Here is my favorite breakfast bar recipe.
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This has been my staple breakfast bar for years, and I’ve adapted it here to be lower histamine for MCAS. I keep these bars in the freezer and remove one bar each morning to have with my morning tea. It’s an easy recipe to memorize because most of the ingredients are 1/2 cups.
Table of Contents
Ingredient notes for lower histamine breakfast bars
These breakfast bars contain ChocZero sugar-free maple syrup and ChocZero sugar-free chocolate chips. And the flour in this recipe is pumpking seed flour. If you can’t find it you can substitute Otto’s Cassava Flour.
What is MCAS?
Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS, pronounced em-cass) is a chronic condition that affects all organ systems. MCAS is serious and disabling and people with MCAS experience often significant and debilitating symptoms daily, including anaphylaxis, which can be fatal.
MCAS is often found in combination with other chronic conditions such as Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS).
Frequently healthcare providers do not know about MCAS, and the tests for MCAS are problematic because they are not uniformly reliable. MCAS can be difficult to manage. Treatments include blocking mast cell mediators with anti-histamines and mast cell stabilizers, as well as avoiding triggers.
Check out this post on how to manage MCAS.
Why this recipe?
This recipe is lower in carbs, higher in healthy fat, protein, and fiber, while still being lower in histamine and histamine-releasing foods, lower in oxalates, and free of nightshades, grains, and gluten. Eating a diet lower in carbs and inflammatory foods can help to control histamine intolerance. To learn more about the lower histamine diet click here!
The bucket theory
The bucket theory offers a helpful analogy for understanding symptom reactions with MCAS.
Think of your body as an empty bucket that you want to keep from overflowing. Different foods and activities fill your histamine bucket at different speeds but they combine to form the total level of histamine in your body (how full your bucket is). A fuller bucket means you have more histamine symptoms. When you manage triggers, reduce exposure to known triggers, and take medications and supplements to reduce histamine, you can manage the level of your bucket.
Know your typical symptom progression
Knowing your symptom progression in a symptom flare is the key to developing your own rescue plan. In this post, I discuss how to determine your own symptom progression. Once you know what typically happens in your symptom progression you can design a rescue plan to address those symptoms.
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Here’s the recipe for lower histamine breakfast bars!
Lower Histamine Breakfast Bars
Ingredients
- ½ cup ChocZero sugar-free maple syrup or pure maple syrup, if tolerated
- 2 cups pumpkin seed flour or almond meal, if tolerated
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ cup olive oil or melted butter
- ½ cup raw sprouted pumpkin seeds
- ½ cup chopped pecans
- ½ cup unsweetened desiccated coconut
- ½ cup raw sprouted sunflower seeds
- ½ cup raisins or dried cherries if tolerated
- ½ cup ChocZero sugar-free chocolate chips
- ½ cup optional: any combination of hemp hearts, chia seeds, or flax meal totaling ½ cup if desired
- 1 tsp vanilla extract or ½ tsp. pure vanilla bean powder
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 egg or substitute a chia or flax egg to make this recipe vegan
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 °F. Place a sheet of baking paper into an 8 x 10-inch baking pan leaving a few inches of paper extending on each side to use as handles after the bars have baked.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the fat, egg, and vanilla. Add the remaining ingredients and stir thoroughly.
- Scoop the dough into the prepared pan. Place a piece of plastic wrap or baking paper over the dough and press firmly down on the dough to distribute it evenly into the baking dish. Discard the plastic wrap.
- Bake the bars for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for five minutes. Place the pan in the freezer and freeze them for 30 minutes uncovered (this helps them cut nicely). Remove the pan from the freezer and cut them into 12 bars. Store the bars in the freezer in an airtight container until read to consume.
What do you think?
I’d love to have your reply below!
