Over the past few years I have posted several clean eating/healthy eating baked treats on my blog. I started this because my triglycerides went up sky high and my doctor told me to cut out baked food. Instead cut out all of the processed foods and my triglycerides went back down. Not gonna lie, increasing my cardio and gym workouts also helped but healthier eating is just as important. And I do allow myself to cheat because I workout.
Cut out white sugar and white flour altogether. In place of white sugar use Coconut/palm sugar which measures cup for cup. I have also used maple syrup and honey which I love the flavor more and are less bad for you but those can change the texture, flavor, and results because they are liquid. Some recipes only call for butter and eggs as the source for liquid/moisture. If you reduce the butter than you might compromise the flavor and if you reduce the eggs, you won't have the elasticity.
Coconut/palm sugar, maple syrup and honey are much lower on the glycemic index than sugar and will not make your blood sugar jump up which gives you that sugar high and then back down like white sugar. That's important to know because white sugar (even organic sugar) will make you crave more sugar when you reach that low whereas sweeteners lower on the glycemic index will satisfy you longer so you won't eat as much sweets.
HERE IS THE IMPORTANT THING TO DO: wean yourself down, but not off, of sugar. Try using a little less sugar than what the recipe calls for. Eventually you might be able to use 1/4 to 1/3 less sugar and you won't notice a difference. Just keep in mind that even healthier non-processed, natural sweeteners such as the ones mentioned here are still high in calories. So even if you switch to healthier sweeteners non-processed sweeteners and you don't cut back, you're still going to put on the extra weight.
That's why I recommend cutting down on how much you use and and seeing how they rate on the glycemic index. Sugar carbs actually give us energy but most of us get too much of it. The healthiest sugars come from fruit and I've seen some recipes that call for ground up dates formed into a paste as the sweetener but I don't like the taste and texture of baked food using date paste.
Instead of white flour, I use Whole Wheat Pastry Flour which is not the same as whole wheat flour. Corn syrup is another thing I no longer use. Instead I use Tapioca syrup which is quite difficult to get but available on Amazon. If you have to use corn syrup and use it in moderation but cut back on the sugars, you should be ok.
I hope I didn't confuse you. If I did research the glycemic index and sweeteners on the glycemic index.
Thanks!
