What prompted this article is my desire to find a sugar substitute for my morning coffee. Now we all know that white sugar isn’t good for us but before I jumped on the healthy band wagon I was all about my sugar especially in my coffee. But now that I know that white table sugar isn’t good for me I’m on the search for a healthy sugar substitutes.
So I’m starting with date sugar. This less process sugar is made from dried dates also known as date palm (plant). Date Palm is a plant apart of the palm family and is cultivated because of its sweetness. Date sugar does not melt or dissolve like traditional table sugar which can make this a difficult substitute. While date sugar is less process sixty percent of date sugar ( date palm plant) is sucrose which gives it a higher sugar content then cane sugar or beer sugar combined. Date sugar may be less process but it is no better then good old white table sugar.
Let’s not forget about date syrup which is made by boiling water and adding dates, straining the nectar then evaporating the water partial. Your then left with nectar that has vitamins and minerals. While date syrups is looked at as a natural sweeter substitute it is still sugar and has the same effect on the body as regular table sugar. *** Ok for Diabetics doesn’t spike blood sugar and date syrup is a laxative.
Stevia is a sugar substitute made from leaves of the stevia rebaudiana plant. What makes this sugar substitute ideal is that the body does not metabolize the glycosides in stevia so it contains zero calories unlike other alternative sweeter. The what gives the sweet substitute it’s sweetness is the compounds found inside the leaves of the stevia rebaudiana plant.
Coconut sugar is also called coconut palm sugar not to be confused with palm sugar. Coconut sugar is made up of 70-80% of sucrose, which is half fructose which means coconut sugar has almost the same amount of fructose as white table sugar does. Although coconut sugar keeps quite a bit of its nutrients given from the coconut palm, it still remains high in calories thus making it almost the same as good old table sugar.
I believe that I have found my clear choice and my winner is Stevia, the fact that our bodies doesn’t metabolize the glycosides found in stevia ( leaves) and it is zero calories kinda made my choice easy. I hope that you’ve found this post to be a delightful read and that you’ve found out a fun fact or two.
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