QUESTION: For years I made cookies with margarine and/or shortening. When more was learned about fats – hydrogenated, saturated and trans fats – I switched to butter, which has a considerable amount of saturated fat. What fats do you recommend for baking?
C.M., Escondido
ANSWER: Fat serves a special role in baking. It coats the flour and helps to shorten the strings of gluten protein that form when the water and flour mix, this being the origin of the word “shortening.” It can also hold things together, and solid fats help trap the air bubbles that allow baked goods to rise. The rising, of course, is less of an issue with cookies.
You definitely need specific performance from your baking fats and oils, but you don't want your food to represent a health liability because it is laden with trans (partially hydrogenated) fats.
The good news is that there are now shortenings made without trans fats. Read your labels and experiment to find the one that works best with your recipes. There is a good page summarizing all the fats in your pantry at the baking911.com Web site tinyurl.com/2j9k37.
Is salmon safe to eat if it has been frozen for more than a year? Should I just throw it away?
Y., San Diego
If your salmon was packaged tightly, ideally in a container or bag meant for this type of storage, and your freezer has maintained its low temperature, there shouldn't be any problems from a safety perspective. Remove any areas of freezer burn. These will show as blotches of discolored fish, usually near the edges.
As the fish defrosts, let your senses be your guide as you check for off odors. After the siesta, your fish won't be as flavorful as when it was fresh, but it should be fine.
What determines what is classified as dietary fiber in foods?
C.D., Elgin, Ill.
Fiber refers to the materials found in plant foods that the human body cannot digest. Think of the foods we eat as a complex combination of nutrients and non-nutrient ingredients. In order for your body to absorb and make use of what's there, the food has to be disassembled into small, absorbable bits.
The digestive system is the disassembly line, and enzymes are the body's chemicals that break the foods down. Fiber is unique in that the human body lacks the right enzymes to take it apart. Instead of being absorbed, it becomes part of the bulk that passes on through.
As fiber travels through the digestive system, what it does depends on how it's built. An important distinction is whether the fiber dissolves in water. There are two main categories of dietary fiber: insoluble and soluble, and their health benefits differ. Both, however, are valuable parts of the diet.
The average American diet contains only about half the fiber we need. Research evidence suggests an increased fiber intake (a total of 25 to 30 grams per day) helps control heart disease, certain cancers, diabetes, diverticular disease, constipation, diarrhea, weight, hemorrhoids and ulcerative colitis. This is quite impressive when you consider that dietary fiber isn't absorbed.
Ed Blonz, Ph.D., is a nutritional scientist based in Northern California. General-interest questions about nutrition can be mailed to: Ed Blonz, Focus on Nutrition, P.O. Box 120191, San Diego, CA 92112-0191, or sent via e-mail to UTFood@blonz.com.
