Hummusgirl's Blog

I love to bake just like everyone else it seems.  Every time I turn on the Food Network, I usually am bound to see someone baking in minutes.  I took two semesters of baking and pastry classes and loved every minute of it so I shouldn’t be a hypocrite.

Of course, it’s not particularly healthy, but we cannot get away from it here in America.  I read in Omnivore’s Dilemma’s by Michael Pollan that Americans eat more wheat than even corn, which says a lot because we ship a lot of corn (and maybe wheat too) over seas.

In my own little revolution, I bake cookies that have less sugar, plus wheat germ, whole wheat flour, dry sifted milk, oats, and the normal things like butter and eggs and brown sugar.  I also bake pumpkin, oat, walnut/pecan, chocolate chip cookies where I halve the sugar (it calls for both white and brown.  I give my cookies away to places I volunteer or work at, friends and family, and occasionally sell them.  It’s my way of saying, “this is a treat that is more healthy for you than a lot of those treats in grocery stores.”  My Mom sometimes (like currently) gives up sugar, because she can’t stand how much sugar we eat in this country (at least I think that’s the reason; there’s probably a health reason in there too). 

I think the whole gluten free thing is kind of weird, because it just kind of started in the past ten years.  Does the gluten free label mean that we were wrong for eating wheat 20 to 50 years ago?  I think that the reason we have gluten free foods so many places now is because the baking and pastry world has gotten out of control.  Granted, I still like baked goods (and who doesn’t?!?), but maybe the term “gluten free” is a rebellious frame of mind.

Ok, I know that gluten free refers to a lot of people who have celiac’s disease who’s body doesn’t allow them to eat white or whole wheat flour.  But I know for a fact that the food industry uses the “gluten free” term to make sometimes unhealthy foods appear healthy; or foods that are obviously gluten free and makes them appear like a whole new product.