"functional" cooking?

[WLBLD]

Huh...I've never had sourdough myself. What's special about it?

Yeah yeah, ok you've telepathic powers too, and you can view my thoughts clear as day. lol

Btw, have you tried Sumac, Zataar, star anise, bay leaf, rose water, white poppy seeds, mace, etc?

It has a unique sour taste. Long fermentation from a starter rather than yeast which gives it certain bacteria to help digestibility & gut bacteria

Ha ha. Yea Ive tried many of those spices. We have so many different types here too. I make my own hummus, star anise & bay leaf are some of the ingredients in my Chinese chili oil, bay leaves in Cuban style black beans or Ropa vieja, Rice & peas + so many more, Rose water in Jamaican Christmas cake or bun etc, Mustard oil, Kasuri meethii etc for Butter Chicken etc, Kefir Lime leaves for Thai food, etc. I like real authentic ingredients & recipes

 

[Smiter]

I make my own hummus, star anise & bay leaf are some of the ingredients in my Chinese chili oil, bay leaves in Cuban style black beans or Ropa vieja, Rice & peas + so many more, Rose water in Jamaican Christmas cake or bun etc, Mustard oil, Kasuri meethii etc for Butter Chicken etc, Kefir Lime leaves for Thai food, etc. I like real authentic ingredients & recipes

Hey, are you female me?????

 

[tubby]

I personally think a lot of this stuff resembles vegan "meat" products, which always seemed silly to me. If one is ideologically opposed to Hitler, it would be weird to make a point of styling your mustache like him and dressing up like him on the weekends as a means of embracing that opposition. Likewise, if one is ideologically opposed to meat products, it's an odd behavior to seek out products that attempt to physically resemble them and obsess over finding ones that are the closest in appearance and taste to the real thing. I get that vegan's justify this by arguing that they desire meat, but without the suffering and some conclude this is a sort of least bad compromise so no need to explain that to me. I'm just illustrating the appearance of absurdity to someone who isn't a vegan.

Further, such "fake" products are generally going to be nutritionally inferior to the real thing because they need to contain a witch's brew of ingredients and processing aids to properly simulate the taste, color, and mouthfeel. Generally those aren't selected for nutritional value, but for those specific qualities and may or may not be things a person would wish to put in their mouths from a nutrition optimization perspective.

So with functional cooking, I find myself wondering what I'm really trying to accomplish when I engage in it, beyond possibly enjoying the creativity aspect of it. Sure, I might be able to make cupcakes with a lower net-carb count and glycemic index than "normal" cupcakes, but am I not just reinforcing an addiction behavior that causes me to seek out cupcakes that are less bad (in terms of glycemic index perhaps), but that likely contains other ingredients that are highly processed and nutritionally ambiguous (VS eating whole foods)? And hey, if I'm taking a GLP I could probably handle the occasional real cupcake mixed in with a more whole-foods focused diet VS going through all this rigamarole?

To be clear, I'm not casting judgement on anybody else who enjoys functional cooking as a hobby or saying that's how anybody else should think about it. I'm just sharing the internal mental process that I went through when pondering why I was doing what I was doing that way and where it led me.

 

[lastresort]

I personally think a lot of this stuff resembles vegan "meat" products, which always seemed silly to me. If one is ideologically opposed to Hitler, it would be weird to make a point of styling your mustache like him and dressing up like him on the weekends as a means of embracing that opposition. Likewise, if one is ideologically opposed to meat products, it's an odd behavior to seek out products that attempt to physically resemble them and obsess over finding ones that are the closest in appearance and taste to the real thing. I get that vegan's justify this by arguing that they desire meat, but without the suffering and some conclude this is a sort of least bad compromise so no need to explain that to me. I'm just illustrating the appearance of absurdity to someone who isn't a vegan.

Further, such "fake" products are generally going to be nutritionally inferior to the real thing because they need to contain a witch's brew of ingredients and processing aids to properly simulate the taste, color, and mouthfeel. Generally those aren't selected for nutritional value, but for those specific qualities and may or may not be things a person would wish to put in their mouths from a nutrition optimization perspective.

So with functional cooking, I find myself wondering what I'm really trying to accomplish when I engage in it, beyond possibly enjoying the creativity aspect of it. Sure, I might be able to make cupcakes with a lower net-carb count and glycemic index than "normal" cupcakes, but am I not just reinforcing an addiction behavior that causes me to seek out cupcakes that are less bad (in terms of glycemic index perhaps), but that likely contains other ingredients that are highly processed and nutritionally ambiguous (VS eating whole foods)? And hey, if I'm taking a GLP I could probably handle the occasional real cupcake mixed in with a more whole-foods focused diet VS going through all this rigamarole?

To be clear, I'm not casting judgement on anybody else who enjoys functional cooking as a hobby or saying that's how anybody else should think about it. I'm just sharing the internal mental process that I went through when pondering why I was doing what I was doing that way and where it led me.

To me, it's a constant tug o war between how far a science can go versus how practical it is.

Originally I studied alternative protein, specifically mushroom because fungal proteins satisfy nutritional needs and they have strong savory flavor that can help mimic meat flavor. I transitioned to fiber out of needs for job and the alternative protein market slowly losing steams after years of stagnant R&D and depleting seed money.

 

[tubby]

To me, it's a constant tug o war between how far a science can go versus how practical it is.

Originally I studied alternative protein, specifically mushroom because fungal proteins satisfy nutritional needs and they have strong savory flavor that can help mimic meat flavor. I transitioned to fiber out of needs for job and the alternative protein market slowly losing steams after years of stagnant R&D and depleting seed money.

Yeah and it's not always clear cut. Like I think artificial colors very clearly fall into the category of "doesn't ever need to added to food and purely cosmetic," but a lot of other ingredients like you're referring to clearly have nutritional value, even if they're not historic/traditional foods with a long track record of safe human consumption, many are probably okay.

 

[lastresort]

Yeah and it's not always clear cut. Like I think artificial colors very clearly fall into the category of "doesn't ever need to added to food and purely cosmetic," but a lot of other ingredients like you're referring to clearly have nutritional value, even if they're not historic/traditional foods with a long track record of safe human consumption, many are probably okay.

Lots of things that are necessary to satisfy sensory acceptance are..."cosmetic," for the lack of better words.

I need to put on my corporate apologist hat here. America is REAL HUGE, and agricultural production is focused in specific states, like North Carolina sweet potato (nom), avocado from California...and we take it for granted.

And farmers market are not always available and there are rural areas that just dont make any food. This complicates food distribution system and creates conflicts between quality vs stability/safety. Food quality invariably degrades, sensory and microbiology wise - during transit, and this forces industry to prioritize safety/stability over quality. Additives and artificial ingredients exist for this exact reason.

 

[WLBLD]

Hey, are you female me?????

Quite possibly