9 Ways Baking is Healthy
Sourdough is a great bread. The fermentation provides an extra benefit for your gut and nutrient absorption.
Sourdough discard rolls for Thanksgiving!
Cookies, cakes, bread, pizza – these are probably not the foods you imagine when thinking of health and fitness, but I’m here to set my fellow bakers’ minds at ease.
Baking is healthy!
I’m pretty new to the world of baking and I’m finding it intriguing, challenging and joyous. To me, baking includes foods such as pancakes, waffles and pizza – pretty much anything that requires flour. My favorite things to bake (so far) are pizza and biscuits but I’m eager to get into bread making and have recently gotten into the joy of feeding and working with my sourdough starter.
Sourdough is one of the healthiest types of baking and it is a great way to practice patience, mindfulness and precision.
I’ve really enjoyed seeing the relief on my clients’ faces when I explain the many ways baking can actually be healthy. Nine of those reasons are below and feel free to add your thoughts on baking being healthy in the comments,
or share your baking tips and recipes with our community.
9 Healthy Aspects of Baking
1. Baking is an excellent way to burn calories. It increases your Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis, or NEAT, a fancy way of saying calories burned through movement that’s not formal exercise. When we are baking we are squatting down to get the mixing bowl, using our upper body strength to knead some dough or pacing back and forth to gather ingredients or clean our bakeware. No matter what you are baking, you are burning calories by giving that effort. The more from scratch your recipe is, the more likely you are to be burning more calories. If you’re baking from a box, that’s less ingredients you have to gather, mixing you need to do or cleaning when you’re done. Sure it’s easier but that also means it takes less effort (i.e. burns fewer calories) and there is a group of scientists who believe increasing your NEAT is the best way to manage or lose weight.
2. The more homemade something it is the healthier it will be. Ultra processed food, as we now have growing scientific evidence of, is not good for us so if we’re going to have a sweet, we’re better off making it at home (or getting it from a local baker, which is actually one of our personal food strategies).
3. It amplifies your awareness. This is always the first step when we want to make any lifestyle change and there’s no better way to grasp what you’re putting into your body than when you make it yourself. You get to see just how much sugar and butter you’re consuming, which can be motivating when deciding how much to indulge.
4. It’s good for your brain. Baking requires focus and patience. It’s a terrific way to practice mindfulness. Ever had to re-measure how many cups of flour you just put into that bowl? Our minds have to be fully present and in the moment when baking. When we make a new recipe it also requires extra focus (more calories burned) and learning. Learning new things builds all kinds of great cognitive skills and gives us really good feelings by igniting neurochemicals in our brain like dopamine, which leads me to the next reason baking is healthy.
5. It’s relaxing. Despite all our modern advances and abilities we are a nation of stressed out people. Anything that offers calm and forces us to be in this moment, not worrying about the past or future, will offer a big boost to your overall health.
I’m in awe of the intuitive side of baking.
While on the one hand it seems so precise with weighing ingredients and balancing wet vs. dry but once you get into it you start to feel when the dough is ready.
6. Not all baking includes white flour and sugar. There are many unique grains that can add nutrients to your baked goods, as well as fruit or nuts. I am experimenting with einkorn flour, an ancient grain that is supposed to be easier on your gut. It’s pretty great - works well in cookies and biscuits (so far). When using a new flour, ease into it. They all react differently and not every flour can be equally substituted for all purpose flour. Be curious. I like to start with about ¼ c. of the new flour per 1 c all purpose and start to see how it reacts, feels. I’m in awe of the intuitive side of baking. While on the one hand it seems so precise with weighing ingredients and balancing wet vs. dry but once you get into it you start to feel when the dough is ready.
7. It’s FUN. To me nothing is more motivating to me than if it’s fun and when it comes to baking you need that motivation (see effort you need to give in number 1). And when we’re having fun our mood is lifted, another health benefit.
8. It’s social and that’s really good for all of us right now. In our high tech, post covid era getting face to face human connection has become less the norm and more a thing you have to schedule and really work to jam into your packed life. Sharing your baked goods, recipes and experiences means you experience more community.
9. It’s nostalgic. Many of us have holiday baking traditions that evoke feelings of warmth and comfort. They also bring us together, connecting family and friends to share in unique and memorable baking moments.
Need help with making healthy changes, reach out to Health Coach Shelby Spears to book a consultation.
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