Skip to main content

Difference between IBD-AID and Gluten-Free


Gluten-free (GF) is now being defined by dietitians, and recommended by some M.D.s. I view IBD-AID like a subset within the GF world (and SCD as a subset within the IBD-AID definitions).

The foods

Gluten-free diets allow plenty of starches – potato starch, arrowroot, rice flour, tapioca flour – as well as conventional sugars. All of which encourage the overgrowth of the IBD-causing bacteria. 

These starches and sugars are are illegal on SCD, and not allowable on IBD-AID.

Gluten-free diets allow flours such as sorghum and cassava which are not yet cleared for use under IBD-AID.

What’s useful

In the past 20 years, major advances have been made in GF baking. In Santa Monica, California there is a bakery shop (Breadblok) which sells GF croissants and baguettes. GF cookbooks like pastry chef Aran Goyoaga’s Canelle et Vanille Bakes Simple will make your eyes bug out, they’re so enticing.

While many of these advances rely on ingredients which are not legal on SCD, not allowable on IBD-AID, the cookbooks and the combinations can teach you a lot if you wish to learn to bake in this brave new world.

For instance, I learned from Aran Goyoaga that in France savory crêpes are traditionally made with 100% buckwheat flour. That’s allowed on IBD-AID! Goyoaga also has a buckwheat + almond flour cracker. And she said on Instagram that her delicious-looking galette recipe works with buckwheat flour. Right there, I learned so much!

In reading expat recipe sites online, I have discovered that many traditional cultures baked with chickpea/garbanzo flour (a.k.a. besan). Many cultures have lentil-based flatbreads. Often, these recipes are tagged as “gluten-free” but they work for SCD and IBD-AID as well.

Additionally, between the “you can’t have it” recipes, there always seem to be one or two which leap off the page as possibilities – “wow,” you say, “I could probably adapt that one!” And right there is your starting place.

I continue to read GF recipes, simply because I never know what I might learn.

You can click on the Venn diagram above, to enlarge it.

Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

About Happy Belly

I’m Chef Mom. I love to cook, and to explore international tastes. I’m a crazy researcher, I explore TONS of sources, and I like to share. On this blog you’ll find IBD-AID, Specific Carbohydrate Diet, Whole 30, and Paleo, vegetable-forward yumminess -- including recipes and practical, real-life suggestions for comfort through IBD (Irritable Bowel Disease). I’m not a medical professional, but through dietary changes, my family has found comfort and easing of medical symptoms, plus fresh new healthy menu choices. I’m the one who does most of the cooking in our family. I LOVE exploring cookbooks. I like digging through gourmet recipe sites (New York Times, Bon Appetit, Ottolenghi, etc), and sites of expats and international cuisine, to find overlaps with our diet.  My dishes follow the IBD-AID diet. IBD-AID is kind of like “contemporary medical research updates the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD).” In comparison to popular diets, my dishes overlap Whole 30, Paleo, and gluten-free and...
Read more

Difference between IBD-AID and Paleo

IBD-AID is grounded in science, being defined by the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Paleo is not based on a body of scientific research, instead it’s more like citizen science and each individual’s observations. Many Paleo recipe authors seem to fall into one of the following categories: pursuing weight loss, pursuing extreme fitness (such as crossfit), or having IBS (Irritable bowel syndrome). It seems like each Paleo recipe author has their own definition of which foods are allowed and what are not. The foods Some Paleo authors permit potatoes, sweet potatoes, plantains. Some permit rice, arrowroot, tapioca, potato starch, or maple syrup. Some venture into Shirataki noodles (a.k.a. konjak noodles, or konnyaku noodles). None of these are on the allowable foods lists for SCD or IBD-AID. Depending on which Paleo author you are reading, the recipes might be meat-heavy. Many use only standard American diet (SAD) portions of vegetables. Since my family isn’t in this for weight...
Read more