Slashdot | Alton Brown Answers, At Last

Slashdot Alton Brown Answers, At Last

Sorry, but I can't resist posting this, even though it is a little old. Questions from the nerds at Slashdot. Answers from the ultimate food nerd. Oh happy day!

...many of your recipes call for butter, oil, cream, and other less than healthful foods (even bacon grease!). What do you think about some of the substitutes out there, or using ingredients like applesauce to replace butter?
Alton: There are no bad foods, only bad food habits. I eat cream, butter, and bacon; I just don't eat pounds of it at a time. I use these things when they are needed in recipes and leave them out when they're not needed. As for substitutes, I only agree with them if they really don't change a person's response to a dish. Take mashed potatoes for instance. I recently saw a recipe that suggested that the fat we all know that mashers need could be replaced with vegetable broth. Hogwash. All that does is lead to dissatisfaction and I think that dissatisfaction results in overeating. We like fats because fats satisfy. They break down in the digestive track very slowly so they keep us fuller longer. Now if I find a way to replace a fatty ingredient without missing it (I do this a lot with yogurt) then you bet I'm going to do it. But I repeat: there are no bad foods

Ah, and now the Dragon understands why his belly can burn with hunger not long after eating an orchard's worth of apples, but a nice size flock of sheep (with maybe a sheperd an a coupla dogs as appetizers) sticks with him all day long.