"functional" cooking?

[lastresort]

is anyone into cooking things with functional ingredients to make your eating a little healthier?

I have been working on low carbohydrate baked goods for 8 years....cookis, cake, pizza, sandwich bread, foccacia, you name it. It's been rewarding (and EXPENSIVE!) experiences because I loathe those 'healthy' recipes. I am far too picky to compromise my taste. I recently made bread with 60% starch reduction and have been giving them to my friends to see how good they are. They are seriously asking me to open a tiktok bakery but I am already busy with my full time job.

What do you guys do?

 

[WLBLD]

is anyone into cooking things with functional ingredients to make your eating a little healthier?

I have been working on low carbohydrate baked goods for 8 years....cookis, cake, pizza, sandwich bread, foccacia, you name it. It's been rewarding (and EXPENSIVE!) experiences because I loathe those 'healthy' recipes. I am far too picky to compromise my taste. I recently made bread with 60% starch reduction and have been giving them to my friends to see how good they are. They are seriously asking me to open a tiktok bakery but I am already busy with my full time job.

What do you guys do?

I always try to make healthier versions of things we like to eat. Its funny as a late teen/early 20s my grandmother would ask what magazine subscription I would like for a gift & I would choose Cooking Light Magazine.

 

[sheilarae74]

I did that a lot when I was doing keto. It is expensive but worth it, because you can make things that are just as good as the high carb version.

 

[WLBLD]

Greek yogurt is a great base for any cream/mayo type sauces & dressings

I used to make really good sweet potato brownies. Haven't made them in so long

 

[Smiter]

is anyone into cooking things with functional ingredients to make your eating a little healthier?

I have been working on low carbohydrate baked goods for 8 years....cookis, cake, pizza, sandwich bread, foccacia, you name it. It's been rewarding (and EXPENSIVE!) experiences because I loathe those 'healthy' recipes. I am far too picky to compromise my taste. I recently made bread with 60% starch reduction and have been giving them to my friends to see how good they are. They are seriously asking me to open a tiktok bakery but I am already busy with my full time job.

What do you guys do?

For me, another problem made this issue of yours nonexistent. Due to my birth conditions, I have become conditioned to eat food with flavor. I cannot eat other types of unflavored food. That makes me violently ill. But on the flip side, even a ridiculously plain salad is for me anything but plain. I have ingredients that can make wool tasty.

 

[lastresort]

I did that a lot when I was doing keto. It is expensive but worth it, because you can make things that are just as good as the high carb version.

I recall when keto first came into the diet scene. Some people tried to make bread with all kinds of things...coconut flour, psyllium husk, soy fiber, flax seed, etc etc. I hated them all. I am honestly quite disappointed that the keto bread companies make such awful tasting bread still.

I have narrowed down to 4 ingredients with distinct fiber compositions and extra glutens that gave me the best looks and flavor.

 

[lastresort]

Greek yogurt is a great base for any cream/mayo type sauces & dressings

I used to make really good sweet potato brownies. Haven't made them in so long

When I make chicken salad, I found that subbing half of mayo with sour cream is just as good. It's actually refreshing because slight tanginess offsets greasy mayo

 

[Smiter]

When I make chicken salad, I found that subbing half of mayo with sour cream is just as good. It's actually refreshing because slight tanginess offsets greasy mayo

sumac, zaatar, green cardamom, spring onion oil, hungarian sweet paprika, curry leaf...thank me later

 

[sheilarae74]

I recall when keto first came into the diet scene. Some people tried to make bread with all kinds of things...coconut flour, psyllium husk, soy fiber, flax seed, etc etc. I hated them all. I am honestly quite disappointed that the keto bread companies make such awful tasting bread still.

There are better keto breads nowadays than there used to be. I gave all that up and started using Ezekiel 4:9 products when I started reta. I still like to make carnivore flatbread and microwave muffin cups once in a while. I got to use up all of my cooking stuff still, lol.

 

[WLBLD]

When I make chicken salad, I found that subbing half of mayo with sour cream is just as good. It's actually refreshing because slight tanginess offsets greasy mayo

sumac, zaatar, green cardamom, spring onion oil, hungarian sweet paprika, curry leaf...thank me later

The sour cream can be subbed with the Greek yogurt too. I prefer the Cabot one (isnt too sour tasting & really thick).

Yum! Its good with scallions, garlic & cilantro too!!

 

[WLBLD]

There are better keto breads nowadays than there used to be. I gave all that up and started using Ezekiel 4:9 products when I started reta. I still like to make carnivore flatbread and microwave muffin cups once in a while. I got to use up all of my cooking stuff still, lol.

The wraps they have now are great & so much fiber!!

Then I make sourdough from scratch several times a week.

 

[Smiter]

Yum! Its good with scallions, garlic & cilantro too!!

Sister of culture, we meet again!!!! 🫡

 

[RetCurious]

Then I make sourdough from scratch several times a week.

That would be the end of me, good sourdough is my kryptonite.
/The real San Francisco treat.

 

[Llanitox]

is anyone into cooking things with functional ingredients to make your eating a little healthier?

I have been working on low carbohydrate baked goods for 8 years....cookis, cake, pizza, sandwich bread, foccacia, you name it. It's been rewarding (and EXPENSIVE!) experiences because I loathe those 'healthy' recipes. I am far too picky to compromise my taste. I recently made bread with 60% starch reduction and have been giving them to my friends to see how good they are. They are seriously asking me to open a tiktok bakery but I am already busy with my full time job.

What do you guys do?

Get yourself a ninja creami, my ice creams daily contain 30g protein and about 105 calories.

 

[lastresort]

Sister of culture, we meet again!!!! 🫡

The trifecta of flavor

 

[Smiter]

trifecta of flavor

na, just the base..its a pyramid

 

[WLBLD]

That would be the end of me, good sourdough is my kryptonite.
/The real San Francisco treat.

If you have 1 small piece & work it into your cal its Ok (esp for the gut, ha ha) 🙂

 

[WLBLD]

We make

Sister of culture, we meet again!!!! 🫡

We make many different culture food here. I need food to taste good or Im not interested in eating it, ha ha. Chinese, Jamaican, Indian, Italian, Korean, etc. Need the flavor, NO boring food here!! ha ha

 

[Smiter]

That would be the end of me, good sourdough is my kryptonite.
/The real San Francisco treat.

Huh...I've never had sourdough myself. What's special about it?

I need food to taste good or Im not interested in eating it

Yeah yeah, ok you've telepathic powers too, and you can view my thoughts clear as day. lol
Btw, have you tried Sumac, Zataar, star anise, bay leaf, rose water, white poppy seeds, mace, etc?

 

[RetCurious]

Huh...I've never had sourdough myself. What's special about it?

Flavor and texture, bay area microbes FTW.

Why San Francisco does sourdough best

The artisan bread-making movement is flourishing in homes worldwide, but it’s in San Francisco where the heart of sourdough still resides.

www.bbc.com

 

[WLBLD]

Huh...I've never had sourdough myself. What's special about it?

Yeah yeah, ok you've telepathic powers too, and you can view my thoughts clear as day. lol
Btw, have you tried Sumac, Zataar, star anise, bay leaf, rose water, white poppy seeds, mace, etc?

It has a unique sour taste. Long fermentation from a starter rather than yeast which gives it certain bacteria to help digestibility & gut bacteria

Ha ha. Yea Ive tried many of those spices. We have so many different types here too. I make my own hummus, star anise & bay leaf are some of the ingredients in my Chinese chili oil, bay leaves in Cuban style black beans or Ropa vieja, Rice & peas + so many more, Rose water in Jamaican Christmas cake or bun etc, Mustard oil, Kasuri meethii etc for Butter Chicken etc, Kefir Lime leaves for Thai food, etc. I like real authentic ingredients & recipes 🙂

 

[Smiter]

I make my own hummus, star anise & bay leaf are some of the ingredients in my Chinese chili oil, bay leaves in Cuban style black beans or Ropa vieja, Rice & peas + so many more, Rose water in Jamaican Christmas cake or bun etc, Mustard oil, Kasuri meethii etc for Butter Chicken etc, Kefir Lime leaves for Thai food, etc. I like real authentic ingredients & recipes

Hey, are you female me?????

 

[tubby]

I personally think a lot of this stuff resembles vegan "meat" products, which always seemed silly to me. If one is ideologically opposed to Hitler, it would be weird to make a point of styling your mustache like him and dressing up like him on the weekends as a means of embracing that opposition. Likewise, if one is ideologically opposed to meat products, it's an odd behavior to seek out products that attempt to physically resemble them and obsess over finding ones that are the closest in appearance and taste to the real thing. 🤣 I get that vegan's justify this by arguing that they desire meat, but without the suffering and some conclude this is a sort of least bad compromise so no need to explain that to me. I'm just illustrating the appearance of absurdity to someone who isn't a vegan.

Further, such "fake" products are generally going to be nutritionally inferior to the real thing because they need to contain a witch's brew of ingredients and processing aids to properly simulate the taste, color, and mouthfeel. Generally those aren't selected for nutritional value, but for those specific qualities and may or may not be things a person would wish to put in their mouths from a nutrition optimization perspective.

So with functional cooking, I find myself wondering what I'm really trying to accomplish when I engage in it, beyond possibly enjoying the creativity aspect of it. Sure, I might be able to make cupcakes with a lower net-carb count and glycemic index than "normal" cupcakes, but am I not just reinforcing an addiction behavior that causes me to seek out cupcakes that are less bad (in terms of glycemic index perhaps), but that likely contains other ingredients that are highly processed and nutritionally ambiguous (VS eating whole foods)? And hey, if I'm taking a GLP I could probably handle the occasional real cupcake mixed in with a more whole-foods focused diet VS going through all this rigamarole?

To be clear, I'm not casting judgement on anybody else who enjoys functional cooking as a hobby or saying that's how anybody else should think about it. I'm just sharing the internal mental process that I went through when pondering why I was doing what I was doing that way and where it led me.

 

[lastresort]

I personally think a lot of this stuff resembles vegan "meat" products, which always seemed silly to me. If one is ideologically opposed to Hitler, it would be weird to make a point of styling your mustache like him and dressing up like him on the weekends as a means of embracing that opposition. Likewise, if one is ideologically opposed to meat products, it's an odd behavior to seek out products that attempt to physically resemble them and obsess over finding ones that are the closest in appearance and taste to the real thing. 🤣 I get that vegan's justify this by arguing that they desire meat, but without the suffering and some conclude this is a sort of least bad compromise so no need to explain that to me. I'm just illustrating the appearance of absurdity to someone who isn't a vegan.

Further, such "fake" products are generally going to be nutritionally inferior to the real thing because they need to contain a witch's brew of ingredients and processing aids to properly simulate the taste, color, and mouthfeel. Generally those aren't selected for nutritional value, but for those specific qualities and may or may not be things a person would wish to put in their mouths from a nutrition optimization perspective.

So with functional cooking, I find myself wondering what I'm really trying to accomplish when I engage in it, beyond possibly enjoying the creativity aspect of it. Sure, I might be able to make cupcakes with a lower net-carb count and glycemic index than "normal" cupcakes, but am I not just reinforcing an addiction behavior that causes me to seek out cupcakes that are less bad (in terms of glycemic index perhaps), but that likely contains other ingredients that are highly processed and nutritionally ambiguous (VS eating whole foods)? And hey, if I'm taking a GLP I could probably handle the occasional real cupcake mixed in with a more whole-foods focused diet VS going through all this rigamarole?

To be clear, I'm not casting judgement on anybody else who enjoys functional cooking as a hobby or saying that's how anybody else should think about it. I'm just sharing the internal mental process that I went through when pondering why I was doing what I was doing that way and where it led me.

To me, it's a constant tug o war between how far a science can go versus how practical it is.

Originally I studied alternative protein, specifically mushroom because fungal proteins satisfy nutritional needs and they have strong savory flavor that can help mimic meat flavor. I transitioned to fiber out of needs for job and the alternative protein market slowly losing steams after years of stagnant R&D and depleting seed money.

 

[tubby]

To me, it's a constant tug o war between how far a science can go versus how practical it is.

Originally I studied alternative protein, specifically mushroom because fungal proteins satisfy nutritional needs and they have strong savory flavor that can help mimic meat flavor. I transitioned to fiber out of needs for job and the alternative protein market slowly losing steams after years of stagnant R&D and depleting seed money.

Yeah and it's not always clear cut. Like I think artificial colors very clearly fall into the category of "doesn't ever need to added to food and purely cosmetic," but a lot of other ingredients like you're referring to clearly have nutritional value, even if they're not historic/traditional foods with a long track record of safe human consumption, many are probably okay.

 

[lastresort]

Yeah and it's not always clear cut. Like I think artificial colors very clearly fall into the category of "doesn't ever need to added to food and purely cosmetic," but a lot of other ingredients like you're referring to clearly have nutritional value, even if they're not historic/traditional foods with a long track record of safe human consumption, many are probably okay.

Lots of things that are necessary to satisfy sensory acceptance are..."cosmetic," for the lack of better words.

I need to put on my corporate apologist hat here. America is REAL HUGE, and agricultural production is focused in specific states, like North Carolina sweet potato (nom), avocado from California...and we take it for granted.

And farmers market are not always available and there are rural areas that just dont make any food. This complicates food distribution system and creates conflicts between quality vs stability/safety. Food quality invariably degrades, sensory and microbiology wise - during transit, and this forces industry to prioritize safety/stability over quality. Additives and artificial ingredients exist for this exact reason.

 

[WLBLD]

Hey, are you female me?????

Quite possibly 😆