A Closer Look At Flour Replacements

Are you a big-time baker but don’t really appreciate the effects all your baking is having on your waistline?  There’s no questioning the fact that most baked goods should be consumed on occasion at best in the diet.

They’re often full of sugars, simple carbs, and sometimes even saturated fats depending on the ingredients you’re using. But, if you have a sweet tooth that just won’t quit, you can actually dramatically improve the nutritional content of the baked goods you like to make so that you can include them more often without suffering the negative consequences from doing so.

The smartest way to initially improve any baked good’s nutritional profile is to swap out the regular white flour you’re using and go with an alternative instead. With so many different alternative options available, you simply can’t go wrong.

Let’s look at a few of the flour substitutes that you should be well aware of.

Almond Flour

The first good option to sub out your white flour with is almond flour.  Almond flour has a nice mild and slightly nutty taste to it and will be much higher in healthy fat content while being lower in carbohydrates. For those on lower carb diets, this flour is a dream come true.

You can usually substitute it directly for white flour, however in some recipes you may need to do half and half. Try the full substitute first and if it isn’t tasting quite right, then reduce the quantity.

Oat Flour

The second flour substitute to consider is oat flour. Oat flour is prepared simply by taking regular oats and grinding them up in the blender, so this flour option is going to have a very similar nutritional profile to that of whole oats.

The great news is that it will be a much more complex source of carbohydrates, breaking down and digesting much more slowly in the body.

Furthermore, it’ll also be a good source of dietary fiber, so can help provide enhanced satiety to whichever recipes you prepare it with.

Coconut Flour

The third option that you’ll want to consider substituting out regular flour with is coconut flour. Coconut flour adds a unique taste to your recipes and is also much lower in carbs while still being a good source of fiber.

The interesting thing about coconut flour is that it will contain a higher healthy fat content, with the fats coming from medium chain triglycerides. These fats are going to be burned up much faster in the body as a primary fuel source compared to other forms of fats we eat, so this is a great way to create energizing recipes that are also low carb in nature.

No other fat provides this (apart from coconut), so it’s really one of the key features of this variety.

So there you have three great flour substitutes to consider. Visit your local health foods store and see what other options are available. There are plenty of choices that you can choose from to help create much healthier baked goods.