I believe that refined sugar is one of the most harmful substances to an unbalanced gut. It feeds bad bacteria and taxes your liver and your adrenals. Removing the white stuff from your diet is the first rule of healing IBS.

But healing your digestion doesn’t mean you have to suffer without dessert.

Dessert is not a dirty word. But deprivation is! Repressing your desire for sweet pleasure is a one way road to binge-ville.

Just because you’re healing your belly doesn’t mean you have to punish yourself. In fact, you should treat yourself with extra care, respect and indulgence. If you crave dessert after dinner, satiate yourself with these gut-friendly options.

Despite eating a low sugar, low dairy, grain-free diet. I don’t deprive myself of dessert. I just get ultra creative with the foods I can have.

Take my husband as an example. He’s perfectly healthy, but he cut out sugar because he wants to stay healthy as he ages. He never lost his sweet tooth, so he dreams up outrageously delicious treats for himself. All free of refined sugar.

When I came home from a retreat last week he had a chocolate coconut cream pudding waiting for me. It was simply coconut cream blended with cocoa powder and cinnamon and sweetened with bananas and cherries.

After eating like this for several months my body and taste buds have changed. And so will yours.  Refined sugar treats will become overwhelmingly sweet. My body can’t tolerate too much sweetness….unless, of course, it’s my sweet food nemesis…..ice cream. But that’s another story.

Maybe some home made banana coconut milk ice cream in my future? Or mango flavored frozen yogurt? When you get creative you’re less focused on what you can’t have and more focused on what you can have.

Creativity is the enemy of deprivation. Click to Tweet.

Explore home made desserts made with nuts, fruit, seeds, coconut products, cocoa/carob powders and plain yogurt. The possibilities are endless. Here are just a few options.

 

 

Prunes soaked in coconut milk

 

This accidental creation started out as a handful of prunes soaking in coconut milk. After the prunes softened up I added shredded coconut, a teaspoon of almond flour and some cinnamon and cardamom. I squeezed some fresh lemon juice on it to make the flavors pop and garnished with pumpkin seeds.

 

 

Bananas sauteed in bacon fat

 

This was created by my talented husband. He sauteed two sliced bananas in bacon fat left over in the pan from dinner. You can also use clarified butter or coconut oil. The sugars in the bananas caramelize when you cook them.

Flavor with a tiny bit of salt or vanilla powder or fresh squeezed lemon juice (or all three) for a variety of flavor experiences.

 

 

Lemon macaroons

 

This recipe was inspired by a delicious-looking packaged dessert I saw in a grocery store. It was very pricey at $8 and I knew I could easily make my own. I took a photo of the ingredients list with my cell phone so I could recreate it at home.

The results were amazing. I combined shredded coconut with almond flour and melted coconut oil to bind it together. I added a touch of salt, some lemon zest (lemon juice will also work) and vanilla. I mixed everything together and chilled the dessert for an hour.

You can also add dried cranberries, dark chocolate chips or a near death banana to pump up the sweetness.

 

Carob “fudge” 

 

This dessert has a special place in my heart because I ate it frequently while healing my own belly. I was on an extremely strict diet that didn’t allow most dried fruit or dark chocolate.

But I could have as much coconut oil and carob as I pleased. You can buy carob in powdered form like cocoa. And  unlike cocoa powder, carob is naturally sweet. I made  so many different versions of this dessert, throwing in everything you could imagine, from pumpkin seeds to fresh cherries to persimmon pulp.

Here’s the basic recipe. You can dress it up as you please.

1/2 cup Coconut oil
1/4 cup of Carob Powder
1 tsp of good quality salt like Celtic or Himalayan
Soy lecithin is optional (it will make it creamier but soy should be minimized on a gut-healing diet)

Melt the coconut oil and mix in the carob powder and stir till incorporated and fairly smooth. You can throw in sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, cinnamon, cardamon, vanilla, almond butter, coconut flakes, goji berries, etc… Then chill in the fridge for an hour. Enjoy with a dollop of coconut cream.

 

Coconut creme with fruit

 

 

 

Fresh fruit is one of our planet’s greatest gifts. Natural, juicy sweetness like nature intended. Fresh and frozen fruit offer a variety of dessert options. And if that’s too boring for you, then dress it up with coconut cream.

Sometimes less is more. This frozen, pitted cherry and cloud of coconut richness was my dessert the other night.

Some people with IBS are intolerant to fructose. I was not however. So, beefore indulging in fruit desserts notice how different types of fruit makes you feel after you eat them. Your body’s own feedback is the best food sensitivity test out there. And the least expensive.

 

 

 

You can also turn fresh fruit into “comfort” fruit, by warming, baking, stewing or sauteing it.

I made this vibrant apple sauce the other day by throwing fresh, chopped apples, lemon juice, prunes and sliced organic lemons with the rind into my slow cooker for a few hours.

 

The “healthiest” sweeteners

 

The healthiest way to sweeten smoothies is with bananas. But if you need to transition off of sugar slowly instead of using the cold turkey approach, raw honey and maple syrup are the healthiest sweeteners out there. You can also sweeten with dried dates.

Plain yogurt with raw honey or maple syrup is one of my favorite snacks or desserts. And the probiotics in yogurt helps boost the body’s ability to digest these healthy sugars.

So don’t give up the sweet life, just find a new version of it. Let the creativity and sweet times flow.

What have you made with nuts, seeds, fruit and coconut in the kitchen?

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