Guru Goddess

Getting kids to eat healthy is similar to trying to herd cats. There are so many reasons that kids can give as to why they don’t want to, should not and quite possibly will kill over if they even take a single bite of this “good” food. Spanning from not tasting good – even though they have never tried it – to the fact they think they may be allergic to the food in question, kids are masters at dodging the proverbial ball of health food.

There are, however, a few ways to get your kids to try new foods. After all, they have an arsenal of reasons why not to eat it, why not keep your own stockpile of weaponry to get them to eat the food they don’t want to.

Be a Role Model

Children’s minds are like a piece of bread, soaking up all of the oil surrounding it. Being a role model and continually trying new foods in front of and with your child can help to shape their ideas about trying new things.

It is important to let your kids see that it is ok, and even fun, to try new things from time to time. Demonstrating the adventure and intrigue of trying new foods will stick in your child’s memory for the rest of their life.

Meal Plan Together

Kids are more apt to eat something they made, or at least planned to make. Letting your kids design the weekly meal, and even help cook the meals increases the chance they will try and like foods you are preparing.

Potato Starch Flour

Potato Starch Flour is a great substitute. The thickening that this flour provides is outstanding and because of the high starch component, the ingredients bind to it like glue. Mix a little with water first to help hydrate the granules and get the glue working, then substitute potato starch flour in your recipe, cutting the amount of flour needed in half to get the right proportions.

Tapioca Flour

This light, white, very smooth flour comes from the cassava root. You might be familiar with the chewy little balls found in tapioca pudding, so you can imagine how well it reacts with baked goods. Anything that needs to be chewy, like French bread or white bread, could use this kind of flour.

Soy Flour

High in protein, soy flour has a nutty taste and a smooth texture due to the high fat content. Soy flour is usually used in combination with other flours, to make baked goods such as brownies, cookies and muffins. Since soy flour can stand up to almost every thing, it is also good to combine with nuts and or fruits.

Brown Rice Flour

This gluten substitute comes from unpolished brown rice. Because this ingredient contains bran, it has a higher nutritional value that traditional flour. This type of flour is used best in more dense breads.

Living gluten free is not difficult to do, but it does require a little foresight into what ingredients work best to replace the gluten. The basic premise is to figure out what ingredient, or combination of ingredients, will work the same as the ingredient they are replacing – gluten. Be sure to consult with your doctor before going on a strict gluten free diet to make sure there will be no adverse effects.

Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye and barley. Since many of the flour used for baking is made from these three grains, until recently, it was extremely difficult to find commercially produced flour, cereal and any baked goods. Flour is sometimes used as a main ingredient, as in gravy. Other times it is more difficult to notice as it is just used as a filler to bulk out a powder-like item, like instant coffee and curry powder. Today, we are learning how to manage with gluten allergies and doing so with incredibly delicious, gluten-free recipes.

Substituting Gluten

The gluten is what keeps cookies, cakes and pies soft, moist and held together. It makes baked goods have their texture because of the air getting trapped within the sticky boundaries of the gluten. When gluten isn’t present, we need to find other substances that can form a sticky shield to hold the gasses in.

Xanthum Gum comes from the dried cell coat of a Zanthomonas campestris. Since it is made in a laboratory, xanthum gum is scientifically sticky. Guar Gum is another, more natural binder. A powder is created from the seed of the Cyamopsis tetragonolobus plant and is an excellent substitute for gluten. These alternative sticky-substitutes can easily be found in any health food store.

Gluten free substitutes

Every day someone is coming up with a new way to substitute a common item into recipes that call for gluten. There are ways to substitute combinations of ingredients, cup for cup, where you would use any of the three main gluten-based flours. Let’s take a look at some of the less common substitutes for gluten and open up the realm of possibilities.

Good Milk

Milk is a healthy food choice when it comes from cows that are grass-fed, like Jerseys and Guernsey, not modern Holsteins which are forced to over-produce. The good bacteria and healthy diet in the grass-fed cattle reduce the risk of milk-producing infections. This milk is usually not pasteurized, killing off all of the benefits of the milk since the cows are better kept using modern day controls to help ensure clean and safe production.

Because this milk is not homogenized either, the calcium remains intact and allows our bodies to absorb more of the nutrients we need. Of course, the milk tastes different than we are used to because all of the nutrients were processed out of it.

You see, calcium is found in almost every food that we eat. Little sesame seeds have a level of calcium, cup for cup, that is almost ten times as much as milk, but the Dairy Board does not like to advertise this fact.

Dairy is not a bad thing; the process of how it is made, however, is horrible for our bodies. Go out and try raw milk, or goat’s milk to see what nature intended this healthy drink to taste like. Try other types of dairy, like raw milk cheeses. They have amazing textures and are extremely rich in flavor. Keep an open mind, a delicate pallet and go try the right kind of dairy.

Calcium, calcium, calcium. The push for increasing calcium in your diet has been on the forefront of dairy producers for the last ten years. All we have been hearing about is drinking more milk and eating more dairy to get the calcium levels up. While calcium is good for you, the process in which we put it into our bodies is rather terrible. Dairy today is much different than it was 20 years ago and because of these differences, dairy may not be as good for you as you have been led to believe.

Problems with Milk

Most dairy found in grocery stores is terrible for your health because it comes from cows that are fed high-protein grains and are pumped full of hormones and antibiotics to increase productivity. Everything they are putting into the cow gets transferred into your dairy. Does this sound like it is as good for you as the dairy producers want you to believe?

Many dairy producers use pasteurized and homogenized milk to produce their dairy products. These processes remove the proteins from milk making them un-useful for your body and even border on being harmful. Because these enzymes are broken down at high temperatures, they destroy phosphatase, which is an enzyme that helps your body absorb the calcium found in milk. It also destroys the vitamins B12, B6 and C while killing off all of the good bacteria.

Homogenization of milk alters the fatty contents and good cholesterol found in milk, making it easier to form free radicals, which can cause cancer. Producers homogenize the milk to give it a more universal texture and to keep globules of fat from floating to the surface (think about the layer of film produced on the top of buttermilk).

Cows are often bred to have an overactive milk supply, so that farmers can get the most out of the cow as possible. This can lead to mastitis as well as milk duct infections. To solve this problem, cows are just fed more antibiotics and hormones in order to keep producing.