Endo Belly Healing No Bake Cookie Bars

These no bake cookie bars came from my desire to make you all something less chocolatey. As many of you know, I can’t eat much cacao or chocolate as it’s too stimulating for my POTS, so my nervous system needed a break and I imagine there are some of you out there that were after something less chocolatey too!

Trying to make functional recipes that are low FODMAP and rich in certain ingredients for endo and endo belly, has meant that to disguise flavours or to enhance flavour, I needed to add a lot of chocolate to many recipes, but I’m hoping this one is flavourful enough without lashings of the stuff!

These cookie bars can be made with my carob ‘chocolate’ for those of you wanting to avoid chocolate, or you could even swap the chocolate out entirely for low-ish sugar dried fruit like freeze dried raspberries or mulberries (read on to understand why I suggested low sugar fruit).

Many of my most recent recipes have been focused on constipation, but this recipe is about rebuilding a healthy microbiome and healing the gut. People with endo have some really unique gut issues that people without endo don’t have, and we can actually begin addressing those problems by eating certain foods, which is what we’re doing with these recipes.

To learn more about these endo specific gut changes and why they matter, have a listen/read this episode and this episode.

These cookie bars are…

• A source of resistant starch, thanks to the cooked and cooled potatoes, uncooked oats and chickpeas!

Resistant starch helps to boost levels of butyrate, a type of short chain fatty acid which is made in the gut, and is low in people with endo. Butyrate plays a key role in keeping inflammation down and endo belly-type symptoms at bay, whilst supporting overall body and gut health. In fact, low levels of butyrate may play a role in the perfect storm that allows endo to develop, listen to this episode and this episode to learn more.

The other incredible bonus of resistant starch is that it ferments slowly in the gut, so is less likely to cause a sharp spike in gas and bloating.

• A rich source of dietary fibre, which helps to feed good gut bugs, helping to rebalance the microbiome.

People with endo have been shown to be low in levels of certain beneficial bacteria and higher in gram-negative and pathogenic bacteria, leading to more endo belly but also more of the inflammatory pathways that worsen and trigger endo growth. Eating for good gut health is absolutely essential to begin healing the microbiome.

• Low in FODMAPS, which can help prevent bloating. FODMAPS are fermentable carbohydrates which tend to ferment quickly in the gut (meaning our gut bacteria eat them and make gas), leading to rapid and often excessive bloating for people with IBS, SIBO and endo belly problems. These cookie bars are low in FODMAP, yet still a great source of fibre, giving you the best of both worlds as we’re ensuring we’re still feeding your microbiome without triggering too many symptoms.

• Are rich in healthy fats, plant protein, complex carbs and fibre, supporting healthy blood sugar levels and contain only low levels of naturally occurring sugar per serving. Frequent blood sugar spikes are a key cause of chronic inflammation and hormonal imbalances.

• Contain flax seeds, an incredible evidenced based food for constipation, as well as potassium from dates, which help with bowel contractions. Listen to podcast for how to use both of these foods for endo in a way that suits your body.

Important notes to help you tailor these cookie bars to your own body and needs (and tastebuds!)

Sugar content and preventing blood sugar spikes

I ran a poll last week asking whether you all cared more about how a recipe tastes or how endo fighting it was, and it was almost 50/50.

I always try to make my recipes low in sugar to prevent blood sugar spikes (which increase inflammation and oxidation, which are heavily linked to endo), but from a flavour perspective, these cookies needed medjool dates, which are higher in sugar than deglect noor dates, which are what I usually use.

So, you have two options here.

The lower date serving size means less sugar, so less likely to cause a blood sugar spike, but taste wise, it’s more like a vanilla cookie dough and tastes healthy (but good!).

The extra dates add a more caramel note to the recipe and it sort of tastes more like a brown butter cookie. When you up the date serving, I recommend you up the flax seed serving as well (so you’d go for the 90g flax vs. 60g), because the flax really slows down that glucose absorption, which helps to keep blood sugar levels stable (providing you tolerate that much flax per serve).

If you’re someone who knows you’re prone to blood sugar spikes (hungry shortly after meals, wake up shaky or starving, wake up in the night, get hangry or shaky before meals, mid-morning and mid-afternoon energy slumps, dizziness, esp. after meals) or you have PCOS, then adding the extra flax is going to help keep those blood sugar levels more balanced, whether or not you add the extra dates. This is especially true if you’re eating these before your period (or points in your cycle when you get a lot of pain), because blood sugar spikes will increase inflammation and inflammation is a key driver of pain. To learn more about this, check out these episodes and resources:

• https://endometriosisnews.com/2021/02/11/pge2-prostaglandin-e2-endometriosis/

• https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/effective-strategies-for-endometriosis

My preference of course is to keep the dates low and the flax high, but do what works for you!

You can also swap the chocolate chips for cacao nibs to lower the sugar content too.

Now, to be clear - I’m not demonising dates. Dates a rich source of minerals and are a wonderful ingredient, but you feeling better with endo is my number one priority, so that means my recipes aren’t sugary delights that you might find on other blogs, but that’s okay, because I’m a health coach, not a recipe creator!

Cacao vs. Coconut oil

I used cacao in this recipe, because it adds a richer flavour, but if you don’t have cacao or can’t afford it, just use coconut oil! It will still set the same, the flavour will just be a little less caramel-y. I recommend getting odourless coconut oil if you can, but that’s just because I’m not too much of a fan of coconut flavoured treats, if you like it, go for it!

Flax seeds

If you’ve heard flax seeds are ‘bad’ for endo, this isn’t necessarily true. To learn more about this, have a listen to this episode (or you can read the show notes as a blog). However, I do recommend that you pay attention to how you use flaxseeds and how you feel on them, because every body is different. I have guidance on how to use flax for endo, especially for constipation relief, here.

With the two different serving sizes, it’s really about blood sugar (read above), but the larger serving sizes gives you a chunkier, thicker cookie dough, so you might want to go with that extra serving of flax regardless.

However, always drink an extra glass of water when you eat flax, as it absorbs water, and so can actually lead to constipation if you’re not drinking enough. I wouldn’t eat more than one of these a day either, to prevent stools bulking too much.

If you know you don’t do well on flax seeds, just swap them for chia.

Chickpeas

Chickpeas are notorious bloaters. However, the chickpeas used in this recipe are in low FODMAP serving sizes and are canned (being soaked in water for long periods of time make them lower in FODMAPS and easier to digest). Give them a go and see how you feel, as you may be surprised by how well you tolerate them at this serving size.

However, if you want to avoid them, you can try cannellini, which will be low FODMAP at this serving size, though I’ve never tried them in this recipe.

Almond butter alternatives

For those with an allergy, sunflower seed butter makes a good allergy friendly alternative at low FODMAP serving sizes. Read more about sunflower seed butter and the FODMAP diet here.

Low FODMAP

Each serving is low FODMAP, so in theory, you should be able to better tolerate these cookie bars without it causing too much bloating (a.k.a endo belly). However, remember that every person is different, and if you have small intestine bacterial overgrowth, this is especially true because it really just depends on what you tolerate and what your SIBO likes to eat, and the low FODMAP diet is not always enough for people with SIBO.

Additionally, just to be clear, I am not suggesting we all go low FODMAP. But these recipes are designed to feed and heal your gut, and even relieve symptoms like constipation or gas, without triggering more endo belly symptoms, so keeping things low FODMAP helps me to do that.

These cookie bars are pretty chunky serves, so if you eat one and struggle with symptoms, you could try halving the serving sizes and see if you get on better with that!

Further resources

If you’re struggling with your gut health, you might find my courses and one to one coaching helpful. You can find out more here. I’ve also got endless podcast episodes on gut health and blood sugar, plus, you might find these article helpful in terms of how to manage your blood sugar levels and why:

https://endometriosis.net/living/diet-sugar

https://endometriosis.net/living/how-to-balance-your-blood-sugar-levels-to-reduce-endo-symptoms

To understand more about the low FODMAP diet, start here.