Patient Worthy contributor, Andrea, has wonderful recipes for a healthy, delicious ankylosing spondylitis diet ! Stay tuned for more! 
I often get a blank stare of resistance when I explain to people the diet I eat to fight the autoimmune diseases of ankylosing spondylitis and colitis. Let’s face it, a starch-free, grain-free, dairy-free, refined sugar-free, soy-free, corn-free diet sounds really limiting. By cutting out those foods there goes at least 99% of all prepared and packaged foods, right!?
But in all honestly I have found that once your palate gets to taste fresh nutrient dense foods that have undergone minimal handling and or have even been picked fresh that day, you are in for a real treat.
It is not even a challenge for me to avoid processed foods, because not only do I think processed foods taste like crap, but they make me feel like crap. Believe me, I love food. And I love to eat food, but I only love to eat flavorful nutrient dense foods that make me feel good, so I consider my pure and simple foods diet a win-win!
I created a low-starch (mostly starch-free), dairy-free, gluten-free, grain-free, soy-free, nightshade-free paleo cookbook called “Pure and Simple Paleo” to share how crave-worthy eating a pure foods diet can be!! Eating this way has made the most significant impact in my daily fight against ankylosing spondylitis, my IBS vanished, and my and colitis is in remission. When I think back on all those years I spent in agonizing pain I realize it was simply my body’s way of sounding an alarm to tell me what I as putting in my body was harming me instead of helping me. So for the past 8 years I have been focused on eating a diet with nutrient dense and pure healing foods to turn those painful alarm signals off. My diet has been so effective for me, that I can’t help but want to share my approach and recipes with the world!!
These simple sea salt chocolate “caramels” are one of my most favorite starch-free recipes EVER and they are a great example of how delicious and yummy a healing diet can be! It takes just 15 minutes to make a batch of 32 soft chewy chocolate “caramels”. I know you might be thinking, there’s no way it could taste that amazing, she is just using dates in the center. Well, I promise you this recipe magically transforms those dates into a rich soft caramel-like filling. And as long as you use big plump medjool dates you are good to go! You can often find medjool dates in the produce section of most grocery stores, and they are often available in bulk food section by the pound too. I use pure raw cacao powder in these candies as pure cacao beans (also called cocoa beans) have no starch in them, but sometimes manufacturers will add starches to their cocoa powders during the refining process. Try to find a high quality cocoa powder (or cocoa powder) that is 100% cacao or cocoa. Pure cacao is loaded with antioxidants, magnesium, and iron, and it seriously makes my body feel good. It is my one of my favorite non-guilty pleasures to consume a little pure chocolate every day.
While I love the texture of the firm chocolate coating you get when you use real cocoa butter (or cocoa butter) in this recipe, you can totally use coconut oil in its place if that is what you have on hand. The coconut oil will just make a softer chocolate, but it is still mighty delicious.
For more recipe details and photos, please see: www.forestandfauna.com
Sea Salt Chocolate Caramels
Servings: 32
Ingredients:
• 3 Tablespoons raw cacao butter (or coconut oil)
• 6 Tablespoons cacao powder (or cocoa powder)
• 2 Tablespoons maple sugar crystals (or use coconut sugar, maple syrup, or stevia)
• 16 jumbo medjool dates
• 1 to 2 teaspoons flaked sea salt
Directions:
1. Slice dates in half, remove pit, and roll date halves into small date balls.
2. If using granulated pure maple sugar, (coconut sugar) grind it to a fine powder in a coffee grinder, this takes like 10 seconds. It is also okay to use without grinding it, but the maple sugar will make a kinda gritty chocolate, though it’s still freaking delicious!! Skip this step if you are using liquid maple syrup.
3. Melt cacao butter (or coconut oil) over a double boiler. I take a small sauce pan heat up an inch or two of water over medium heat in the pan, and create a double boiler by placing a small mixing bowl over the hot water. This double boiler will allow you to gently melt the cacao butter. (Note: be very careful not to let any drops of water get into the chocolate sauce or it will cause it to seize up = not good.)
4. When cacao butter is melted, stir in cacao powder and maple syrup. Remove from heat.
5. Place all 32 date balls into the chocolate sauce in the bowl. Stir date balls until they are well covered in chocolate.
6. Spoon each chocolate covered date ball onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle a tiny pinch of flaked sea salt over each chocolate.
7. Place in the fridge for an hour to firm up. Store chilled.
