because our blood types evolved over thousands of years in response to climate and lifestyle. Our digestion, immune systems and physical types followed suit.

D'Adamo identifies the types according to their traits. 'O' is the Hunter, 'A' the Cultivator, 'B' the Nomad and 'AB' the Enigma. Each type has food that acts as medicine and food that is harmful, alongside differing stress triggers and beneficial exercises to help recreate conditions that shaped each blood type.

I've used it with myself and my patients, rather loosely, as most people find it quite hard to follow, but always with great success.

However, with my SCD journey so freshly minted, I had rather forgotten about blood type principles for myself. Yet I had found recently that Fin seemed to be having diarrhoea more often and I had the occasional day when I couldn't explain why I was bloated or had woken up feeling sluggish and cross.

Like anything bubbling into consciousness, it took a while for me to connect the dots and realise that as we had progressed with SCD we had introduced more foods that were contra-indicated for our blood type.

As 'O' blood types we are not suited to dairy and yet we were eating cheddar cheese daily and I had switched to making our yogurt with cows milk. We are unsuited to coconut, peanuts, brazils and cashews and I had gradually bought all of these back into our diets (bar peanuts and cashews for me, which I can't digest at all!). We gaily ate unsuitable ham and chorizo - even though I often found it left me feeling a little bilious. Finally, we kept trying to introduce pulses and beans but found that we would be doubled up in pain with the windows thrown open for relief - 'O' types don't do well on pulses.

I decided to cross reference the two diets and start following an 'O' type SCD diet to see if mine and Fin's mood, stools and energy would follow a more consistent path.

So this is the start of a little mini series - SCD meets the Blood Type Diet. I'll let you know how I get on and provide information about how the other blood types affect SCD.

If you don't know your blood type you can get a little kit from the chemists that just involves a little prick on the end of your finger.

Meanwhile, I'm off to have a prune and some peppermint tea - both highly beneficial. Tune in next time for a more in depth look at 'O' type SCD.

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