FW: Healthy substitutions

Lately I've been on a baking kick.  It started with wanting to be able to eat muffins.  I really like muffins!  But it's hard to fit them into my diet anywhere without adding extra calories.  I decided that if they were healthy muffins, they could easily count as breakfast... right?  First I made muffins with shredded carrots and applesauce, and they came out really good.  Then I bought a "501 muffins/scones/pastries" book and have made a different kind of muffin every week. 
 
Thing is, only so many of the recipes in the book are for "healthy" muffins; you know, low fat with lots of fiber.  I've gradually been learning how to make healthier substitutions.  The first thing I learned was to swap out oil for applesauce, then to use whole wheat flour in place of some of the all-purpose.  Now I also add bran (the first few recipes had it in the ingredients list already, but now I've learned how to incorporate it whether it's called for or not) and am getting to the point that I'm ready so start experimenting with honey instead of sugar.  I've already been using brown sugar instead of white when I think it will work well with the other flavors in the recipe. Here are some of the tips I've used:
 
Applesauce for vegetable/canola oil
As long as you are okay with the slight change in taste and texture (typically sweeter and softer), you'll have the best success substituting applesauce in oil-based baked goods, like quick breads, muffins and some cakes.

But let's get one thing straight: applesauce is not a great substitute for butter, and will lead to disaster in cookies and any other treat with a crispy snap. Unless you like cake-y, mushy cookies.

Most sources recommend a 1:1 swap:  if the recipe calls for 1 cup of oil, substitute with 1 cup of applesauce.  If recipe is too moist, you may want to reduce the amount of applesauce by as much as 1/3.
 
More tips for substitute success:

    * Use unsweetened applesauce, or reduce the amount of sugar in the recipe if you use sweetened applesauce.

    * Measure applesauce in a liquid measuring cup.

    * Use a hand or stand mixer to thoroughly combine the applesauce with the other liquid ingredients (egg, flavoring), then blend the liquids with the sugar. With a large spatula, carefully fold the dry ingredients into the mixture until just combined.

    * The finished product will be moist. Don't alter the time for cooking because low-fat recipes dry out when they're over-cooked.
 
 
Whole Wheat for White Flour
Whole-wheat flour usually can be substituted for part or all of the all-purpose flour in most recipes. If a recipe calls for two cups flour, try one cup all-purpose and one cup whole-wheat. When completely substituting whole-wheat for white, use 7/8 cup whole-wheat for one cup of white flour.
 
Products made with whole wheat flour will usually be more dense.  This may be helped somewhat by sifting the flour one or two extra times to help incorporate more air. Using a combination of regular and whole wheat flour will produce a lighter result. Aim to replace about 1/2 to 3/4 the white flour with whole wheat.
 
Always remember when using any all purpose flour for items such as muffins and cookies to mix as little as possible to avoid forming glutens, which will toughen the final result. 
 
 
Wheat Bran/Wheat Germ for flour
Replace up to 1/3 of the flour with Wheat Bran/Wheat Germ (Wheat Bran/Wheat Germ can substitute for each other in equal amounts).
 
 
Brown Sugar for White Sugar
In spite of their difference in weight, you can substitute brown sugar for granulated white on a 1 to 1 basis, and the most significant difference will be taste.  Pack the brown sugar firmly into the cup.  Brown sugar includes molasses, which adds moisture, so it will keep baked goods from drying out so quickly. 

 
Honey for White Sugar
To start with, it's a good idea to substitute up to half of the sugar in a given recipe. Once you've experimented more and have a better handle on how it works, you can try a higher percentage.
 
Up to one cup, honey can be substituted for sugar in equal amounts. For example, you can substitute 1/2 cup of honey for 1/2 cup of sugar called for in a recipe. Over one cup, use about 2/3-3/4 cup of honey for every cup of sugar. This is because honey is actually sweeter than sugar.
 
Honey is a liquid, so you'll need to reduce the liquid in the recipe a little. Do this at a rate of 1/4 cup less liquid for every cup of honey used in the recipe.  Honey browns faster than sugar so lower the temperature of the oven by 25 degrees and watch closely in the final few minutes of baking. Honey is also a little acidic. To counter-act this, you may need to add 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda for every cup of honey used. 

 
Whipping or heavy cream
Equal amounts evaporated skim milk OR 1/2 low-fat yogurt + 1/2 low-fat cottage cheese
 

Sour Cream
Substitute plain yogurt in equal amounts.

 
Options for reducing fats in a recipe
Start by just replacing half the amount of fat with an equal amount of any of these options:

• Fruit purees like unsweetened applesauce, canned crushed pineapple, or mashed bananas.  Use an old banana for sweetness and banana-y flavor, a green banana for all the nutrition without competing flavors.
• Vegetable purees like sweet potato, cauliflower, or canned pumpkin.  Also try shredded veggies, like the familiar carrots or zucchini.  Though technically a fruit, don't forget about mashed avocado!  Save the darker veggies like spinach puree to combine with chocolate desserts or with a darker fruit like blueberries.
• Beans, my personal favorite option.  Beans add protein and structure to a recipe and, when pureed, go completely unnoticed!  Try great northern beans or pinto beans for a neutral taste, and chickpeas for a slightly nuttier taste.  Use black beans and adzuki beans in recipes that call for cocoa or chocolate.
• Nut butters, like peanut butter, almond butter, or tahini.  Cashew butter has a particular neutral creamy taste.  These also pack in some extra protein.

 
An egg is 2 ounces of thick liquid, so it is best substituted with 2 oz of another thick liquid.  Try any of the above fruit, veggie, bean, or nut butter substitutions listed for subbing out fats.
 
Nuts - reduce the amount by half and toast them.
 

Not my typical post

... but it was too hilarious to pass up.  Sometimes I feel like this truly is the world we live in.
 
 
MY NAME IS DAVE AND I'M A CARBOHYDRATIC (or, carbohydrolic?)

I probably shouldn't admit this to you younger readers, but when my
generation was your age, we did some pretty stupid things. I'm
talking about taking CRAZY risks. We drank water right from the
tap. We used aspirin bottles that you could actually open with your
bare hands. We bought appliances that were not festooned with
helpful safety warnings such as, "DO NOT BATHE WITH THIS TOASTER."
But for sheer insanity, the wildest thing we did was - prepare to be
shocked......... we deliberately ingested carbohydrates.

I know, I know. It was wrong. But we were young and foolish, and
there was a lot of peer pressure. You'd be at a party, and there
would be a lava lamp blooping away, and a Jimi Hendrix record
playing. And then, when the mood was right, somebody would say: "You
wanna do some 'drates?" And the next thing you know, there'd be a
bowl of pretzels going around, or crackers, or even potato chips, and
we'd put these things into our mouths and just EAT them.

My only excuse was that we were ignorant. It's not like now, when
everybody knows how bad carbohydrates are, and virtually every
product is advertised as being "low-carb," including beer, denture
adhesives, floor wax tires, life insurance and Viagra.

Back then, we had no idea. Nobody did! Our own MOTHERS gave us
bread! Today, of course, nobody eats bread. People are terrified of
all carbohydrates, as evidenced by the recent mass robbery at a
midtown Manhattan restaurant, where 87 patrons turned their wallets
over to a man armed only with a strand of No. 8 spaghetti. ("Do what
he says! He has pasta!")

The city of Beverly Hills has been evacuated twice this month because
of reports - false, thank heavens - that terrorists had put a bagel
in the water supply. But as I say, in the old days we believed that
the reason you got fat was from eating calories," which are tiny
units of measurement that cause food to taste good".

When we wanted to lose weight, we went on low-calorie diets in which
we ate only inedible foods such as celery, which is actually a
building material. The problem with the low-calorie diet was that a
normal human could stick to it for, at most, four hours, at which
point he or she would have no biological choice but to sneak out to
the garage and snork down an entire bag of Snickers, sometimes
without removing the wrappers.

So nobody lost weight, and everybody felt guilty all the time. Many
people, in desperation, turned to disco. But then along came the
bold food pioneer who invented the Atkins Diet: Dr. Something
Atkins. Dr. Atkins discovered an amazing thing: Calories don't
matter! What matter are carbohydrates, which result when a carbo
molecule and a hydrate molecule collide at high speeds and form tiny
invisible doughnuts.

Dr. Atkins' discovery meant that as long as you avoided carbohydrates
you could, without guilt, eat high-fat, high-calorie foods such as
cheese, bacon lard, pork rinds and whale. You could eat an entire
pig, as long as the pig had not recently been exposed to bread. At
first, like other groundbreaking pioneers such as Galileo and Eminem,
Dr. Atkins met with skepticism, even hostility.

The Celery Growers Association hired a detective to - yes – stalk
him. His car tires were repeatedly slashed by what police determined
to be shards of Melba toast. But Dr. Atkins persisted, because he
had a dream - a dream that, some day, he would help the human race by
selling it 427 million diet books. And he did, achieving vindication
for his diet before his tragic demise in an incident that the autopsy
report listed as "totally unrelated to the undigested 28-pound bacon
cheeseburger found in his stomach."

But the Atkins Diet lives on, helping millions of Americans to lose
weight The irony is, you can't tell this by looking at actual
Americans, who have as a group, become so heavy that North America
will soon be underwater as far inland as Denver: Which can only mean
one thing: You people are still sneaking Snickers!! You should be
ashamed of yourselves!
 
 
I unfortunately haven't found the orignal source to be able to site this very funny quip.

FDA issues diet pill warning

The following FDA warning, revised Jan 8, 2009, is not exactly a "food for thought" post... but it is related to healthy weightloss and dieting. Just remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And in this case, it can be downright dangerous.
 
FDA Expands Warning to Consumers About Tainted Weight Loss Pills
 
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expanding its nationwide alert to consumers about tainted weight loss pills that contain undeclared, active pharmaceutical ingredients. On December 22, 2008, FDA warned consumers not to purchase or consume 28 different products marketed for weight loss. Since that time, FDA analysis has identified 41 more tainted weight loss products that may put consumers' health at risk.
 
An FDA analysis found that the undeclared active pharmaceutical ingredients in some of these products include sibutramine (a controlled substance), rimonabant (a drug not approved for marketing in the United States), phenytoin (an anti-seizure medication), phenolphthalein (a solution used in chemical experiments and a suspected cancer causing agent) and bumetanide (a diuretic). Some of the amounts of active pharmaceutical ingredients far exceeded the FDA-recommended levels, putting consumers' health at risk.
These weight loss products, some of which are marketed as "dietary supplements," are promoted and sold on various Web sites and in some retail stores. Some of the products claim to be "natural" or to contain only "herbal" ingredients, but actually contain potentially harmful ingredients not listed on the product labels or in promotional advertisements. These products have not been approved by the FDA, are illegal and may be potentially harmful to unsuspecting consumers. 
 
"These tainted weight loss products pose a great risk to public health because they contain undeclared ingredients and, in some cases, contain prescription drugs in amounts that greatly exceed their maximum recommended dosages," said Janet Woodcock, M.D., director, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, FDA. "Consumers have no way of knowing that these products contain powerful drugs that could cause serious health consequences. Therefore FDA is taking this action to protect the health of the American public."
 
Full article and listing of the 41 products:
http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2008/NEW01933.html
 
 

Take some advice from a toddler

We are all born with the intuitive knowledge to eat when hungry and stop when satisfied.  Think back to when you were a child (or, if that is too long ago, think back to when your children were very young!).  Until "rules" are imposed by mom and dad, we govern our intake purely by instinct.  Children often have to be told to eat at mealtimes because instinct says that we do not need to eat yet if we are not feeling hungry. Before we "learned better," we ate the parts we liked best and stuck our tongues out at the rest; we did not feel guilty about eating one food vs. another food because it was fattening or sweet; we stopped when we were no longer hungry, even if the plate was not empty.  As adults, we know it is important to make healthy food choices that nourish our bodies, but beyond that, why did most of us lose touch with our innate ability to eat only when hungry and stop when satisfied?
 
It is learned behavior to eat when not hungry, to feel guilt or shame about our food choices, and to eat beyond satiety.  It can be unlearned as well.  It is true that self-monitoring--telling yourself that it's not ok to eat an entire bag of cookies for dinner--is an important skill.  However, it does no good to vilify certain foods and declare them "off limits".  This only makes us want the food more!  And then, consuming it results in negative feelings.  We feel like a failure because we ate a piece of cake even though we know we "shouldn't" eat sweets.  We feel so badly about ourselves that we resolve to try harder to adhere to a strict diet regimen. Next time we give in, we feel even worse.  It's a vicious cycle. And how many of us eat things we don't even really like because it's on our plates?
 
Wouldn't it be so much better to eat what we wanted, when we wanted, and never feel guilty about it again?? 
 
This is what a "normal" eater does.  You know, the naturally thin person that everyone hates!  The one who never seems concerned with dieting, is happy to indulge occasionally, and maintains a healthy weight.  They might eat the pizza and leave the crust.  They might scrape the icing off a cupcake, lick the fork, and toss the rest.  If this sounds like the way a child eats, you would be right!  Most children are excellent intuitive eaters until deregulated habits become ingrained in their behavior.  Normal eaters know that any food, in moderation, can be part of an overall healthy eating plan.
 
The secret is to eat when hungry, stop when satisfied, and, since we are all adults here, listen to your "inner grandmother" when it comes to nutrition.  You know, things like, "Eat your veggies before you have dessert", and "Two cookies are enough, dear."  It really is that simple.  Now, normal eaters do occasionally eat when they aren't hungry and continue past satiety.  They might enjoy popcorn at a movie, or celebrate a promotion with a fancy 6-course dinner even though they stopped being hungry long before dessert.  These types of behaviors are the exceptions and not the norm.  In general, they wait until they are hungry to eat, eat as soon as possible after noticing they are hungry (rather than starving themselves until some arbitrary point in the future), and stop eating when they are no longer hungry.  This means stopping when satisfied--not full. Adults often eat to the point that they are so full they feel physically uncomfortable.  Have you ever known a toddler to do this??  No! They stop eating at the point that their body no longer signals hunger. Normal eaters also eat what they like and leave the rest. 
 
Don't believe that intuitive eating can lead to weight loss or maintaining a normal weight?  The following article profiles Steven Hawks, a professor of health science, as he gives traditional "diets" the thumbs down and "intuitive eating" a nod of approval.  It helped him shed 50 pounds--painlessly and normally.
 
http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/01/11/profile.hawks/

Danger in diet soda: All things in moderation

No, not it's not the formaldehyde myth, or a lecture about aspartame.
 
The "danger" I speak of has to do with the correlation between diet soda and obesity.  That is, those who consume larger amounts of diet pop have been found more likely to be obese than those who consume lesser amounts--even when compared to people who drink regular, non-diet soda.
 
The reasons are multi-factored, but the basic danger lies in the misconception that it's ok to drink large amounts of diet soft drinks with no ill-effects because they have zero or very few calories.  While they may indeed be calorie-free... and perhaps even caffeine-free and low-sodium... it's still not a "healthy" alternative, folks.  Water is the best way to go.  Fruit or vegetable juice is a nice option, as is milk (all have potential for lots of nutrients and vitamins, but be mindful of calories).  Diet pop has no redeeming qualities.  We just like the way it tastes.  The sweet taste itself can be detrimental to our healthful intentions by increasing the desire to continue consuming more and more sweets (it's classic conditioning--the more sweets you regularly ingest, the more you crave in your daily diet).
 
The notion of moderating the consumption of "diet" versions of things does not just apply to soft drinks.  The argument can be made that any "light" or "low fat" or "low carb" version of any food product lulls the consumer into a false sense of security with this label. We consequently tend to overeat a product that in some cases, when over-consumed, is worse for the body than the original product (such as trans fat found in margarine).  It may also be less satisfying than the original; another reason we eat more.
 
Now, before I make it sound like I'm condemning all things "L-I-T-E": I do drink diet pop, and I do buy skim milk and low fat cream cheese.  I am not suggesting that diet foods are evil.  The key is in moderation; being aware of the tendency to over-consume these products, and evaluating on a case-by-case basis whether you want the "real thing" or a "diet" version. 
 
The following article links consumption of diet pop to metabolic syndrome and obesity.  As always, I highly recommend you do your own research and make your own decisions. I can honestly say that I have noticed, prior to reading any articles on the topic, a connection in my own life between times when I've made an effort to limit my consumption of diet soda and times when I have not, and my cravings for sweets of other kinds throughout the day. 
 
http://www.getfitslowly.com/2008/02/12/the-dangers-of-diet-soda/

Wasting food

Some people overeat because they are trying to numb unpleasant emotions, or prolong the pleasurable ones.  Others eat too much because it just tastes good, and they indulge beyond the point of self-nourishment in an act of rebellion or greed.  And some individuals eat until they finish what's on the plate whether they are still hungry or not, because they can't stand the thought of letting food go to waste.  Often, if these people are parents they will dutifully finish what's on their kids' plates along with their own! ...and lecture the children on being wasteful, to boot.

 

Learn to practice the fine art of eating the best and chucking the rest!

 

We live in an age of plenty. Throwing away a cup of overcooked pasta or one leftover hamburger patty isn't going to hurt anyone, nor would forcing yourself to finish every meal save a starving child in Somalia from the ravages of malnourishment.  It goes without saying that everyone should strive to be conservative, and try not to take more than you need at an all-you-can-eat buffet. Likewise, it is not necessary to prepare a double-recipe knowing your family will only barely finish half of it.  Because throwing away food is wasteful... there is no argument about that. But it is no more noble, or useful, or wise to treat your own body as a garbage can for disposing of unwanted food! Maybe you hold the notion that your body will somehow make good use of the extra food beyond what it needs to sustain itself.  It won't!  It stores the excess food as fat! Which, let's face it--most of us won't need to rely on as an energy source anytime within our lifetimes.  So the food still goes to waste, inside the body, in the form of unused, unhealthy fat.

 

For the longest time I couldn't bring myself to throw away food, even if I knew it wouldn't get eaten. I'd put leftovers in the fridge and then let them rot until I "had" to throw them away. Or I'd eat the same thing meal after meal until I'd finished the whole amount, even if it was no longer appealing to me and even if I truly would've preferred to make something new and eat that instead.  What did this accomplish? It instilled a desire to overeat when the food was fresh, in an effort to "dispose of" the leftovers in a way that wouldn't make me feel guilty or result in my ritualistic self-punishment of forcing myself eat it later.  Now, knowing that I can eat only what I want, when I want, and toss the rest, means that I have no reason to stuff myself on extra bites that don't really serve any purpose beyond adding on extra pounds of fat over time.

 

Don't guilt yourself into eating food you don't want just so it won't be "wasted."  Remember that no matter whether it ends up being tossed in the trash or stored as fat in your body, it is not being utilized for any useful purpose. And if you spy someone else giving you a dirty look when you scrape your plate into the garbage can, ask yourself whether you believe that person to be any smarter or better or healthier than you simply because they finish every last bite, or save leftovers until they go bad, or force themselves to eat the same thing for every meal until every last scrap is gone.  Put waste in a garbage can, not in your body.

Not all yogurts were created equal

I love yogurt. With it's live bacterial cultures, high calcium content, and protein to boot, it is often praised as a healthy, wholesome snack--especially for women, who have a higher RDA for calcium than men but too often fail to eat enough dairy or meat to reach nutritional requirements.

But have you ever looked at your yogurt label? I mean, really looked at it?? I was shocked to discover that my favorite brand contains 14 grams of sugar per serving. That's more than the sugary fruit and grain bars I'd long ago deemed too "candybar-like" to be a regular addition to my diet! Also, to my chagrin, the second ingredient on the label...? High fructose corn syrup. Why, Yoplait? Why???

I learned firsthand that not all yogurts are created equal. A quest to find what to do about it revealed the following article, from Health Action newsletter.

---

Yogurt: Health food... or dessert?

Plop a 1960s shopper down in the yogurt aisle of a 1990s supermarket and she’d probably drop her loaf of Wonder bread. Yogurt’s come a long way, baby.

On the upside, it’s got less fat than it did 30 years ago, when yogurt first showed up in supermarket dairy cases. On the downside, it’s looking a lot more like dessert than health food.

For children, you can now find yogurt with added candy, Jell-O, or Trix "fruity colors"—that is, the same artificial colors and flavors that make some kids think they’re getting fruit instead of sugar when they eat Trix (make that "Tricks") cereal. For adults, you can find flavors like chocolate eclair, coconut cream pie, and caramel praline.

If you’re looking for dessert, almost any yogurt is better than cakes, cookies, pies, and the rest. But if you’re looking for a healthy food, you’ve got to be choosy.


The Best
You can’t beat a cup of plain low-fat or fat-free yogurt. It can have as much as 400 mg of calcium—40 percent of the Daily Value (DV)—more than a glass of 1% or fat-free milk
(30 to 35 percent of the DV). And, like milk, it also has protein, B-12, riboflavin, potassium, magnesium, and zinc. The only exception: Yogurt has no vitamin D because, unlike milk, it’s not fortified.

What’s more, people who have trouble digesting lactose (the naturally occurring sugar in milk) should have no problem with yogurt. The "live and active cultures" digest the lactose for you.

Whether those Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus—the bacteria in yogurt—have other benefits is unclear. But even if they don’t, yogurt’s still a bargain. All those nutrients for just over 100 calories is a steal.

That is, if you eat it plain. Not that it has to be eaten alone.

Yogurt’s natural tartness makes it a perfect foil for a sweet, ripe banana, juicy fresh (or frozen) berries, or even canned (unsweetened) pineapples or peaches. Throw it in the blender or spoon it into a bowl. Either way, you get one of the five daily servings of fresh fruit that could cut your risk of cancer.

Plain fat-free or low-fat yogurt is a Best Bite if there ever was one. Unfortunately, that’s not the way most people eat it.

The Next Best
People who would never let a sip of chocolate milk cross their lips think nothing of eating a cup of sweetened yogurt. Yet an eight-ounce cup of Dannon Lowfat fruit-on-the-bottom has six teaspoons of added sugar. A glass of Hershey’s Chocolate Fat Free Milk has four.
Now you’re talking 240 calories in a snack that many people gulp down in 240 seconds. You could have spent the 100 calories from the added sugar on a banana or a couple of cups of low-fat microwave popcorn.

Judging by the calories in other brands—whose manufacturers are more secretive than Dannon—six teaspoons of sugar is par for the course for yogurts with fruit. (Flavored yogurts like coffee, vanilla, and lemon may have "only" four teaspoons.)

All that sugar means more calories and less calcium-rich yogurt.

Since the calcium comes from milk, that means you’re also getting less potassium, magnesium, zinc, etc. Plus, the sweeter the yogurt, the less likely you are to add your own fruit.
Still, if it’s a choice between sweetened yogurt and no yogurt, get the sweetened. Just try to pick the best ones. That means the most calcium and fruit and the least added sugar.
But while food labels list calcium and sugar, there’s no way to tell how much of the sugar comes from the milk and fruit and how much is added.

So we gave Honorable Mentions to yogurts that kept the calcium up to at least 300 mg (30 percent of the Daily Value) in eight ounces.

Just because a yogurt didn’t make an Honorable Mention doesn’t mean it’s dishonorable. More than a few just missed the cutoff for calcium. When push comes to shove, most yogurts are more nutritious than most ice creams, frozen yogurts, or prepared puddings.

One more thing: If coffee’s your flavor, you may end up with an unwanted shot of caffeine. And, in most cases, there’s nothing on the label to clue you in. For the record, an eight-ounce container of Dannon Lowfat Coffee Yogurt contains 45 mg of caffeine. That’s about what you’d get in half a cup of brewed coffee. Six ounces of Horizon Organic Nonfat Cappuccino have 25 mg. Dannon Light Cappuccino and Stonyfield Farm Nonfat Cappuccino have none.

The Least Best
Why did some lines strike out?

Too little calcium. A few brands—like Colombo, Jell-O, Light n’ Lively, SnackWell’s, and some lines of Breyers—had less calcium than their competitors. Is that because they have more sugar? Or is it because other brands have more milk solids? The companies won’t say.
Artificial sweeteners. Though the aspartame (NutraSweet) in "light" yogurts cuts calories to 100 or less, its safety isn’t 100 percent certain.

Heat-treatment. SnackWell’s is heat-treated to get rid of the off-flavors that arise when chocolate mixes with the acid made by yogurt’s beneficial bacteria. Unfortunately, the heat also kills the bacteria.

The information for this article was compiled by Wendy Meltzer.

See link for comparison chart

Full article and comparison chart here