Abbott - Cookies: Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Refined Sugar Free

Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Refined Sugar Free

Cookies

By

Mark David Abbott

www.myhealthydesserts.com

Copyright 2015 by Mark David Abbott

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Dedication

To my long suffering wife who has to serve as the guinea pig for all my new culinary creations.

And to my mother, who set me on the baking path all those years ago, making cakes and cookies for school baking competitions

Free Gift

To thank you for your purchase I would like to offer you a free report thats exclusive to my readers.

There are often easy solutions to making a recipe healthier by substituting gluten and dairy products for healthier non-allergenic ingredients.

This report will show you some easy ways you can adapt most recipes to make them healthier and gluten, dairy or sugar free.

You can download this free report by going here:

How you can make any Dessert recipe healthier

Contents

My Story

While growing up I had a normal diet. Lots of whole grains, fresh milk, meat and vegetables. I thought I was pretty healthy. However in my early 20s I developed persistent acne which covered my scalp and back. Extremely painful and at times it affected my self-esteem quite badly. I was prescribed Roaccutane by a doctor, which helped alleviate the problem but it wasnt until later in life that I discovered all the terrible side-effects associated with taking Roaccutane. I took it for 3 years!

It wasnt till my mid 20s that a very knowledgeable doctor suggested that I try removing dairy from my diet. I did and my skin cleared up for a while. However after some time my skin started breaking out again. This time the doctor suggested I try removing gluten from my diet. I did and all my skin problems went away.

Since then I have avoided all forms of dairy and gluten. I am now working on reducing the amount of sugar I consume as there is a lot of evidence supporting the harmful effects of sugar.

I am always hungry and I have a sweet tooth. Unfortunately most desserts and snacks contain either dairy or gluten if not both. Over the years I have become an avid food label reader and am frequently shocked by the amount of artificial rubbish that is added to our foods. Even so-called healthy gluten free biscuits and cakes contain so many additives and chemicals that even though you are avoiding gluten you end up poisoning yourself with other things. I have found gluten free desserts and dairy free desserts, but it has been difficult to find desserts that avoid both, as well as not containing refined sugar. However over time I have collected a lot of suitable recipes and realized that it is still possible to be able to indulge in sweet treats and snacks while avoiding dairy, gluten and refined sugar and remain healthy.

A lot of the time we buy ready-made snacks out of convenience but you will find that most of my recipes are quick, uncomplicated and can be made from readily available ingredients.

Hopefully you will find this book a useful resource for creating your own healthy cookies without having to worry about gluten and lactose intolerance.

Why should I make my own cookies?

You may be thinking, why make cookies when you can buy them so easily?

Apart from the fact that you can control the sugar type and content, the refined white sugar content in commercially available cookies is often very high, you also avoid the other harmful ingredients that companies insist on slipping into their products to ensure shelf life and consistency of appearance. When you make them for yourself, shelf life is no longer important and you are not going to be too concerned whether or not each cookie looks identical.

As I write this I am looking at the ingredient list on an innocuous looking packet of crackers (bought only for research purposes). In fact this cracker is variously labelled as honestly good, Simply lite and vegetarian.

A closer look at the ingredients shows that it is not as healthy as the manufacturers proclaim:

Refined Wheat Flour - the refining process removes all the beneficial elements which are often added back in later to make them appear healthier. This is why you see fortified wheat flour in some products.

Sugar undoubtedly refined white sugar, which has had everything of nutritional value removed from it and is an empty calorie. White sugar suppresses the immune system and feeds cancer cells.

Vegetable Oil Vegetable oils are low in saturated fats but high in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) particularly the Omega 6 fatty acids, excessive consumption of which contributes to inflammation, depressed immunity and high blood pressure.

Milk Solids dairy products are one of the leading causes of food allergies, often contain antibiotic and hormone residues and are acidic.

But these are the most natural ingredients.

The ingredient list also includes two types of emulsifiers, E471 and E481. Emulsifiers are used to help assimilate fat into the dough, a function naturally performed by eggs. Admittedly these are vegetarian biscuits but there are a number of natural egg alternatives that could be used. However E471 is derived from glycerine which can either come from vegetable oils or animal fats, so there is no guarantee that what you are eating is vegetarian anyway. E471 supposedly has no known side effects but the fact that it is not a naturally occurring substance and is made in a laboratory is warning enough for me.

E481 is known as Sodium lactylate. Again it is widely said to have no known side effects but consider the manufacturing process: manufactured through esterification of stearic acid with lactic acid and partially neutralized with food-grade soda ash. Isnt that enough to put you off? It certainly doesnt sound like something I want to eat.

The crackers also contain a raising agent, E503, Ammonium Carbonate, which is used to increase the volume of the dough.

E503 is known to have a number of side effects including, skin and scalp irritation, digestive issues, and should be avoided by anyone with liver problems.

All these are in a so-called healthy cracker!

Many other cookies are much worse, containing ingredients like High Fructose Corn Syrup, artificial colourings and any number of preservatives.

Humans are not meant to eat chemical food additives. Its not a natural part of our diet, and while food scientists will always say an additive is fit for human consumption, how much do they really know about the long term effects and the toxic build-up of chemicals in our bodies?

All it takes is setting aside a little bit of time each week to make yourself a batch of cookies which will last you the whole week (as long as you dont eat them all at once like I often do!). Most of my recipes will only take 30 mins. from start to finish. Making them yourself allows you to control all the inputs and ensure that you can still enjoy a treat without slowly poisoning yourself. Surely your health and the health of your loved ones is worth that much!

Why I use nut flours, and how you can make them.

Many people use whole grain flours when baking in an effort to make their recipes healthier. Unfortunately flours, whole grain included, are high in carbohydrates and therefore have a high glycaemic load

Foods with a high glycaemic load pass rapidly through your digestive system and into your blood stream. Because they arrive in your bloodstream so quickly, your blood sugar/glucose levels rise. This causes insulin to spike so that your body can utilize the glucose. Foods with a low glycaemic load pass more slowly through the digestive system and slowly enter the blood stream, which keeps insulin levels at a more consistent level.