Q: I love eating healthy and healthy cooking (with great taste). I have been researching ways to substitute healthy alternatives for the 'bad' oils & fats in 'regular' recipes; however, I am not certain if one should make every bad fat substitution in a recipe and would like to know if it should be done or not. I'm uncertain if I should make just one substitution in a recipe at a time or would be able to make all the substitutions at once.) Please advise.


A: Great to hear that you are actively looking for healthy ingredient substitutions, particularly to reduce the amount of saturated fat and cholesterol in your diet, while replacing "bad" fats with "good fats" - monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats like those contained in avocados. The amount of ingredient substitutions you can make is not limited, but somewhat dependent upon the individual recipe itself. We suggest that you experiment to determine the maximum number of "alternative" ingredients used in a recipe while still maintaining the taste, quality and acceptability of the finished product. When baking, fat substitution may affect texture as well as flavor, so you may want to be more cautious and substitute one ingredient at a time.