Ask the Housewife: Round Two

Y’all ready for Round Two?  This is kinda fun for me.  I hope it’s not boring you to tears.

Kristy has a lot of questions, enough for a whole post, as a matter of fact.  Here’s what she wants to know.

I was just wondering about your thoughts regarding sugar substitutes (not Splenda, Nutrasweet, etc.) such as Agave Nectar, Stevia, Honey, etc. Have you tried baking with any of them? Any good results??

Ah, sugar.  The one thing I REALLY want to do better about is sugar.  The more I read, the more I think sugar is the single most harmful thing we put in our bodies.  And this is an area where most experts tend to agree.

I try to explain to my kids that it compromises their immune systems and depletes their bodies of nutrients.  We still eat our fair share, trust me, but I’m trying to do better, and I’m trying to teach my kids why we’re doing this, in hopes that they will take some responsibility about what they eat.

I don’t do a lot of substituting.  (I’m the type to follow a recipe to the letter.)  So lately I’ve been looking for new recipes to add to my repertoire that use natural sugars, instead of trying to substitute in the recipes I already have.

The one substitution I do make is Sucanat for regular white sugar.  It has a richer taste without being quite as sweet, which I really like.  I have not tried Stevia or Agave Nectar.   I use honey when a recipe calls for it, but I haven’t tried subbing it out for sugar.  I also substitute whole wheat pastry flour for white flour in most quick breads and baking.

Keep in mind, though, that sugar is still sugar. Don’t think that you can just replace refined sugar with Sucanat or honey and it’s suddenly harmless.  It may have some nutrients that the refined sugars don’t, but it’s still sugar and it should still be eaten sparingly for optimum health.

Keep that in mind when reading labels too.  Just because a processed snack food contains “evaporated cane juice” rather than “high fructose corn syrup” doesn’t mean it’s okay to consume it with reckless abandon.  When I buy processed foods such as jelly or peanut butter, I look at both the type of sugar used, but also the overall sugar count on the label.  Sometimes an “all natural fruit spread” will have more sugar than its conventional counterpart.

Donielle has a post that neatly sums up the different kinds of sugars, if you’re interested.

Also, other than whole wheat flour, I’m kind of nervous to try any other kind such as Rye or Spelt, etc. Does it have a distinct flavor and when would I substitute that for regular flour?

The best thing to do is just try one and see how you like it.  I have been using spelt flour in some of my bread baking, and I can’t tell any difference.  I haven’t tried rye.  I substitute spelt for part of the wheat flour when I make sandwich bread.  And also, some recipes I’ve found online for quick breads or other baked goods will call for whole wheat pastry flour or spelt interchangeably, and I have used them both with no problem.

I’ve already begun my transition from margarine to butter and sugar to Stevia. How on earth do you keep from going overboard on certain things?? I started reading labels and just trying to be more aware of what I’m putting into my kids and I swear to you that I was ready to throw everything out and start fresh! I hope I didn’t make you sorry you opened this up for questions! LOL

I suppose did jump in with both feet; that’s just my way.  But I had been reading labels for years so it wasn’t a total 180 for me. As I said in Round One, I try to abide by the 80-20 rule.  I don’t want my kids to feel utterly deprived, and I’m trying not to be the weirdest mom on the block, although I think that’s a losing battle.  Heh.

My advice is to take it one thing at a time, and don’t be too hard on yourself. The fact of the matter is, it’s an uphill battle.  It feels like we are being sabotaged at every turn, by the food industry and how they market their prodcuts, by the ad campaigns that beckon us, by the supermarket retailers and the way they design the stores, by the school lunch program that not only serves crap for lunch but then offers a bunch of unnecessary junkie snacks to be purchased on the side… the list goes on.  I know it’s not intentionally malicious on the parts of those involved.  They are simply trying to make a buck or a trillion.  But whether they want to admit it or not, they are making it very hard for us to eat well.

My point is, do your best, but don’t be too hard on yourself because it really IS like swimming upstream.  While Pop-Tarts and Fruit Snacks and sacks of refined sugar and flour are being hurled at you from every angle.

Snort.  I crack myself up.

As an aside, What To Eat by Marion Nestle (the link is in the Amazon widget on my sidebar) is a fascinating and eye-opening guidebook to the ins and outs of the supermarket retail establishment.  It’s primarily about food and nutrition (although she’s a proponent of the low-fat lifestyle, so I’m not always on her page) but the parts I found particularly interesting were her descriptions of how the food industry, government organizations, politics, supermarkets, and marketing strategies all work together to influence what we buy.  If this interests you at all, I highly recommend checking What To Eat out of your local library, or you can purchase it at Amazon.com.

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I’ll tackle one more question because it goes right along with what we’ve been talking about.  Okay, what I’ve been talking about.  But I really do feel like I’m sitting around my dining room table with a bunch of you, chit-chatting and sipping lattes.  Now, wouldn’t that be FUN!?

Melanie says: My question is about substituting. If you substitute, say honey for sugar, as a sweetener, do you make a 1:1 substitute? Is there a rule of thumb? What about coconut oil for other oils in cooking or baking? 1:1? I want to start substituting more healthy sweeteners in when I bake, but I’m not sure how to do it right…

As I said above, I don’t do a whole lot of experimenting with my recipes. I’ve never tried to sub honey for sugar b/c honey is a liquid and sugar is, well, not, lol.  I’m afraid it wouldn’t turn out right.  I do substitute coconut oil 1:1 for vegetable oils in baking.  As I said, Sucanat can be subbed 1:1 for refined sugar.  I’ve never tried Stevia or Agave Nectar.  There seems to be some debate about those and I haven’t tackled that yet.

If you are reading, and you have some advice on making substitutions, feel free to chime in in the comments.