Tweak Recipes to Make Them Healthier

So, you’re doing your best to feed your family a whole foods diet. Great. The problem is, most of your cookbooks feature recipes that are less than healthy. Do you throw them all out?

That’s not necessary. With a few tweaks you can dramatically improve the healthfulness of your recipes. Just keep the

following tips in mind.

1) Replace white with brown

If your recipes call for white flour, replace it with whole grain flour. For muffins and breads, it will be necessary for you to add more liquid to the recipe. If replacing all of the white flour with whole grain makes the final product too heavy, buy whole wheat pastry flour at the health food store, or experiment with alternative grains like spelt, oat, buckwheat and other flours.

The same goes for pasta and rice. Use brown rice instead of white to put more fiber and vitamins in the finished product. Since brown rice takes twice as long to cook, you may have to steam it before adding it to casseroles and other dishes in order not to overcook the other ingredients. You will also have to add more liquid to the recipe to compensate.

Thankfully there are many whole grain pastas available on the market now. These have a delicious nutty flavor and add a nice mouthfeel to the recipe. Be sure to cook these pastas “al dente” for best results.

2) Watch your fats

Many older cookbooks feature margarine and canola oils in recipes. These are inferior to higher quality fats such as organic butter (especially from pasture raised, grass fed cows), flax, coconut and olive oil. Fake fats contain hydrogenated oils and an unhealthy ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 fatty acids. Ideally your balance of Omega 6 to Omega 3 should be one to one. Eating too many cheap salad oils such as canola and soy and margarine may explain the rise of such diseases as asthma, heart disease, cancer, autoimmune and other diseases because they lead to inflammation in the body.

Replacing these inferior fats with higher quality, nutritive fats is one easy way to help your family eat healthier without them really noticing it.

3) Cut the sugar

You can often cut the sweetener in a dessert or snack recipe by one third to one half without sacrificing the taste too much. The next time you make homemade cookies for the kids, reduce the sugar by one third and see if they notice. Replacing white flour with Sucanat (dried cane syrup) or Rapadura is also a way to reduce the refined sweeteners. Honey, brown rice syrup and agave nectar are also superior to white sugar because they have some vitamins and minerals to fortify the body. Honey in particular is good for your immune system and contains important enzymes.

4) Make mine grassfed

There is still much debate about whether vegetarian diets are superior to omnivorous but one thing is sure: where your meat and animal products come from is very important. Pasture raised, grassfed animals are far healthier and leaner than their factory farmed peers. Eggs from free roaming chickens are tastier and much more nutritious than conventional as well. All pastured animal products have more vitamin A and D and healthy essential fatty acids as well as less bad cholesterol. 

Make an effort to locate local farms and buy your meat from people committed to feeding their animals their native diets and treating them humanely. You may find that you spend a little more money but not much, especially since you’ll likely be buying your meat in bulk. It’s worth the small investment. The taste can’t be beat either.