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When I began switching to a real food lifestyle I encountered a big problem. I wanted to avoid unhealthy ingredients. But struggled to swap the ingredients I was trying to avoid with healthier options. Therefore I simply didn’t know how much of each healthier option to use! So I’ve been compiling this real food cooking and baking substitutions for a while. And I created this handy little chart to help you out!
Real food cooking and baking substitutions
Ingredient |
Used For |
Substitutes |
Notes |
White sugar |
Baking and cooking |
Sucanat, Rapadura, Stevia, unfiltered honey, maple syrup, maple sugar, molasses, coconut sugar/nectar, turbinado sugar | See the bottom of the page for substitution amounts for cooking and baking |
Brown sugar |
Baking and cooking |
Sucanat, Rapadura, coconut sugar, palm sugar | These can be used as a 1:1 substitution. |
Any refined flour |
Baking and cooking |
Sprouted wheat, white wheat, spelt, buckwheat (GF), or brown rice (GF). Can soak organic whole grain flours. | Using sprouted flour is much more simple. Soaking requires an additional 12-24 hours. |
Vegetable Shortening |
Baking and cooking |
Extra Virgin Coconut Oil, Organic butter (pastured), leaf lard (highest quality lard), tallow | Don’t skimp on these substitutes! Our bodies need this good quality fat! |
Cornstarch |
Cooking |
Arrowroot powder, sprouted brown rice flour, tapioca flour | Most commercial cornstarch contains GMO corn. That is a good reason to switch! |
Chocolate Chips |
Baking |
Enjoy Life Brand Chocolate Chips | There is soy in most store-bought chocolate. Avoid soy and buy these really tasty chips instead! |
Granulated natural sugars can be substituted in a 1:1 ratio in your baking recipes.
What if you want to substitute honey or maple syrup for granulated sugar?
White Sugar to Honey/Maple Syrup/Coconut nectar ratios
1/8 cup sugar=1 tbsp honey/maple syrup/coconut nectar
¼ cup sugar=2 tbsp honey/maple syrup/coconut nectar
½ cup sugar=1/4 cup honey/maple syrup/coconut nectar
¾ cup sugar=1/4 cup + 2 tbsp honey/maple syrup/coconut nectar
1 cup sugar=1/2 cup honey/maple syrup/coconut nectar
2 cups sugar= 1 cup honey/maple syrup/coconut nectar
3 cups sugar=1 ½ cups honey/maple syrup/coconut nectar
Now you can easily find simple substitutions for your cooking and baking needs. And these are much healthier options for you!
7 Comments
Black Fox Homestead
December 5, 2013 at 2:59 pmThis is awesome! I’ve been working on converting my holiday recipes so this is perfect. I’ve pinned this for future reference. Thank you for sharing.
Katmill
December 5, 2013 at 3:10 pmYou’re welcome! So glad this will help you out! 🙂
Janet France
December 6, 2013 at 8:57 pmSince reading how coconut sugar is made and the toil it takes on the tree I prefer not to use it. I’d rather have the coconut oil than the sugar, plenty of sweet stuff on the planet to use instead 🙂 Thanks for this article!
SR Booth
December 12, 2013 at 10:07 amNice list. Thanks! (and I love Enjoy Life Brand Chocolate Chips ;>) Yum!
Katmill
December 13, 2013 at 5:28 pmYou’re very welcome! 🙂
CToth
October 24, 2017 at 6:29 pmThank you so much for doing the converting . I have referred to this many times and am grateful and appreciative.
❤️
KSeppamaki
October 24, 2017 at 6:44 pmYou’re welcome! 🙂