Cooking to Heal Digestive Disorders & Promote Health

With all the recipes I have in my cookbooks, I still enjoy trying recipes from other sources: cookbooks, magazine articles, blog posts, and links that some of my friends send me. It keeps my cooking fresh and gives me ideas for new recipes and combinations of ingredients and techniques I haven’t thought of.

This past November I spent four days in the Salt Lake City Utah area with one of my former cooking assistants who now practices Naturopathic Medicine with her husband and another ND at Healing Solutions Pediatric Center in Sandy Utah. They use a holistic approach to prevent and treat chronic diseases, childhood developmental disorders, neurologically imbalances, and other conditions.

Photo credit: Rachel Albert Matesz © 2009

A holistic approach to healing
They work with a lot of parents whose children have developmental disorders and chronic diseases, such as Autism, Asthma, Allergies, ADHD, Cerebral Palsy, Asperger’s, PDD-NOS, etc. Rather than use psychotropic or immune suppressive drugs to alter neurotransmitter/hormonal levels and neurological function, combined with behavior modification techniques, the Naturopathic doctors at Healing Solutions use a more holistic approach to correcting the imbalances by supporting each individual body to come into balance.

The Two-Day Cooking Intensive
Dr. Mary, Dr. Humpherey’s and I led a two-day cooking intensive to help parents learn how to practice several well-known therapeutic diets that have helped developmentally and nutritionally-challenged children heal and function at a higher level. We focused on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD), The GF/CF Diet (gluten-free, casein-free diet), and the The Anti-Candida Diet.

To learn more about a holistic approach to treating your child’s health problems, upcoming cooking classes, cooking intensives, healthy shopping tours, and other services offered by Healing Pediatrics staff in the Sandy, Draper, and Salt Lake City, UT area, you can visit the Healing Pediatrics web site.

A new way to cook
If you have Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, IBS, celiac disease, diverticulitis, aor other digestive conditions, changing the way you cook and eat can improve the way you feel and function in a profound way. Very few conventional doctors are aware of the healing power of food. As a result, they rarely prescribe the kind of dietary changes that are required to reduce inflammation, heal the gut lining, and promote healthy digestion, assimilation, and elimination.

In preparation for the cooking intensive I checked out several cookbooks from the library (don’t overlook this source when you’re searching for new books and recipes; if you like the book, then you can buy it with confidence knowing you’ll actually use it).

Here are a couple of recipes I found, prepared, and liked from Eat Well Feel Well: Meals to Help Manage Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, IBS, celiac disease, diverticulitis, and other digestive conditions by Kendall Conrad (ClarksonPotter Publishers, New York, 2006) The book contains More than 150 Delicious Specific Carbohydrate Diet-Compliant recipes. I found the recipes easy to follow. I found the instructions clear and concise; you don’t need to be a chef to produce great results. Check out this book if you want to learn more about cooking for the SCD diet.

For a holiday meal in December I served the Mashed Roasted Carrots with Cumin and Orange and The Moroccan Cauliflower with Curried Deviled Eggs and Ham, from Trader Joes. I would make the carrot and cauliflower dish again. If I made the curried eggs I would cut the amount of spices way back. I thought the ham was way too sweet for my tastes, although I’m glad I tried it because I hadn’t had ham in decades.

Mashed Roasted Carrot with Cumin and Orange
Prep: 20 minutes    Cooking: 1 hour, unattended        Yield: 4 servings

This deep. Rich orange puree is a great substitute for mashed potatoes and, if you ask me, has even more flavor. The roasted garlic butter adds even more rich, sweet flavor. Serve with a variety of Moroccan or Middle Eastern-inspired dishes.

My notes: I made a few adjustments in the recipe below. You’ll see my comments in parentheses below. The cooked carrot puree reminded me of sweet potatoes, really sweet, almost dessert like! Made me think of making a carrot pie filling some time.

Ingredients:
2 pounds carrots, peeled, trimmed, and cut into 2-inch pieces
8 cloves garlic, unpeeled
1/4 cup olive oil (avocado oil and extra-virgin coconut oil also work)
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 tablespon grated orange zest
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste (I used Redmond Real Salt, an unrefined sea salt)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1. Preheat the oven to 400˚F.
2. In a roasting pan, toss the carrots with the garlic, oil, cumin, zest, salt, and pepper.
3. Roast for 1 hour, until very tender. Drain any excess oil from the carrots and transfer them to a food process (fitted with a metal blade). Squeeze the garlic out of its skin into the food processor and add 1 tablespoon butter. Pulse to a chunky puree. This can be made 2 days in advance and stored in a covered container in the refrigerator. (Better yet, make a bigger batch, then serve it two or three days in a row with different side dishes).
4. Cut the remaining 2 tablespoons butter into 6 slices and top each serving with a slice (I skipped this last step since I used a mix of butter and olive oil to roast the carrots and I refrained from pouring off the olive oil after roasting).

Variations:

• * If you follow a casein free diet, you could replace 1/4 cup olive oil with 1/4 cup ghee or extra-virgin coconut oil, then skip the step where she says to pour off the olive oil; just puree the carrots and garlic with the ghee left in the pan. Then, omit the added butter at the table. You could sprinkle chopped, roasted pecans on top for a rich, crunchy garnish.
• * Try this recipe with red garnet or jewel yams. Choose ones that are small in diameter, not any larger than your hand can wrap around otherwise they’re likely to be dry and mealy textured.

Source: Eat Well Feel Well: Meals to Help Manage Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, IBS, celiac disease, diverticulitis, and other digestive conditions by Kendall Conrad (ClarksonPotter Publishers, New York, 2006) with foreward by Elaine Gotschall, M.Sc., author of Breaking the Vicious Cycle.


Moroccan Cauliflower
Prep: 20 minutes    Cooking: 15 minutes        Yield: 4 to 6 sevings

The deep red color of paprika seeps into the cauliflower, which is kept whole, making for a beautiful presenation. The cumin and cinnamon add a wonderful flavor to this vegetable side dish. This is great alongside Moroccan Chicken Stew with Cashews, Saffron, and Currants (page 110 of Eat Well Feel Well: Meals to Help Manage Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, IBS, celiac disease, diverticulitis, and other digestive conditions).

Ingredients:

• 1 medium head cauliflower
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon salt (I used Redmond Real Salt, an unrefined sea salt)
• 1/3 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

1. Trim the stalk of the cauliflower to the base, keeping the pretty green leaves intact. Set in a large pot with half an inch of water in it. Cover, set over medium heat, and bring to a simmer. Steam until tender, 10 to 12 minutes
2. Meanwhile, in a small sauté pan over medium-low heat, lightly toast the paprika, cumin, and cinnamon for 2 to 4 minutes, until fragrant. Remove from the heat and whisk in the oil, juice, garlic, salt, and pepper.
3. Transfer the cauliflower to a platter and pour the spiced oil over the top. Sprinkle with the parsley and serve.

Source: Eat Well Feel Well: Meals to Help Manage Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, IBS, celiac disease, diverticulitis, and other digestive conditions by Kendall Conrad (ClarksonPotter Publishers, New York, 2006) with foreward by Elaine Gotschall, M.Sc., author of Breaking the Vicious Cycle.

Comments

[Starlene]

Chef Rachel, I happened across your site this morning while looking for gluten-free restaurants in Phoenix. I do not have celiac disease but I have recently started on the Gut and Psychology Diet (GAPS) http://www.gutandpsychologysyndrome.com and I am finding that I feel so much better when I don't have gluten.

GAPS is similar to the SCD diet with a few tweaks. It is aimed at healing gut dysbiosis which is thought to be at the root of many issues, including depression, schizophrenia, autism - just about every disease it seems stems from gut dysbiosis!

I am thrilled to find your site and especially love the reviews on restaurants that are gluten-free. I have never really liked eating out - usually disappointed because I like my own cooking so much better. However, once in a while my husband and I do like to eat out, and with all the foods I'm not eating while on "full" GAPS (no grains/corn/dairy/artificial ingredients/sweeteners,etc.) it is a challenge eating at home let alone trying to find a restaurant that could accommodate my restrictions. I am looking forward to more reviews from restaurants in Phoenix and surrounding areas.