How to Make Healthy Ingredient Substitutions

Found a recipe you love, but worried about the fat, salt or cholesterol content? This page on how to make healthy ingredient substitutions shows you how to replace ingredients in the recipe with healthier alternatives. Some simple substitutions can make a dish healthier without always having a big impact on how the food tastes.

Finding healthy foods that are also flavorful can sometimes prove to be a difficult task. Many people must work consciously to reduce the salt content in their diet, partly because the processed food we eat delivers more than our share of salt even before we take out the shakers.http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/diet.fitness/11/19/too.much.salt.ap/index.html Others struggle with calorie intake in general, and so they strive to reduce the amount of table sugar, Honey and other sweeteners that they add to recipes prepared at home. No matter what the reasoning is behind your decision to eat healthier, there are alternative ingredients that can help you accomplish your goal.

However, it's not necessary to make flavor a sacrifice on the altar of physical health. By learning a little about how different ingredients contribute to the taste and texture of a dish, you can learn to make healthy changes to a recipe that won't destroy its appeal. Go ahead and make that chocolate cake—guilt free!

Sometimes the purpose of an ingredient is obvious. Meats often take center stage in recipes, providing the diner with protein. Other ingredients serve to bring out its flavor. Vegetables supply nutrients and flavor as well. However, other ingredients contribute properties that aren't as readily discernible. Below, you'll find a list of ingredients with some of their cooking uses. Think about the dish that you're preparing and try to determine which of the purposes an ingredient serves in your recipe. For instance, if you're making a custard, the eggs contribute flavor, thickness and color.

Salt

The human body needs salt to survive. However, too much salt intake may also lead to high blood pressure, osteoporosis, asthma or other health problems.

1. Seasons food
2. Preserves food
3. Brings out other flavors
4. Strengthens gluten network in breadhttp://www.saltinstitute.org/53.html

Sugar

Sugar serves many purposes in many different recipes. However, too much sugar in one's diet may also lead to health problems like diabetes and obesity.http://www.pastrywiz.com/sugar.htm

1. Sweetens
2. Preserves foods
3. Tenderizes custards, batters and doughs
4. Aerates a mixture when creamed with other ingredients
5. Preserves moisture in baked goods
6. Provides bulk and structure
7. Contributes to browninghttp://www.baking911.com/cakes/101ingredients.htm

Eggs

Eggs are incredible. You can scramble them, make them into omelets, whip their whites into mousses, use them to leaven bread and thicken custards. Unfortunately, there is some concern that the fat and cholesterol in eggs may cause cardiovascular problems.http://www.baking911.com/pantry/eggs.htm

1. Add flavor
2. Contribute color
3. Provide protein
4. Trap air bubbles for foams and mousses, aerating baked goods
5. Thicken sauces and custards
6. Bind ingredients together
7. Leaven doughs and batters
8. Slow crystallization of sugars
9. Provide moisture
10. Whites clarify liquids
11. Yolks act as emulsifiers

Oil

Oils and fats serve useful, essential purposes in the human body, but consuming too much of certain types of fats and oils can cause health problems.http://www.baking911.com/pantry/fats.htm

1. Provides moisture
2. Impedes sticking
3. Smooths dough
4. Some types add flavor
5. Tenderizes baked goods
6. Thickens as part of an emulsion in sauces

Butter

Butter has a delightful flavor and color. Sadly, it consists largely of fat, and so raises some of the same health concerns as oils.

1. Provides unique flavor
2. Acts as vehicle to make other flavors spreadable
3. Acts as emulsifier in sauces
4. Cold butter thickens sauces
5. Helps brown foods when sauteed and fried
6. When creamed with sugar traps air bubbles to aerate baked goods
7. Adds moisture
8. Creates flakiness in pastrieshttp://www.wisdairy.com/otherdairyproductinfo/butter/cookingwithbutter/FlavoringButter.aspx

Milk and Cream

Many recipes call for milk and cream to serve several purposes, but the fat in these products is often what makes them so useful.http://www.marthastewart.com/portal/site/mslo/menuitem.3a0656639de62ad593598e10d373a0a0/?autonomy_kw=thicken&vgnextoid=5386082f0b515110VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD

1. Provide flavor, depending on fat content
2. When heated, helps "set" and thicken recipes
3. Contribute to browning
4. Provide moisture
5. Gives "creamy" consistency
6. Add richnesshttp://www.foodsubs.com/Dairyoth.html
7. Thickens sauces
8. Cream with high fat content traps air to make foam (whipped cream)

Sour Cream

Sour cream serves many of the same purposes as milk and cream, and also contains fat.

1. Adds moisture
2. Contributes flavor
3. Makes flour doughs and batters more tenderhttp://www.baking911.com/pantry/dairy.htm

Try to find a healthier ingredient that can perform the same function as the original ingredient in your recipe. The more purposes a specific ingredient serves in a recipe, the more difficult it is to replace that ingredient with a healthier alternative.

Salt

1. Season your dishes with herbs and spices rather than salt.http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/healthy-recipes/NU00585
2. Eliminating salt from bread recipes is not usually a good idea.

Sugar

1. Sugar used simply to sweeten drinks or other items can be replaced with artificial sweeteners.http://www.baking911.com/pantry/subs_sweeteners.htm
2. When large amounts of sugar provide bulk as well as sweetness, replace no more than half the sugar with artificial or other sweeteners. About.com has a great chart describing how to use specific sweeteners as substitutes for sugar.
3. Use baking soda to provide the air bubbles that would otherwise be formed by creaming sugar with butter in baked goods.
4. If you can't achieve the results you desire by making substitutions, consider finding a similar recipe intended to be sugarless.

Eggs

1. If you just need yellow coloring, use food coloring.
2. Rather than whole eggs, use egg whites or egg substitutes.
3. Use two egg whites to replace one yolk. In baking, you may also need to add a small amount of oil for tenderness.
4. To bind ingredients, use ground flaxseed, gelatin, soft tofu or pureed fruit.
5. To leaven, or help a recipe to rise, use some egg replacers or baking powder.
6. Use cornstarch to thicken puddings and similar dishes.Wikipedia: Cornstarch18
7. When eggs form the focus of a dish, such as in quiches and salads, try making a tofu alternative.
8. The yolk contains most of the fat and cholesterol in an egg, so if that's all you're worried about, you can still use the whites for mousse.http://www.baking911.com/pantry/subs_eggs.htm

Oil

1. Substitute fruit puree for oil to provide moisture in baking.
2. If you don't mind the taste, olive oil is a healthier alternative to vegetable oils.
3. Use canola oil rather than vegetable oil.
4. Use cooking spray to grease pans—it makes a thinner coating of fat.http://www.baking911.com/pantry/subs_fats.htm

Butter

1. Use cooking spray to grease pans.
2. Applesauce can replace some of the butter fat.
3. Experiment with simply reducing the amount of butter to see whether it really affects the recipe.
4. Search for transfat-free alternative spreads.
5. Dip bread in salted olive oil rather than spreading it with butter.http://www.baking911.com/healthy/baking_101.htm

Milk and Cream

1. Use skim milk in bready recipes instead of whole milk or cream.
2. In baked goods, using milk no lower in fat than 2% is often recommended.
3. Top desserts with nonfat whipped topping or frozen yogurt rather than whipped cream or ice cream.
4. Make mousses with beaten egg whites rather than whipped cream.http://globalgourmet.com/food/egg/egg0196/lightsub.html

Sour Cream

1. Replace sour cream with plain yogurt for flavor and moisture.
2. Buttermilk has a similar tangy flavor.http://globalgourmet.com/food/egg/egg0196/lightsub.html

Other Substitutions

1. Replace bacon with Canadian bacon, lean prosciutto, turkey bacon or ham.
2. Use ground poultry rather than ground beef.
3. Use whole wheat flour whenever possible.
4. Include brown rice rather than white.http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/healthy-recipes/NU00585

Once you've done your best to approximate an ingredient with replacements in your recipe, you'll have to try it out to see how well you've done. Keep in mind the different uses for the ingredients you've replaced, and try to figure out what you've lost in the process. Then, adjust some of your ingredients to compensate. You may need to add more leavening, moisture, flavor or thickeners.

1. If you've added an acidic fruit puree to compensate for the loss of oil, add a small amount of baking soda to improve the final flavor.
2. If you remove fat from baked goods and they lose tenderness, try using cake flour instead of all-purpose.
3. When you reduce fat or salt content, increase flavorings.http://www.baking911.com/healthy/baking_101.htm
4. Add other dark ingredients, like cocoa, to add brown coloring when you reduce sugar content.
5. Fruit purees or water can replace moisture lost by replacing eggs with a drier substance.

Don't give up the first time you try out your adjusted recipe. Making healthy ingredient substitutions can be a bit tricky, but it's well worth the effort. Keeping to a diet becomes much easier once you know how to make tasty treats that are also good for you.