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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 these real food cooking and baking substitutions for awhile. 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 bottom of 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 chip instead!

Granulated natural sugars can be substituted in a 1:1 ration 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!

Photo credit: © Andreas Berheide | Dreamstime.com