Non Artifical Sugar Substitutes

healthy appetite

By Natural Health+

Okay, I admit it. I love chocolate. And candy. And sweet, sugary, powdery food. If I were to be described as having a sweet tooth, it’d be inaccurate. Because I’d gladly forego actual food for chocolate. Sweet teeth, more like. Sometimes it feels like I’ve actually eaten my own body weight in chocolate and candy. And considering that my family has a history of diabetes, I’m a bit concerned about how all this sugar is affecting me, and any healthy alternatives I can use.

Refined sugar and its derivatives have gotten a bad rap among the public. It’s high in calories, highly addictive, is disruptive in the body and has no nutrients. It’s associated with a number of health problems, including diabetes or insulin resistance, migraines, PMS and hyperactivity and attention deficit disorder. Regardless if its white, brown, washed or muscovado, it is medically accepted that too much refined sugar is not good for you.

As a consequence, people have turned to other ways to sweeten their food. There are artificial sweeteners available in the market but several studies have shown that these may cause cancer, migraines and other health problems if consumed in large amounts for extended periods of time. Although they’re the most visible and easily convenient for most of us, in truth, Splenda, Nutrasweet and Sweet N Low aren’t the only choices out there. Other alternatives include:

HONEY. This sweetener is made by bees and is one of the earliest sweeteners in recorded history. There are variations in flavor, depending on the type of flowers that the bees had access to when making the honey. This is the reason why you have varieties of honey called clover, goldenrod and so on. If you cook or bake with honey, substitute half the amount of honey for the amount of sugar required in the recipe. For example, if the recipe calls for one cup sugar, use half a cup of honey instead. Keep in mind that your baked product may come out darker than usual since batter that has honey tends to brown faster compared to sugar.

MOLASSES. This is a syrupy byproduct from the production of sugar from sugar cane. It is dark, sweet and think. Light molasses give the most flavor since it is derived form the first extraction. Blackstrap molasses are from the last extraction and are the least sweet and has a slight bitter aftertaste. It has more vitamins. It is a great sweeter for barbeque sauces and meat marinades. It is used in gingerbread recipes.

BLUE AGAVE. It comes from the agave cactus plant in Mexico and it looks like honey. It sounds unfamiliar, but most know it in its fermented form: tequila! It has a deep golden brown color similar to honey and has a glycemic index of 11. Use agave in minimal amounts since it is 42 percent sweeter than sucrose. But no, using tequila instead of blue agave doesn’t count as natural substitute. Sorry. Nice try, though.

STEVIA. This sugar is derived from the Stevia plant. It is around 300 times sweeter than table sugar but has a lower glycemic index. Use it in place sugar in your drinks such as coffee and tea since it has an anti bacterial quality to it, and in fact, is sometimes also used to treat wounds and infections.

Be mindful of your sugar intake. The less sugar and sweeteners in your food, the better. Retrain your taste buds to be satisfied with less sweeteners. It’s a bit more work, but always read the ingredients of the products you buy. If you see sugar, high fructose corn syrup, fructose, sucralose, dextrose, maltose, sorbitol or syrup, that’s still sugar. It shouldn’t be high on the ingredients list.

Be especially mindful when you buy products for children since most fruit drinks and cereals have sugar or some type or derivative listed as the top three ingredients.

And because I’d most likely go into a seizures if deprived of my chocolates, pastries and sweets, remember that I fully and wholeheartedly advocate having the occasional sweet treat, just use these natural alternatives instead whenever possible to lessen your overall sugar intake.