Corn Fritters: and how they lead to "Compared to What?" thinking

I got a query about cooking corn fritters and it sent me to the mixing bowls and the books for a bit on the science of eggs and flour.

The query which was about making corn fritters and the questioner had asked about using white wheat flour and whether eggs could be used to bind the mixture.

First: Flour

In my lifestyle I do not use any white wheat flour - not because of the gluten which seems to be the usual reason - but because it is hyper processed and has very little nutritional value (along with its white cousins, white rice and white sugar).

So I started to answer by email (realfood@fulloflife.com.au) and then thought I should test something first...had some corn in the fridge so made up a recipe for fritters. 1/2 cup wholemeal flour, 1/2 cup besan flour. Pinch of baking powder. Water to mix, Add corn kernels. Cook, serve with home made chutney or pickles.

However there is one reservation: the wholemeal flour contains two things that I don't eat (see photo) and the besan flour is just chick peas - so my choice is fritters made of chick pea flour and water with loads of Indian spices added.

Second: Eggs

Okay, first up - I don't cook with egg but that's an entirely personal point of view! Egg yolk contains some nutrients which are broken down to form a compound called TMA which the liver then further converts to form TMAO which has been shown to be a heightened risk for blood clots related stuff. If your bio-markers are brilliant (eg you've got no family history of any heart attack or stroke; you've got great blood pressure and your vital stats are fab - there's there's probably not a huge problem).

One way of thinking about what's in and what's not, is to think "Compared to What?".

In the world of eating there's entirely "clean" which is Totally Clean (whole food, plant based only no oil, no salt - this is the lifestyle for people who have dangerous inflammatory issues such as heart disease). It is the best thing for a 4 - 6 week micro-biome reset.

Then there's me - Mostly Clean (in that I will eat my mother's vegetable soup even though it has meat in it; I will eat an egg every now and then if I'm having breakfast out and I do use a tiny bit of oil and fish sauce (so I use meat as a condiment).

Then there's Flexitarian - Mostly WFPB but add more animal products (still no ultraprocessed).

Then (yep there's more...) there's Mediterranean....olive oil, pasta, beans and legumes and loads of veges with fish and a bit of cheese and eggs and very little red meat.

The difference comes into always saying "compared to what?". If you're going to make corn fritters from white flour and egg that's better than onion rings from Hungry Jacks - but it you're going to make corn fritters with some green veg and out of wholegrain wheat flour that's much better than a white flour fritter! It really comes down to every time, have I packed the most nutrition possible into this plate of food? Have a put lots of different plants in this meal? And have I used the least possible processed food...

So, back to the fritters: (and OMG corn fritters! the only good thing about boarding school was the corn fritters!!!). Anyway, it's a pretty standard rule that there' no white flour - it's very process and has very little nutritional value. Use wholegrain flour or a chick pea flour (besan). Also consider fine chopped onion and garlic in them, maybe some of the chopped base of a broccoli (which tastes just like asparagus - just chop to the same size of the corn kernals).