A Sweet Problem

A sweet problem: Princeton researchers find that high-fructose corn syrup prompts considerably more weight gain

What an interesting study....not that it should come as any surprise.   I think people have been getting stirrings of the fact that HFCS is bad, for some time now, however of course the corn industry disagrees.  

However, this leads us to the question, which sweeteners are good...or at least not as bad?    I think most everyone can agree that refined sugar isn't that great for you.

It can be very confusing, sorting out all the differnt types of sweetners on the market.....granulated sugar, brown sugar, molasses, honey, maple syrup, stevia, splenda, aspartame, turbinado, rapadura,  sucanat, agave nectar.. It's enough to give anyone a headache. 

Personally, I am a fan (to use facebook terminology) of keeping things as natural as possible....this means sweetners which are mainly unprocessed and whole.

Of course, the most "whole" sweetner out there is honey...if you can get raw honey, it's basically going straight from the beehive to your mouth.    Honey is said to have a whole host of health benefits.....everything from treating burns to anti-bacterial properties.  Raw honey is "best" but of course also more expensive, so in our current situation, we need to make-do with just regular honey.  Many of my baking recipies for the good goodies use honey.

Rapadura is also a very "whole" sweetenr.  Historically sugar was made by pressing the juice from the cane and boiling away the water. The product retained its critical vitamins, minerals and trace nutrients.  Yes, you read that right, sugar actually has some vitamins, minerals and nutrients in it.

Turbinado sugar is slightly more processed than rapadura, but it still retains some nutrients, the difference being that turbinado has been centrifuged slightly to remove the molasses.

Speaking of molasses, it is one of the most healthy, nutrient-dense sweetners, especially blackstrap molasses which is high in iron. Blackstrap molasses is actually good for you.

Brown sugar contains molasses, which therefore makes it a bit healthier than white sugar, depending on how refined the sugar actually was. Needless to say, most commonly available brown sugar is pretty highly-refined. Nonetheless, brown sugar is still a slightly better than option than white sugar, since it is *less refined*.

Maple syrup is also a "whole food", going basically from the tree to your mouth with only the minimal processing of boiling off the water.  Real maple syrup also has important health benefits.

I also wanted to touch on agave nectar.  While many people market agave nectar as a "healthy sweetner" similar to honey, it is actually very highly processed and  some claim it is worse than HFCS.

The last category of sweetners to discuss is "non-nutritive" sweetners (aspartame, sucralose, sugar alcohols, etc).  I think the title pretty much sums it up, anything which is non-nutritive must be pretty bad.   Here is an excellant article from the Weston-Price foundation detailing some of the dangers of artifical sweetners.   The one exception being stevia, which from all the research I have read, isn't so bad after all.  Unfortunately it is generally more expensive than other artifical sweetners, but a much better option, for people (like diabetics) who might need that option. Stay tuned for a future issue where I share my recipe for home-made soda using stevia!

Easter is almost upon us....that wonderful season where we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the ending of the Lenten Fast. Unfortunately in our current society, the holiday seems to be synonomous with chocolcate bunnies and eating candy ,instead of the focus being on the miracle of Resurrection. Nonethelesss our soceity being what it is, this Easter, our goal is make our Easter goodies using more healthsome, whole sweetners.   Stay tuned for homemade candy ideas!