Sunday, June 30, 2013

Natural Sugars

Read this over at Norma's blog - letting you know that artificial sweeteners are crap (though we should all know this by now) and detailing the gross and dangerous process that occurs when making "natural" stevia.

If you don't know stevia is bad for you by the insane way it tastes (that ain't normal, folks).

So I am here to remind the few of you that forgot - real things that grow in this world are sweet!!!

Honey, maple syrup - totally sweet. And completely not carcinogenic. And there is some indication that if you eat local honey, you won't have bad allergies (your body will get used to the pollen from the inside out!). And maple syrup, well, I don't know if it has any health benefits - but, o.m.g. it MAPLE FREAKING SYRUP.

Also, and this should go without saying, fruit is sweet. And delicious. Natural. Good for you.

You don't need stevia. Or truvia. Or equal. Or whatever. You don't even need processed white sugar. Things taste good without all that stuff!

For example:

Now, we rarely make paleo "baked goods" - we like just eating whole foods that grow in the world. But a co-worker of Chris' gave him tons of rhubarb and I had just picked tons of strawberries - so a strawberry rhubarb dish seemed perfect.

We made this strawberry rhubarb crisp using the natural sweetness found in the world: STRAWBERRIES (full of sugar) and maple syrup which bound together the almond "crumb" topping. It is not too sweet, but naturally sweet. And tart. But yum, so yum.


Most of the time when I want something sweet, I eat grapes or berries or something. I do enjoy dark chocolate as well. I didn't buy dark chocolate at the store for this week because we are obviously going to be working on this crisp for a loooooong time (I have to have really, really small portions of this because it has a lot of calories from the nuts and syrup).

But I would urge those of you out there who are still kind of hooked on artificial sweeteners or even white sugar to think about all the natural ways you can enjoy sweetness. Foods are naturally sweet and we are attracted to them (it's the calorie rich stuff that kept us alive when we were australopithecines just trying to get by out there a million years ago!) - and if you stop artificially sweetening your food, you will start to appreciate just how amazingly sweet naturally occurring foods are!!

Enjoy your lovely day <3

4 comments:

  1. I'm still working on refining a great homemade BBQ sauce. I like it sweet, and haven't found the right (and healthy/primal) mix yet. Guess I need to keep refining that, working with a small amount of honey... :)

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  2. That strawberry rhubarb crisp looks delicious! I've been weaning myself off from using sugar too and turning toward honey and maple syrup. I don't use artificial sweeteners.

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  3. Sugar cane syrup is the best! When I was a kid, my mom would buy a stalk and we'd cut a section and chew on the middle (the fibrous part) until all the syrup was gone... yum!! (perhaps I had way more than my fair share).

    I can't STAND the taste of Stevia. That article Norma linked to was so eye opening though. I knew that stuff couldn't be good for you.

    Thanks for today's dose of truth... you have great wisdom ;)

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  4. Sugar cane syrup is the best! When I was a kid, my mom would buy a stalk and we'd cut a section and chew on the middle (the fibrous part) until all the syrup was gone...

    Is that what you do with it! I commented on Norma's post that I saw some lengths of sugar cane recently at a greengrocer's and couldn't figure out how anyone would use it.

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