I’ve been interested in nutrition since I was young. For a while I thought of studying nutrition at the university but never got around to do it*. I’ve always felt that most dietary advices are somewhat uncertain to say the least. Once you shouldn’t have more than one egg a week and then it’s okay to have even two a day. Once “cholesterol” is bad for you, and then it appears that there is more than one type of cholesterol and that some are even good for you.
And then I came across LCHF. For me, an eye opener! It was as if the puzzle suddenly made sense. If you know how your body works and what it does with the different nutrients then you know what you should eat to keep it as healthy as possible.
That sugar is bad for you, I think is commonly accepted today. But the natural choices (date honey, apple sauce etc.) are just different types of sugars when it comes to our bodies’ handling of it. It’s the same with flour. White flour = no, no. But what about whole wheat? And rye and the other grains? Again, when it comes to how our bodies’ metabolize them, in the end it’s the same. (It might take a bit longer for the insulin to break down whole wheat or rye than it takes to break down refined wheat. That in turn gives a more stable insulin level in our blood, but the body still needs the insulin to break down the sugars.)
So the more I read and understand the more upset I get because the BIG question for me as a baker is: How do I continue to bake?
I love to bake. I don’t want people to eat baked goods. What to do?
Since I decided to do commercial baking, I’ve been trying to use ingredients that on one hand are healthy but on the other hand don’t take away from the quality. (No, a cookie made with oil is not as crispy as one made with butter.) **
How do you bake without any flour and sugar at all? And then I mean no whole wheat, no rye, no honey, no date honey, no anything that has sugars in it. What is left? Doesn’t everything have sugars in it? (Unless you’re making a meat pie.)
So I’ve been looking for recipes and experimenting with celiac and diabetes in mind. It’s fun. It’s different. You need to get used to another type of sweetness. (I’m using Stevia for sweetener.)
So far the results are mixed. Mostly the hang up is on texture - flavours are fine***.
And no, I don’t think you can get totally rid of the carbohydrates in baking, but you can definitely get it much lower. Low enough to make it a healthy alternative.
*Who knows, maybe better that way or I might have ended up repeating the establishment.
**Now I know that butter is actually a lot healthier than most vegetable oils.
***Don’t worry, nothing is thrown away. One can always make chocolate balls out of misshaped cakes. It’s actually easier to make LCHF candy than cookies.
