Natural Sweeteners – How Sweet They Are February 7, 2008

If you’re like me, you’ve been trying to cut down on your sugar intake. I stopped drinking diet soda. I check any packaged products I buy and eliminate any that contain high fructose corn syrup. I’m fortunate that I don’t care for candy all that much (chips are another matter altogether!) except for the occasional dark chocolate (Endangered Species chocolate is yummy).

Instead of sugar you could use the artificial sweeteners on the market. I’d rather not. Not that I want to add calories to my diet either. Thanks to my sister’s urging, I started using Stevia to sweeten my tea. She also uses Luo Han Guo. I recently purchased Agave Nectar and love the light taste. Here are alternatives to consider:

1. Agave Nectar or Agave Syrup - A natural liquid sweetener that is less viscous than honey, agave nectar is extracted from the agave plant, and is low on the glycemic index. It contains minerals like Iron, Calcium, Potassium and Magnesium.
2. Barley malt syrup - A thick, dark, slow-digesting sweetener made from sprouted barley. It has a malt-like flavor. Pure malt extract, which is relatively expensive, is sometimes adulterated with corn syrup, which is cheap.
3. Brown rice syrup - A naturally processed sweetener, made from sprouted brown rice. It is thick and mild-flavored.
4. Brown sugar – Sugar with more of the molasses still intact. You can make your own brown sugar by adding 2 tbsp molasses to 1 cup of regular sugar.
5. Date sugar - Not actually a sugar in the conventional sense, date sugar is ground from dehydrated dates. It can’t be used to sweeten beverages, though, as the tiny pieces won’t dissolve.
6. Date syrup – A syrup made from dates that is the consistency of honey and the color of molasses.
7. Evaporated Cane Juice – Crystallized raw sugar made from sugar cane juice that is evaporated. This sugar is brown with some trace minerals and is more flavorful than white processed sugar. Sucanat (SUgar CAne NATural) is a unrefined evaporated sugar cane juice crystals. Rapadura is another name brand.
8. Fruit juice and fruit juice concentrates - Fruit sugar or fructose is the sweetest of all the simple sugars. Modest amounts of fructose occur naturally in fruits and vegetables. A concentrate is made by cooking down peach, pineapple, grape, and pear juices to produce a sweeter, more concentrated product. Fructose is also available in crystalline form, but its sweetness rapidly declines when dissolved in water. Do not confuse fructose with High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) which is very different and should be avoided. FruitSource is the brand name of a granulated sweetener made from grape juice concentrate and rice syrup. It can be used as a general purpose sweetener for hot and cold beverages and in cooking.
9. Honey – Honey is a sweet substance made from plant nectar (sucrose) by the honeybee. The source of the nectar determines the color, flavor, and texture of honey. Alfalfa and clover honey are the most common types, but blackberry, heather, and acacia honeys are also popular. Honey is sold in liquid or crystallized form, and is available raw or pasteurized. Choose organic honey. Infants under one year of age should not consume honey in any form.
10. Luo Han Guo - A sweet Chinese fruit of which extracts are marketed as a natural sweetener. The plant it comes from is the Momordica grosvenori, a member of the cucumber squash family that grows in the mountainous areas of southern China. In China, the fruit that this herbal product comes from has been used medicinally for throat infections and coughs, constipation, heat stroke and even diabetes.
11. Maple syrup – Maple syrup is made from the boiled sap of sugar maple trees, primarily in the Northeastern United States and Canada. The taste and color vary depending on the temperature at which the sap was boiled, and how long the sap was cooked. USDA Grade A maple syrup is the most popular grade for everyday use as a topping on pancakes, desserts, and other foods. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. Maple syrup has twice as much calcium as milk. Not all maple syrup is pure; some contains traces of formaldehyde, a carcinogen. Always choose organic maple syrup. Maple Sugar is what is left when all of the liquid has been cooked out of maple syrup. It is about twice as sweet as refined white sugar.
12. Molasses - Unsulphured molasses is made from the juice of sun-ripened cane; sulfured molasses is a byproduct of refined sugar; blackstrap molasses is the residue of the cane syrup after the sugar crystals have been separated. It is very nutritious, with high levels of calcium, iron, and potassium. Avoid sulphured molasses.
13. Sorghum – Extracted from the sorghum cane (related to millet); similar to molasses in consistency, though the color and flavor is lighter. It can replace honey or molasses in any recipe as long as the recipe also includes baking soda.
14. Stevia - Stevia is derived from a South American shrub (Stevia rebaudiana)native to Paraguay. It is extremely sweet so a little goes a long way. Stevia is not absorbed through the digestive tract, and is therefore non-caloric. The FDA has approved it as a dietary supplement , but not as a sweetener. Stevia also appears to have medicinal properties. Preliminary evidence suggests that it may lower blood pressure, prevent and reverse diabetes, and possess anti-viral properties. Two low-calorie soft drink lines, Virgil’s and Zevia, use stevia to sweeten their products, labeled as “dietary supplements” due to current FDA regulations. Coca-Cola Co. is interested in using a stevia-derived sweetener so we’ll see how quickly the regulations change.
15. Xylitol - Occurs naturally in straw, corncobs, fruit, vegetables, cereals, mushrooms, and some seaweeds. For use in food manufacturing, xylitol is extracted from birch wood chips. Xylitol inhibits the growth of several types of bacteria, including those that cause tooth decay so it is used extensively in chewing gum as a sweetener. Studies also indicate xylitol is good to prevent ear infections. Other sugar alcohols are Erythritol, Sorbitol (manufactured from corn syrup), Malititol, and Mannitol (extracted from seaweed for use in food manufacturing). Moderate amounts of sugar alcohols may have a strong laxative effect and even cause diarrhea, but are otherwise safe.

Resources:

• Center for Science in the Public Interest
• Delicious Organics
• DORway to Discovery has a link to Just Like Sugar, a sugar substitute
• Internation Food Information Council
• Institute for Traditional Medicine
• Prevention
• Stevia.com

Related Post: Artificial Sweeteners – How Sweet Are They? 

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