How to Use Nutritious, Natural Sweetener Substitutes
It would be a scrooge, indeed, who would want to deny children their visions
of sugarplums during the holiday season. The good news is that healthier sugary treats can be made with whole food sugars. These less refined sweeteners are vastly superior to refined sugars such as white sugar, brown sugar, confectioners sugar, corn syrup, fructose, and turbinado sugar -- because they contain nutrients! Among the nutrients found in products such as Sucanat (see nutritional analysis, below) are necessary minerals that help with sugar metabolism.
Directory of Less Refined Sweeteners
Barley Malt: Derived from a natural process that sprouts and then heats and
dries barley.
Date Sugar: Made from dehydrated ground dates. Does not dissolve well in
liquids.
Fruit Juice Concentrates: Made from the juice of fruit that has been reduced
about one quarter by slow cooking. Note that some commercial fruit juice concentrates
have been stripped of flavor and nutritional value.
Granular Fruit Sweeteners: White grape juice and grain sweeteners that have
been dehydrated and granulated.
Honey: A whole food made by bees from flower nectar.
Maltose: Sprouted grains and cooked rice, heated and fermented until starch
turns to sugar. Available in Chinese markets.
Maple Syrup: Boiled-down sap of maple trees. 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, so it is best to buy organic maple syrup.
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.
Rice Syrup: Made from rice and sprouted grains.
Sorghum Syrup: Sorghum cane juice, boiled to a syrup. Sorghum cane tends to
need few pesticides due to natural insect resistance.
Sucanat: Made from sugar cane, usually organically grown, and only minimally
processed to obtain juice to make a syrup (the nutritious mineral-rich
molasses is not removed). The syrup is dehydrated, then milled into a powder.
(See below for the nutritional analysis of Sucanat.)
NOTE: Aspartame (brands Nutrasweet or Equal), and saccharin, are artificial
sweeteners. A significant body of evidence suggests that artificial
sweeteners can cause health problems. Many doctors now warm pregnant women to
avoid any products containing Aspartame.
Sweetener Equivalents for 1/2 Cup of Sugar
Barley Malt: 1 1/2 cup
Date Sugar: 1 cup
Fruit Juice Concentrate: equal to sugar
Granular Fruit Sweeteners: equal to sugar
Honey: 1/3 cup
Maltose (from sprouted grains): 1 1/4 cup
Maple Syrup: equal to sugar
Molasses: 1/3 cup
Rice Syrup: 1 1/4 cup
Sorghum Syrup: 1/3 cup
Sucanat: equal to sugar
Organic sugar: equal to sugar
Tips for the Tradeoff
When a recipe doesn't call for any liquid, such as for cookies, choose a
dry, granular sweetener such as date sugar, or the cookies will be too
bread-like from the additional flour needed for proper consistency.
When you substitute liquid sweeteners for dry, you will need to reduce or
eliminate the liquid content of the recipe, and increase the flour. For
breads and pies, flavorful fruit juice concentrates and other liquid
sweeteners work wonderfully well.
For cakes and cupcakes that need to resemble as closely as possible "the
real thing," for flavor, choose sorghum syrup or Sucanat.
Fruit Juices: Boil eight cups organic juice until reduced to two cups. Cool
and freeze. To use, warm a knife under hot water and cut out the amount of
frozen juice needed, and return the remaining to the freezer.
Brown Rice: Cook two cups organic brown rice in five cups of water for 45
minutes. Place in a glass bowl until mixture has cooled to 140 degrees. Add
one tablespoon of sprouts made from grain, such as wheat. Cover and place in
a warm oven (120-140 degrees) for six hours.
Nutritional Analysis of Sucanat for 150g (one cup)
