Whether you are interested in weight loss, glycemic load, avoiding chronic disease, or transitioning to a raw diet, how and if your food is sweetened should be of interest. Synthetically produced or chemically altered products like Sweet’N Low, Equal, Splenda, or refined sugar are not in the vocabulary or the mind-set of the raw foodist. In addition, artificial sweeteners have no nutritional value and may even cause harm.
Depending on the school of thought that you subscribe to, terms like stevia (a naturally growing leaf ), agave (nectar from the cactus plant), and yacon (syrup from the yacon—a root vegetable plant) may represent some of the contents of the food on your plate. In my new book, The Raw Food Diet Myth, which will be released on 8/1/08, I describe various raw sweeteners as an alternative to refined sugar or chemical-based artificial sweeteners.
Over the next few weeks I will discuss examples of all natural raw sweeteners as time permits.
Ruthann Russo, PhD, JD, MPH, RHIT, is a healthcare expert with more than 20 years of experience working in and advising healthcare organizations.
Comments (1)
I am all about natural, raw sweeteners and have not heard about yacon. I will definately look into this. What do you think about some of the sugar alcohols used as sweeteners? They supposedly have a much lower glycemic index, but they are products of the sugar machine. Also, I have heard nothing but positive things about xylitol, especially its use in Europe as a popular sweetener and ingredient in gum as it helps to fight cavities.
I have a blog dedicated to going without sugar (which is what I have been doing since Jan. 1, 2008) and am always open to new ideas, new sweetener suggestions, and also new opinions on traditional sweeteners. It might be something you are interested in perusing.
Posted by myyearwithout | July 15, 2008 11:28 PM
Posted on July 15, 2008 23:28