Do you have a favorite dish from your childhood or just one you LOVE?!  You know it is not healthy as it is filled with “white” food or foods you can’t have?  How do you swap out different things to maintain the taste but not the unhealthy status?  Let’s discuss those conversions below.  This section is new and more conversions will be added regularly.

SUGAR.  An obvious one right? Sugar is more addictive than cocaine.  Processed sugar releases opioids and dopamine in the brain and causes your body to be acidic, which promotes illnesses such as cancer and Alzheimer’s.  Remove any and all processed sugars.  But what to replace these with?  I use honey for most all of my replacements – raw local honey.  I have seasonal allergies and 1 teaspoon a day helps manage them without drugs.  I am not a fan of strong honey and so I look for the lightest colored honey I can.  Just remember – RAW LOCAL Honey .  This link helps with flavors, if you are unfamiliar and are struggling with finding a honey that works for you.  Lastly, always purchase products in glass containers not plastic.  Plastic is made from oil (petroleum) and leaches into your foods.  When replacing sugar with honey here are your conversion instructions.

If honey is just not your thing some other options that are best include maple syrup – again RAW and local if you live in such a wonderful place.  If not, organic.  The conversion is the same as above for honey.

Monk Fruit is another good replacement for sugar.  Monk fruit sweetener tastes much like sugar and comes in both a liquid form and a granulated form.  Conversion is 5 drops of liquid monk fruit to 1 teaspoon sugar.  Conversion for granulated is 1:2 Monk fruit to sugar.  It is VERY SWEET. 

Lastly Stevia, of which I am not a huge fan.  It has an odd after taste which is off-putting to me.  You can find a conversion guide here.

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WHITE FLOUR – RYE / BARLEY / WHEAT.   Gluten-Free.  These three grains (grasses) contain Gliadin which is the part of gluten that causes problems.  It promotes the same addictive nature that processed sugar does in the brain.  Ten years ago, there was little on the shelves for gluten-free flours and I struggled with creating a balance between the different types of gliadin-free flours.  I think I had at least two dozen bags of flours and binders in my fridge and I wasted most of them experimenting.  Today, there are gluten-free mixes for just about everything. 

I’m including a link of the 14 best gluten-free flours.  Remember that each of these alone will not work for most things.  Certain flours are gummy (rice) when used alone, others are gritty (almond) due to the fact that they are from a nut, and all require a binder (Xanthan Gum – make sure you grab one that is Non-GMO). 

Remember, there is wheat is virtually every packed product you purchase and even may be in things like coffee and make-up.  There are dozens of lists out there, but this one comes from the Celiac community.

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WHITE SALT. If you haven’t heard of Dr. David Brownstein or read his books, I HIGHLY encourage you to do so.  His salt book is no more than 100 pages and well worth it.  White salt has had all the minerals removed from it and is – like sugar – lacking in any nutritional value.  Real salt is colored – pink, blue, gray, charcoal – these are the trace minerals that our bodies need to function properly.  Even many of the Himalayan Salts out there are just white salt crystals that they added iron back into – little nutritional value. Read your labels.  There are two excellent brands out there for real salt – Real Salt (Utah, US) and Celtic Sea Salt (France).

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SOY.  Coming soon!

I am forever running out of things… here is a handy list of simple substitutions for your kitchen needs.