Sugar subsitutes

Sugar subsitutes

• invisiblechef 16 years ago
  Here is a list of natural sweeteners along with basic information on each one. I use 100% Maple syrup, Fruit Puree's, Raw organic honey, Stevia is great in tea and when I do use sugar ( yes I use sugar, it's organic or sugar in the raw or evaporated cane juice and I always cut the amount in half or more, adding fruit to the recipe like bananas can also help sweeten your treat up without a lot of sugar.) I'm thinking that people should be aware of what's out there and use a variety of different sweeteners not just one.
  
  Stevia
  Stevia is a calorie-free sweetener that has none of the harmful side effects of aspartame, saccharine or cyclamates. Called "honey leaf" by the natives of Paraguay, where it has been used for centuries, stevia has actually been found to offer some health benefits. (Advocates claim it inhibits the development of dental plaque.) Japanese food companies have successfully used stevia for 25 years.
  
  Fruit Juices
  
  Fruit Concentrate includes frozen juice concentrates such as grape or apple juice and refrigerated jars of fruit concentrates which are typically blends of juices such as peach, pear, and pineapple juice. Fruit concentrates are thicker than fruit juice concentrates and are made by cooking whole fruits at very low temperatures until they have been reduced to a thick syrup.
  
  A bit like a fruit puree which would be made usually out of dried fruits like apricots and prunes
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• invisiblechef 16 years ago said:
  Evaporated Cane Juice
  Evaporated cane juice is a healthy alternative to refined sugar when used sparingly. While both sweeteners are made from sugar cane, evaporated cane juice does not undergo the same degree of processing that refined sugar does. Therefore, unlike refined sugar, it retains more of the nutrients found in sugar cane. Cane juice is available throughout the year.
  
  It can be used just like sugar for sweetening foods and beverages as well as in cooking. Since it is considered to be more wholesome, it is also used as a sweetener in a host of processed, natural foods. It may also be known by a variety of other names including dried cane juice, crystallized cane juice, milled cane sugar and direct consumption sugar. In Europe it is known as "unrefined sugar".
  it's also available in a variety of forms that vary in texture and flavor, although they share the characteristic of being darker in color than white refined sugar:
  
  
  
  - Milled Cane: small grained crystals with a golden color and subtle molasses flavor
  
  - Demerara: coarser grained, slightly sticky crystals that feature a noticeable molasses flavor
  
  - Muscovado: very fine crystal sugar that has a very distinctive molasses flavor. Although not technically considered an evaporated cane juice, raspadura (also known as rapadura or panela) is another alternative natural cane sugar that has its traditional roots in Latin American countries. Rapadura undergoes even simpler processing than evaporated cane juice with the sugar cane being simply boiled to remove its water content.
  
  100 % Pure Maple Syrup
  
  This is the one I use the most in baking, also my son really likes it on his oatmeal with dried fruit or bananas and cinnamon.
  
  Sugar, corn syrup and maple syrup… Are they all the same? Not really! Although all three are sweetening agents, maple syrup contains more vitamins and minerals than its two distant cousins. A 60 milliliter (1/4 cup) portion of maple syrup provides 100% of the recommended daily allowance of manganese, 37% of riboflavin, 18% of zinc, 7% of magnesium and 5% of calcium and potassium.
  
  
  Organic Black strap Molasses
  
  Is one of my favorite sweeteners, there are tons of health benefits, I will leave a link at the bottom so you can read more about it if you want.
  
  Black strap molasses is a sweetener that is actually good for you. Unlike refined white sugar and corn syrup, which are stripped of virtually all nutrients except simple carbohydrates, or artificial sweeteners like saccharine or aspartame, which not only provide no useful nutrients but have been shown to cause health problems, black strap molasses is a healthful sweetener that contains significant amounts of a variety of minerals that promote your health.
  
  
  There are also these sweeteners which I've never used, like sugar alcohols (xylitol) although I buy gum that uses xylitol as the sweetener.
  
  There is also date sugar which is very expensive, aquave nectar, and a sweetener called Shakkar which is said to be the highest in nutrients and the least processed it's an Indian dried cane juice that is simply a pressed cane extract. Organic baby fruit is also good for sweetening cakes, muffins and that kind of stuff.
  
  http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=118
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