LID-ified: Chocolate Cake

This article is similar to my series of "Altering Alton" but with a low-iodine diet (LID) in mind for those who may have had a thyroidectomy. Why LID? For individuals without a thyroid (most likely as a result of removing cancerous nodules), the body no longer has a great need for iodine, but cancerous thyroid cells do. When an individual goes through a body scan, he/she must remove all iodine from the body. Why? In order to determine if there are any cancerous cells, a radioactive iodine is ingested and binds to any cells that need to take up iodine (like thyroid cells that shouldn't be there). With a body scan, the doctor can see if there are any of these thyroid cells that shouldn't be there.

So how hard can it be on LID? It's not hard as long as you avoid iodine, which is near impossible with a typical Western diet! Nearly everything has to be made from scratch, and I mean everything. One thing that has really helped me with figuring out how to make things for LID has been my work with food chemistry and food preparation classes I teach. From my work, I have really learned to enjoy making LID-friendly chocolate cake.

I derive my variation from Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake, which can be found on the back of the box for Hershey's Cocoa: Natural Unsweetened. I've been able to make this cake application LID-approved by changing a couple of ingredients. First, for milk, I use coconut milk created from dried, unsweetened organic shredded coconut. For eggs, I only use egg whites. For salt, I use non-iodized salt. For vegetable oil, I use canola oil. And I leave out the vanilla extract.

With these substitutions, I can use the application for creating a wonderfully chocolate cake. And of course, you know how I make the frosting from a previous post. I like to add about 1/2 cup coconut milk with enough confectioner's sugar to get the consistency I want (anywhere from 3-4 cups) for a thick chocolate frosting.

So there you have it. Something that is LID-friendly but has the same consistency, texture, and desired consumption by individuals craving chocolate cake without the iodine. Even on LID, you can eat just as well, if not better!