Easy Ways to Make Holiday (and everyday) Treats Healthier!

First: Go Organic

The easiest thing you can do is purchase organic ingredients. Remember: if you are NOT buying organic, you ARE buying glyphosate, toxins, and GMOs (unless marked Non-GMO). (More than 95% of the world’s soy is Genetically Modified. Organic foods cannot be GMO or contain GMO ingredients, by law.) When you choose to purchase organic ingredients, not only are you avoiding the toxins in commercially grown foods (which strain your liver and make you toxic), organic ingredients will also make a more nutritious treat—treats that are not only not toxic, but also nutritionally superior.

Can’t buy all organic? The top three things to be sure to have on your shopping list are organic (and pastured) eggs, organic butter (pastured is best), and organic flour. 

Second: Reduce and/or Switch out your Sweetener!

As everyone knows, white (refined) sugar is the worst for us. It is nicknamed “the white poison” or “white death”. Did you know that for most recipes, you can cut the amount of sugar by half or more and still have a recipe that tastes good? Start there! What an easy way to reduce the amount of sugar you consume this holiday season—by literally cutting down the amount of sugar! 

You can also make some positive nutritional impact by choosing a different sweetener. This would be either a dry sweetener or a liquid sweetener, such as maple syrup or honey. While you can swap out dry sweeteners one-to-one in a recipe, they are nutrient stealers! Liquid sweeteners are a little more difficult to swap because you are substituting a liquid for a dry ingredient. No problem: just decrease some of the liquid in the recipe or add in some dry ingredients-such as additional flour or arrowroot- or the recipe will be too wet. 

If you want to start by substituting another sugar for the refined white sugar in your pantry, start with “unrefined” sugar. Unrefined sugar will retain all the molasses of the sugar cane it comes from. However, unrefined sugars contain only trace amounts of micronutrients, such as minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants. They are not a significant source of any nutrient. Unrefined sugar may be called whole cane sugar, jaggery, sucanat, or muscovado, or rock sugar. Do not fall for “raw sugar” either, it is highly refined and has even less mineral content. Raw sugar may be called turbinado, demerara, evaporated cane juice, dried cane syrup, or dehydrated cane juice.

My sweetener of choice? Maple syrup. Maple syrup contains high amounts of calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium, zinc, copper, and manganese, as well as vitamin A and B vitamins— B6, B5, B2, B1, niacin, folic acid. As far as nutrients in sweeteners go, it’s a winner for swapping. Grade B maple syrup is best, as it contains more nutrients than Grade A. How to do it? Use ¾ cup of maple syrup for every cup of white sugar in a recipe. Reduce other liquids by 4 tablespoons (¼ cup). I encourage you to try it! 

Third: Use Nut Flour instead of Wheat, Grain or GF Flour

All grains are challenging to the human digestive system. Wheat flour has its own very special challenges—gluten being the best known, and most problematic. Many people with gluten sensitivity or allergy have switched from wheat flour to gluten-free flour for baking—premixed ones being the most popular. Gluten-free flour mixes are usually a mixture of tapioca starch, potato starch, arrowroot starch (are you noticing all the “starch”, which is another word for “sugar”?), brown rice flour, white rice flour, and guar gum! Some even include estrogenic soy flour. There are even “paleo” flour mixes these days, made of starchy root vegetables, like cassava. Some have high fiber coconut flour, (which can be very irritating to the gut, especially if you have leaky gut.) Don’t be fooled! All gluten-free and Paleo flour mixes are extremely high in carbohydrate, aka sugar. What to do? Try making cookies and cakes with nut flour. 

Nut flour is gluten-free and low carb! It is also high in protein. “Almond flour” is the most well-known nut flour on the market, but you can also find hazelnut flour, pistachio, chestnut, and other nut flours. Almond flour is preferred because it is very mild in flavor. The others mentioned above will impart a strong flavor to whatever you are baking. If you cannot tolerate almonds for whatever reason, you can also make your own sunflower seed flour. It will also have a mild flavor.

Note: nut “flour” will have been made from blanched, skinless nuts. Nut “meal” is made from whole, unblanched nuts, including their skins. (Some people with digestive issues may experience gastric distress from the nut skins—so if you have a sensitive digestive tract, or have food sensitivities or allergies, it may be best to use nut “flour”.)

If you would like to make your own nut flour, it is quite easy to do: just grind nuts in your food processor until it is the consistency of flour. However, you can make your nut flour more easily processed (some nuts are like rocks) and easier on your digestive system by first soaking the nuts in warm water and good salt (1 tablespoon of salt for every pound of nuts; cover with warm water and let soak for about 8 hours or more.

Exception: cashews. Soak for a maximum of 6 hours or they can mold.) Once you have soaked the nuts, their skins will come off easily. Just rub them between your hands and the skins will slip right off. Crisp the nuts in the oven to dry out some of the oil (12-24 hours at the lowest temperature your oven can go—150°F best, but 170°F okay) and into the food processor they go! (Don’t bother with a dehydrator as you will be baking the flour. The enzymes you would preserve by dehydrating at a low temperature will be destroyed when you bake.) It is best to pulverize nuts in batches, about 4-6 oz of nuts at a time. 

Please note: nut flour does not have gluten and cannot be substituted one-to-one for wheat or grain flour in recipes. You will have to use another ingredient to give air or lift to your baked goods: eggs. Most nut flour recipes will require 4-6 eggs or more.