Tag: Crohns Disease

LOFFLEX Recipes – second edition (recipes are Dairy Free, Milk Free, Gluten & Wheat Free)

LOFFLEX Mushroom & Courgette Risotto (serves 1) by Kirrily Gunn RD

1 tsp Rapeseed oil

1 clove of garlic

80g of sliced mushrooms

80g peeled courgette cut into thin strips

80g arborio or risotto rice

300 mls of unsweetened soya milk

1 tsp Tamari (check  – wheat and gluten free)

2 tsp chopped fresh parsley leaves

Salt + pepper to taste

Cold water as required (approx 200-300mls)

Method

Cut garlic clove into quarters and fry in oil to flavour it – remove clove quarters when cooked (or use garlic flavoured oil)

Saute the mushrooms and courgette in the flavoured oil

Once the vegetables start to soften add the rice, cooking for 2 minutes until the edges of the rice go translucent

Add tamari, chopped parsley and pepper and stir

Slowly add quantities of the soya milk, stirring continuously adding more milk as required as it is absorbed by the rice

Once all the milk has been used continue the process with cold water until the rice has softened to a risotto consistency (al dente)

Taste and flavour as required with salt, extra pepper, parsley and tamari

Serve hot, topped with dairy free cheese, if desired (check against your suitable ingredient list)

Please note this recipe is not suitable for FODMAPs diet, cook without mushrooms to make it FODMAP free.

Suitable for Vegetarian, Dairy Free, Milk Free, Gluten & Wheat Free

Pear and Plum Fairy Cakes by Faye Morton RD

(serves 12)

Ingredients

You can use icing sugar if desired to decorate - no colours or flavourings should be added

150g rice flour

75g soft brown sugar

6 tablespoons sunflower oil

3 tablespoons golden syrup

1 1/2 teaspoons of gluten-free baking powder

3/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

60g pears (tinned)

60g plums (stewed)

Method

Pre heat the oven 190 C/gas mark 5

Mix flour with bicarbonate of soda and baking powder

Add sugar and the fruit mix together

Add the oil and golden syrup and beat the ingredients together

Put into silicone or paper cases and bake in the oven for 25 minutes.

Please note Fairy Cakes are not suitable for FODMAPs diets.

Vegetarian, Dairy Free, Milk Free, Gluten & Wheat Free

Related articles

Jules_GastroRD1 Comment

LOFFLEX recipes

These recipes were ‘donated’ at a recent recipe drive at the hospital. They are suitable for the LOFFLEX diet for people who have crohns disease and have been previously treated with liquid/elemental diet therapy at the advice of their Consultant. It stands for low fat, low fibre limited exclusion (diet!) The recipes are wheat free, gluten free, egg free, dairy free, so will be fine for lots of other folks too! Will post more later in the week.

Smoked Salmon Risotto – donated by Eimear Bradley SRD

Ingredients – serves 2

70g Smoked salmon

1 Finely chopped pepper

180g Arborio or risotto rice

Black pepper

Salt/Herbs/Water

1/2 Tablespoon of garlic infused or garlic flavoured oil (do not use Garlic!)

Method

1. Fry risotto rice in 1/2 tablespoon of garlic infused oil

2. Make stock with boiling water and seasoning/herbs/small amount of salt

3. Slowly add stock to risotto and stir consistently for 25-30 minutes.

4. Skin peppers (blacken skin over a flame the put warm pepper in a plastic bag, allow to cool and skin will be easy to remove) chop finely, add to risotto during cooking.

5. Flake smoked salmon over the top and serve hot.

Beef Stroganoff with butternut squash (serves 4) – donated by Rachel Sharp SRD

Ingredients

400g beef rump steak, trimmed of fat (and gristle)

1 tbsp dairy free margarine

1 tbsp olive oil

250g mushrooms (without stems)

250g Butternut squash – peeled & chopped

400g white rice

1 tbsp rice or potato starch flour

300 mls boiled water

6 drops of gravy browning (no wheat or additives)

3 tbsp Soya cream

1/4 pack flat leaf parsley

1. Freeze beef (will allow you to slice it thin) and slice thinly, then season

2. Peel, de-seed and chop butternut squash into cubes. Boil for 9 minutes until soft.

3. Boil rice (cover with water just above the level of rice in the pan and simmer till soft)

4. In a large non stick frying pan, melt half the butter with half the oil, increase the heat and sear the beef in batches until browned on both sides. Remove from the heat and set aside. Repeat this process with the mushrooms.

5. Add the remaining butter and oil to the pan and melt. Stir in the rice flour for 1 minute, then gradually stir in the stock (300mls water + gravy browning) cook till thickened, then stir in the soya cream, season to taste and add both the beef and butternut squash, add etra water, if needed.

6. Drain the rice & serve hot with the creamy stroganoff.

Please note: Everyone’s dietary tolerance of foods, with crohns disease, is individual. If you suspect you have problems with these ingredients please check with your dietitian if the ingredient is OK for you, before trying the recipe. The recipes are designed for stage 1 of the LOFFLEX diet, but occasionally people can have reactions to foods in stage 1, so it is very important to keep in touch with your dietitian, when following the treatment.

Jules_GastroRD3 Comments

Probiotics – what are they and can they help my gut?

There is a plethora of information about probiotics and we are constantly bombarded with advertisements promoting their use, for gut health, so what should we believe? Probiotics are products or food that contain bacteria, in large enough amounts to alter the number and/or type of bacteria that live in the large intestine (see diagram at the bottom of the page.) Everyone has populations of bacteria in their gut and we know that changes to these natural populations can occur in food poisoning or with any illness that occurs within the digestive tract. This could be irritable bowel syndrome, crohns or ulcerative colitits for example, but other disorders can affect the populations of bacteria. We are only just beginning to understand how these bacteria affect our health; they produce substances called short chain fatty acids from starchy foods, which help feed the digestive tract, keeping it healthy, a real benefit. They also help to produce vitamin K, a vital nutrient that helps our blood to clot and our bones keep healthy. So the relationship with our bacteria is beneficial for both the bacteria and us. These ‘good bacteria‘ also help to prevent some of the more harmful bacteria from developing and causing illness. Our bowels contain huge numbers of bacteria; our bodies contain about ten times more bacteria cells than the cells that make up our body, a good proportion of these are in our gut, an astounding fact.

What are often called ‘good bacteria’ are various types of bacteria commonly found in our bowel, and it is felt that if this natural ecosystem is damaged by illness, then replacing those bacteria helps to reduce symptoms such as diarrhoea, bloating and pain, which often accompany some digestive diseases. The theory is that taking these bacteria in food or drink will replace the bacteria that are missing; however in reality the effects are variable.

These bacteria are produced from dairy foods, such as Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus acidophilus – long names for such cool microorganisms. We have good evidence that taking bacteria at the start of a course of antibiotics can prevent the diarrhoea that can accompany these medicines – antibiotics can reduce the natural populations of good bacteria in our bowel, which slightly alters digestion of starchy foods, resulting in diarrhoea. The case for probiotic effectiveness in reducing episodes of ulcerative colitis is controversial, but probiotics can be effective in reducing occurrence of infections that occur in people who have had reconstructive small bowel surgery (called pouches,) and can prevent diarrhoea that occurs when travelling abroad. For illnesses such as food poisoning, they may reduce the amount of days you are ill and reduce the number of times you need to visit the loo -which is always a benefit!

The products that are available also have varying effects in people with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS,) and the evidence for their usefulness for preventing further attacks of crohns disease is still uncertain. As these products are generally not harmful in most individuals, if you have irritable bowel syndrome UK health professionals advise that you could try them and see if they work for you. If you have crohns disease or colitis, it is probably better to discuss this with your gastroenterologist before you try them out.  Try them for at least a month if you wish and follow the manufacturers instructions, you may need to continue taking them if you find them beneficial, as their effect can be temporary. It is also advisable to store these products as the manufacturer recommends and use them within the date advised, to ensure that the products are effective as they can be.

Some people may be better to avoid taking these bacteria, for example if you have a severe intolerance to lactose (a natural sugar found in dairy foods,) most of the manufacturers products are based on milk, therefore they may give symptoms, as they may contain varying amounts of lactose, depending on the product. However the bacteria will have reduced the amount of lactose naturally found in these foods, so caution is advisable if you wish to try them.  Also if your doctor has told you that you have a weak immune system then you should not take these products.

Again we do not have evidence that probiotics can be helpful in preventing allergies or stopping infections of the bladder in adults, so don’t waste your money! Although I was informed by blogger yesnobananas that there is some evidence for a strain of lactobacillus Ramnosus in protection from developing atopic eczema, which is hard to find, but see her blog for further information

http://yesnobananas.wordpress.com/2013/01/10/can-probiotics-prevent-food-allergy/

But where we know they are effective, or the products are recommended by your registered health professional, they are certainly worth considering. If you wish to try them and are not too sure about your situation, you could always discuss their use with your healthcare provider.

Health professionals can check the links below for evidence base references:

http://www.patient.co.uk/doctor/Probiotics-and-Prebiotics.htm

http://www.cochrane.org/search/site/probiotics

Jules_GastroRD2 Comments