Much has been written about the health reasons for avoiding white sugar, high fructose corn syrup and artificial sweeteners. The biggest concern that I have about white sugar is that most of us eat way too much of it. Can we really be sure that we are shopping for healthy food? Do you feel guilty when you eat dessert? Let's look at this in more detail.
Do you try to avoid white sugar? I know that this can be difficult. Sugar and high fructose corn syrup are in so many products that we buy at the grocery store. It's in pasta sauces, BBQ sauces and ketchup. It is even challenging to find a loaf of bread without it in certain markets.
Do you buy sugar free products instead? If you do, then what you're getting most of the time are chemicals.
So what is the option, do you have to give up all desserts? Where does that leave us if we want to sweeten our oatmeal or bake some cookies? Most of us enjoy having dessert and occasional sweets in our lives and in cooking, it's sometimes nice to add a sweetener for balance in certain dishes.
Well, there are several things to choose from when you want something sweet that isn't either made from chemicals or so highly processed that it doesn't even resembles what nature intended it to be. If you make some changes in the ingredients you choose at home, you can greatly reduce the amount of sugar, high fructose corn syrup and artificial sweeteners that you use during a year.
For today, I am going to get you started by focusing on some of my favorite natural alternatives to white sugar and artificial sweeteners. These are things that are easy to use, have been eaten by people for centuries, have not been stripped of their nutrition and have a really delicious taste.
1. Whole Raw Sugar or Evaporated Cane Juice Crystals. This is the juice of the sugar cane plant that has been extracted and then dried. It is granulated and is a medium light brown color because it has not been processed and bleached like white sugar. It still contains the molasses and some minerals. Don't confuse it with brown sugar which is basically processed white sugar with the molasses added back to it.
While I don't bake often and would much rather cook than bake, I do bake occasionally. When I do, I sometimes use this ingredient. It can be substituted 1 for 1 with sugar. This is the easiest way to get started converting a recipe that you have been using for years. I use this instead of white sugar to make my son brownies from a friend's recipe and they come out great (I also use whole wheat pastry flour in place of the white flour in the recipe).
2. Real Maple Syrup. I'd have to say that this is my personal favorite. I love the flavor and when I talk about Maple Syrup, I am talking about natural maple syrup that comes from the tree, the sap that has been boiled down and not the maple flavored syrup that is made in a factory. If you can get it organic that's best. It comes in different grades. I personally like grade B, I think it has the most intense flavor. I have some from a farm in Vermont and I love what it says on the label: nothing added, nothing removed.
I use maple syrup to sweeten my oatmeal or yogurt. I use it in baking and in making desserts like truffles, it's also great to sweeten whip cream. There are many recipes available that use maple syrup instead of sugar as a sweetener and the result is delicious. If you're doing the conversion yourself, you will use less maple syrup than you would white sugar and you may also need to reduce the amount of liquid in your recipe because you are now adding a liquid sweetener and reducing the amount of your dry ingredients.
3. Raw Organic Honey, if you can get it from a local source, even better. You want to make sure that it is raw because that is when it contains enzymes. Much of the honey that you get in the store has been heated and that's a different product. I like to use this in tea. I occasionally I use it in hot cereal like oatmeal or to sweeten yogurt. I also like to use it when I make dressings and marinades. It's also a great accompaniment for some cheeses. Depending upon the plant that the honey is from, you can get a variety of flavors ranging from mild to intense.
4. Whole Fruit. Fruit can make a great dessert and can also be used to gently sweeten food. You can certainly eat it raw or you can cook fruit in a small amount of fruit juice and add things like vanilla or ginger to pears or vanilla and cinnamon to apples while cooking. Adding raw, cooked and even dried fruit to hot cereal is also a delicious way to add some subtle sweetness.
While I still recommend that you limit the amount of sweets that you eat, these are some more health supportive options for you to use when you want something sweet. Try them and see how you feel. I'm pretty sure you won't miss the white sugar or artificial sweeteners. I have been cooking and baking without them in my house for about a dozen years.
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