Ingredient swap substitutes make the difference for taste and texture in a food dish or dessert bake… and for a healthy result.
While you don’t need sweets to survive and would be better off without sugar, biohacking your sweet craving works if you work it.
And it works better when you add your own amount of ingredients into baked goods and proof your own dough (like in the sweet veggie umami pizza that you can read about below).
I’m living proof it’s doable 😊
…I’ve had a super sweet tooth since I was a child… candy, cookies, ice cream, you name it.
Going to the dentist became so familiar, that now as an adult, I don’t have any dental office chair anxiety. That’s the good news.
…And I think that’s one of the places early on where I realized that no news is good news.
The happy sugar on the tongue and mind keeps dentists and doctors in business. Most (not all) people have a daily sweet hankering that’s hard to shake off (well, maybe with a milkshake or a rich smoothie!).
Especially us Vatas who love sweets. And if you get in the habit of eating sweets because those around you (or you) bring it in the house, then below are some biohacking your sweet craving tips that I use.
Plus, ingredients you could consider adding or substituting (and my personal faves!).
…Especially over the past few years, people have been more cooped up indoors snacking, and sugar is everywhere and part of irregular stress eating patterns, that lead to increased weight and growing health issues.
Health is what got me to change my sweet ways. But I feel like I haven’t missed a beat in sweet enjoyment making a few adjustments. You can change your tastes because of healthy desires.
Chocolate cake, for example, wasn’t one of my fave flavors and now is. It’s one of the healthier cakes that I call Cocoa Cake.
Because it’s mostly made with cocoa. It’s healthy without the rich buttery decadence we’re used to associating with chocolate cakes. And without all the sugar adds.
I bake with unsweetened cocoa and a flour blend that includes gluten-free flour and probiotic Greek yogurt, almond milk, unsweetened applesauce, and eggs.
Some of those ingredients are healthy, especially without full-on fat and sugar. A ‘lil dab of the bad will do you… or better yet, you could substitute with healthy fat and fruits that have fructose sugar…
Your sweet spot is “in moderation” relative to your body’s tolerances for healthy goodness. If you have a Kapha body imbalance you want to reduce sugar, and if you’re daily “getting addicted” to sugar. It’s common sense + building good habits.
You can use nuts, higher in fiber and protein. And you can use coconut oil or light EVOO that I use as baking oil to give a batter moistness, and also make consuming daily fat-soluble vitamins more bioavailable to the body.
And my personal favorite is fruit zests and spices to add sweetness. It’s not cheating… it’s being smart with your health and calories.
And here’s a savory example that most of us have a weakness for: french fries. Without frying oil, potatoes are healthy sources of vitamins, minerals, and fiber.
So when roasting or cooking our potatoes, they’re then healthy. And even better if we add spices like turmeric, oregano, and pepper. Or my personal fave: tarragon.
And if you add proteins and veg to your plate, then you’re off to the races.
That’s what I did with this untraditional plant-based pizza. Or a pie, that we called it when I was a teenager working in a pizza-pie shop. 🍕
…And where I learned pizza-making techniques for 4 years. Most of the pies had tomato sauce, but occasionally, customers would order no sauce, light, or extra sauce. This pie has no tomato sauce.
It’s loaded with eating-from-the-rainbow goodness and flavors. It has beets, sweet potatoes, white cannellini beans, ricotta (goat or buffalo cheese also would be good too!), cilantro, garlic, and truffle oil baked into a whole wheat crust.
Then it was drizzled with balsamic vinegar for a sweet-umami flavor that “hit the spot” for lunch. I didn’t need a side dessert or sugar.
So this brings me to the first tip I have for biohacking your sweet craving:
When you eat less sugar, you crave less of it; and when you crave less, you eat less. So, you can use the cycle to your advantage.
And then your body resets to a “new normal” for the better, which helps you, your health goals, and prevents glucose spikes.
And you can more easily achieve this by baking and cooking that help change the way you look at the foods you eat. Because then you decide what ingredients to add and how much.
You get more choosy about what you put in your body and that can help you make healthier choices.
You end up making the extra effort and time when you know the health and tasty benefits. That’s what this girl did.
Besides the sweet-savory veggie truffle pie, I baked a pan pizza with spinach, tomato, and ricotta that was just as easy to make. Oh, Vata me… I forgot to take a photo. Next time.
There’s also a time for other options for all of us like selecting pre-made convenience, eating out, or ordering out.
The big healthy difference is many packaged goods have more than 30 ingredients (some you’ve never heard of and are hard to pronounce).
And you really only need 2-4 ingredients to make a healthy meal or bake a whole cake. (That’s another category of whole food.)
With fewer healthy ingredients, then you change your taste buds one bake and bite at a time.
Today, if someone handed me a sweet something, it’d have to be pretty darn good for me to eat an entire serving because of the changes I made and how I see food in general.
For sweets, a smaller bite is all that’s needed to be sweet and happy if ya know what I mean.
That’s true for most. At a grocery store or during any food shortages, you’ll never hear, there needs to be more sweet options.
Overall if we bought less processed foods, then the big companies would make more of the good-earthbound healthy-happy packaged goods.
I wouldn’t mind some healthy strawberry licorice …anyone else? 😉
And biohacking your sweet craving with baking substitutes is another good way to change your sweet tooth.
For baking, these are some ingredients I use just about every week. These are a mix of healthy ingredients and iffy in-between ones I use in moderation.
Applesauce
*Berry Jams
Cardamom
Cherries, Maraschino
Cinnamon
Cocoa, unsweetened
Coconut, shredded
Coffee/espresso
Dark chocolate morsels
Ginger
Greek yogurt
Fruit zests
Fruits, Dried (currants, dates, apricots, raisins)
Fruits, Whole
Honey, Raw (instead of maple syrup)
Orange pulp and peel
*Pineapple chunks
*use sparingly
Switching up your ingredients does your body good (encouraging a diverse healthy gut microbiome that is also a gateway to our brain health).
Our gut wants to be happy and healthy like we do.
If a recipe calls for refined sugar, say ¾ cup, and it’s great for emulsifying like in ice cream, I only use about ¼ cup or substitute with monk fruit sugar.
You can always zhugh it up later or to individual tastes.
You can also make your own sweet sauce, dips, glazes and frosting. These are a few other ideas:
Balsamic-chocolate sauce: mixing balsamic vinegar and melted to liquid chocolate is quick and easy.
Coconut cream frosting: Long gone for me are days of grocery shelf frosting and powdered sugar icing. You too can make your own frosting with coconut cream.
When you buy a can, the thick part can also be used for ice creams, and keep the liquid parts for your soups. After you open it, you can freeze what you aren’t planning to use within a few days.
Extracts: I used to add vanilla extract to everything sweet, but I usually skip the step unless it’s the dominant or only flavor, like in vanilla ice cream. Zests and spice flavors come through best, and mixing them together, and changing them up is even better.
The fun part of experimenting with less sugar and healthy bakes is creating your own faves.
Variety is the spice and zest in life. 🧡
And if you want to take it up a level from biohacking your sweet craving to biohacking sweet breakfasts, healthy eating, and fasting, then stay tuned to future blog posts.
Once upon a time, I couldn’t do without a non-sugary breakfast growing up on fortified cereals, and these days that’s all changed… and that was one-step at a time easy and something you can do! 🥣
You can look at some low-sugar dessert baking recipes that are constantly being added to.
