Almond poached pears with raspberry cream

[MrsNuggs]

I'm so confused by this. The recipe is in ISWF, but it contains almond or vanilla extract (not compliant), and it's clearly a dessert. Seems like SWYPO to me, and not in the spirit of the program.

[ShannonM816]

In my version of ISWF, the recipe calls for vanilla bean powder, which can be compliant, ingredient wise -- I'm not sure if there's a difference between the older and newer versions of the book on that or what.

It is clearly dessert, it's labeled dessert. It's part of what's labeled a "fancy pants dinner menu," which to me implies something you're not going to eat every day. I do think that's important -- a thing can be okay occasionally in certain circumstances, and not okay to have every day. For instance, things like RXbars, which they actually stopped having as a Whole30 Approved item because they found people were using them in ways that were not necessarily healthy. That's not quite the same as dessert, I know, but I think it has some bearing here. Theoretically, having poached or baked or grilled fruit occasionally (yes, this one adds fancy stuff like coconut cream and a raspberry balsamic sauce, but it's not a pie or a cake, it's fruit that's been cooked) would be okay, and Whole30 was never intended to be about total deprivation or not enjoying food. However, over time, their thinking has changed on many things. As mentioned with the bars above, people can use the fact that a thing is technically compliant to eat in ways that are not making them healthier, so that's probably part of it. I also know that Melissa has mentioned doing a lot of research on habits, and some of her recommendations have changed over time because of this -- for instance, now, instead of recommending that someone who is used to having a glass of wine each day after work to unwind replace that with a compliant beverage, she'd recommend changing the habit completely. So, I cannot say for certain the thought process that went into this -- you'd have to get Dallas or Melissa to comment to find out for sure -- but I think perhaps at the time they wrote ISWF, the Hartwigs felt comfortable including a recipe with compliant ingredients that is definitely a dessert, believing that 1) people would take some personal responsibility and not eat it every day, and 2) that a healthy replacement habit for a not-healthy habit was a good thing.  It seems like they may have changed their minds somewhat on both of these over time, and I would venture to guess that is why there is no dessert recipe in the newer Whole30 book.

For anything, you are always free to leave out any item that you think is not in keeping with what you want to get out of your Whole30. I know some people leave out fruit completely. I don't know that that's necessary for everyone, but I think each person should consider their own circumstances. If you have always had dessert after dinner, a Whole30 can be a great time to work on changing that -- so skip obvious desserts, and make sure if you have fruit, you have it with your meal, not after the meal (for instance, toss some berries in your salad, make baked apples to go over your pork chops, just don't leave fruit to be the very last thing you eat, especially if you tend to feel like a meal isn't complete without something sweet. Have a read of this article for more on that.)