Why use these ingredients in the muffins?

The muffin recipes are all dairy, egg, fat, gluten, and refined sugar free. I thought it might be worth sharing why I selected the ingredients I did for the muffins.

Animal products add to cholesterol. Animals make cholesterol so when you eat animal products; you are going to ingest cholesterol. For someone with too much cholesterol in their body, this just adds more to it, and it isn’t necessary. So we removed eggs, milk, cheese, butter, and yogurt from our diet. I replaced these with almond milk, flaxseed “eggs”, and applesauce, pumpkin, and bananas for the oil and butter. For baking, I found these to be excellent replacements.

I learned low grade inflammation in the body can also lead to an elevated cholesterol level. When you eat sugar, it creates inflammation. The body’s response is to make cholesterol to protect itself and reduce the inflammation. Refined sugar not only contributes to the inflammation, but adds no nutritional value. My husband and I both really enjoy sugary treats. I did some reading, and I found many people substituted maple syrup and honey for refined sugar. These are both natural products that provide some nutritional value. Working with them proved easy enough, and they provided a sweet product that took care of my craving.

However, the more I learned about cholesterol the more I learned about nutrition and the body as a whole. As I did, I found honey and maple syrup are better options, but they still spike your insulin levels. Increased insulin levels cause a spike in LDL or bad cholesterol. Then, I found the perfect alternative - dates. Hey, stop reading! I don’t eat dates either. Even in all the time I have cooked with them, I have never been tempted to eat one. However, they add the perfect sweetness in baked goods. They also add lots of vitamins, minerals, and fiber. And most importantly, they took care of my sugar craving. They are not the equivalent to eating refined sugar, but they give a wonderful sweet taste to baked goods. As a self-described sugar addict, it satisfies me.

At this point, I thought all the changes that needed to be made had taken place. What was left to remove? But, as I read about flour and genetically modified wheat, I was concerned with the amount we ate. While I don’t think this directly impacts cholesterol levels, I felt it was wise to substitute some other flours in my baking. This would provide our bodies with a wider variety of vitamins and minerals. After working with several alternatives to flour (and checking the prices at the grocery store), I found my favorites were sorghum flour and oats.