Stop with all the Sugar Substitutes!
The healthiest sugar substitute and all the unhealthy ones too.
I have been teaching healthy, whole foods, vegan cooking classes based in macrobiotic principles for 26 years. I often get asked the question about what the healthiest sweetener is to use instead of white sugar. My answer has been the same for 26 years and it will always be the same, brown rice syrup.
Last year I released my sixth, self-published cookbook, Simply Healthy Scrumptious Desserts with an introduction that covers the best sweeteners and the ones that are thought to be healthy but are not. Some of the following info is from my cookbook. The desserts cookbook has a lengthier introduction about sweeteners and features my best dessert recipes. No refined sugars and no refined flours. All recipes are Vegan, Organic, Sugar Free, and Whole Foods. Yes, you can have your desserts and be healthy too!
Tartufo Frozen Italian Dessert
Some of the scrumptious dessert recipes in this cookbook:
Chocolate Pumpkin Cake
Sweet Potato Brownies with Aduki Fudge Frosting,
Apple Cake with Pecan Caramel Glaze,
Lemon Meringue Pie,
Chocolate Cream Pie with Cookie Crumb Crust,
Peanut Butter Cream Pie with Chocolate Cookies,
Oat Raspberry Bars, Fig Truffles,
Chocolate Peanut Dulse Candy,
Individual Fruit Kanten with Tofu Whipped Cream,
Candy Nougat Bar Dessert,
Peanut Butter Aquafaba Ice Cream
Purchase Simply Healthy Scrumptious Desserts Cookbook here: https://www.macroval.com/buycookbook.htm
All dessert pictures are recipes in the cookbook.
Candy Bar Nougat Bar Dessert (my version of ‘Snicker’s Bar’)
Natural Sweeteners
Brown Rice Syrup - the Healthiest and best sweetener to use. Brown rice syrup is made from the whole grain brown rice. The whole brown rice is cooked down to create the thick, sticky syrup that you can use to make any and all desserts. Because this sweet syrup comes from a whole grain, it is maltose. This is very important. Other sweeteners are sucrose, fructose or dextrose. Maltose is the least reactive sugar there is, it releases slowly into your blood stream. Unlike white sugar or sucrose, which releases very quickly into the blood stream and wreaks havoc with all the organs in your body. Brown rice syrup and the maltose in the syrup will not spike your blood sugar. For that reason, it is considered the healthiest sweetener. It has a mild sweet taste that is satisfying. However, if you have been using sweeteners that are very sweet, it may not be sweet enough for you at first. If you stick with the brown rice syrup, it will taste sweet after you give up all those intensely sweet foods that are not good for you. You will find it in a jar at your local health food store, or even some mainstream grocery stores now carry it. Or you can order it over the internet and have it delivered to you. It is thick and sticky like honey. There is also Barley Malt that is in this category also, made from the whole grain barley. (Many are following a gluten free diet and Barley Malt has gluten.)
My second favorite and second healthiest is maple syrup. Made from the sap of the maple tree, it has been used as a sweetener by the natives of the land for as long as recorded history. It is very simply the sap cooked down to make a sweet syrup. No extraction process, refining or manipulation is used to create maple syrup. It contains these minerals; calcium, iron, zinc, phosphorus, manganese and has antioxidant properties. Maple syrup is sucrose and will spike your blood sugar, however with the minerals in the syrup it does not wreak havoc on your organs the way white sugar does.
Peanut Butter Cream Pie with Chocolate Crust
Occasional Sweeteners
Sucanat, is an unrefined, natural cane sugar, made from minimally refined sugar cane. It is a brown granular form and I use it occasionally for frostings. Or if I am serving the general public that wants a sweeter dessert.
Chocolate Pumpkin Cake
Molasses is a thick dark syrup made during the sugar making process. Look for organic and unsulfured, they put sulfur dioxide in the molasses as a preservative. Blackstrap is darker in color and has more nutritional value. I use molasses for special holiday desserts when I want a rich, robust flavor.
Peanut Butter Aquafaba Ice Cream
Unclassified - Not Healthy
Agave - One of the worse. 70 to 90% fructose (Hight fructose corn syrup is 55% fructose.) It is a newly created sweetener in the 1990’s. Made from the agave plant native to Mexico. Sweeter than honey. Highly chemically processed, using genetically modified enzymes, caustic acids, clarified and filtered using chemicals in conversion of agave starches into highly refined fructose inulin. This highly refined fructose is not found in fruit or anywhere else in nature. The body does not know what to do with this intensely sweet fructose and it does not get digested in the normal digestive tract. It gets digested in the liver. It is then immediately turned into triglycerides or stored body fat. Since it does not convert into blood glucose like other sugars, it does raise blood sugar levels, which is why it is claimed to be good for diabetics.
Stevia - A non-caloric herb. 200 to 300 times sweeter than sugar. It is banned in some countries. Leaves of the plant are dried and subject to a water extraction process. This crude extract is refined using ethanol, methanol, crystallization and separation. If you are buying stevia in a traditional grocery store and it is at a reasonable price, read the ingredients. I have seen many products that are sold as stevia that have sucrose as the main ingredient. So basically, you are eating sugar and stevia together. (A terrible thing to ingest.)
Stevia acts the same as agave in the body and gets digested in the liver not the digestive tract.
Monk Fruit: 150 t0 250 times sweeter than white sugar. Same as stevia and agave, it gets digested in the liver, not the digestive tract.
Peach Pie
Corn Sweeteners - NO!
All are extracted by chemical process.
Corn Syrup - Glucose Syrup - High fructose Corn Syrup
Maltodextrin - Dextrin - Maltodextrose - Made by a chemical process of hydrolysis.
Artificial Sweeteners - NO!
All are chemicals. All are processed in a lab. None are recommended for consumption. The human body is not meant to digest them.
Sorbitol - Mannitol - Erythritol - Lacitol - Malitol- Isomalt - Xylitol
Saccharin - Sweet’ N Low - 500 times sweeter than sugar. Goes directly through the digestive system without being ingested.
Aspartame - NutraSweet - Equal - 200 times sweeter than sugar - Known to cause cancer, brain tumors and multiple sclerosis.
Sucralose - Splenda - 600 times sweeter than sugar. It is a sugar that has been chlorinated. Other common chlorocarbons are deadly poisons.
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To learn more about Healthy, whole, organic, vegan cooking - Attend an upcoming COOKING CLASS! Cooking classes are fun, interactive, informative and the best way to start living a healthy lifestyle.
Everything Pumpkin Dinner Chef Val’s Cooking Class
Wed. Oct. 18 - 6:00 to 8:30 PM (ET)
In Person or Virtual - $60.00 (in person) $50.00 (virtual)
Pumpkin, high in fiber, vitamin A and C and oh so deliciously sweet! In this class you will learn how to make three recipes to create a perfect October fest meal.
Menu: Pumpkin Risotto featuring brown rice, delicata squash, cauliflower, corn, and an Italian inspired Pumpkin Sauce. Roasted Pumpkin, White Sweet Potato with a Ginger Pumpkin Sauce. And for dessert, Pumpkin Apple Zucchini Muffins.
Coming in November:
Holiday Meal Cooking Class
Wed. Nov. 8th. - 6:00 to 8:30 PM (ET)
In Person of Virtual
Menu: Lentil Brown Rice Sweet Potato Loaf, Gravy, Squash Ginger Vegetable Stew, and more. More details coming soon!
Mark Your Calanders! Chef Val’s Annual Sit-Down Thanksgiving Meal
In Person: Sat. Nov. 18th - 6:00 to 8:00 PM
Menu:
Tofu Turkey stuffed with Whole Grain Sprouted Bread Stuffing
Gluten free Millet Sweet Potato Stuffing
Millet Mashed Potatoes
Onion Gravy
Colorful Sweet and Sour Kale
Cranberry Sauce
Fig Blackberry Sauce
Pumpkin Pie
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https://live.childrenshealthdefense.org/chd-tv/events/the-chd-bus-tour/our-son-died-aged-3-nj/