Sugar Baby – Part 3

It’s just cool to think that we got beamed down from “somewhere” to experience such earthly abundance. An abundance of experiences, loves, hates, playthings and … sweets. If you have been reading the other “Sugar Baby” blogs you’ve probably made some decisions about those sugars and sweeteners brought to you through the marvels of modern chemistry. Unlike the sweeteners in Sugar Baby –Part 2, these sweeteners weren’t created by chemistry geeks wearing lab coats… we’ve left the Frankensugars behind. So this blog takes a look at natural sweeteners.

Will Work for Sugar

As a kid, my sweet tooth was so strong that I’d ride across town to my grandparent’s house to score some cookies (I was a dental mess). Along with her "All American" chocolate chip cookies, there were always her Armenian specialties of Paklava (or Baklava as the Greeks say) and butter cookies, both sweet and without sugar (she served the latter with spoonfuls of honey over it). Most of the time there was a half eaten apple or berry pie around too.

Before she would let me indulge, I’d have to work in the garden, filling the apple basket and collecting eggs from her chickens or berries and vegetables from her garden. She had plenty of honeybees as well, but they terrified me. She was my first teacher about the abundance and generosity of natural foods and also the memorable, addictive sugar spikes of refined sugars. Sugar is irresistible to 4 ft. tall humans, and just as juicy to 6 ft. ones.

Stealth Naturals 

With the exception of stevia, (stevia doesn’t elevate blood glucose levels) all of these natural sweeteners can lift you up, send you flying and then crash you down just like the old Paramount Park Stealth Rollercoaster. These sweeteners have calories… you know what that means. If you don’t burn them off, you'll add them as fat and end up looking like a stand-in extra for "Big Momma". One more thing, even though the “crash and fat” warnings should be enough – Sugars can weaken your adrenals, which compromises your ability to deal with stress. Stress leads to illness.

Dehydrated cane-juice crystals

These are the easiest substitute for replacing white sugar, and you know, if it looks like a dog and barks like a dog… Anyway, the crystals are made by evaporating water from sugarcane juice. This is sold under the name sucanat. Sucanat is not processed like white sugar so it still contains nutrients found in the sugarcane. Don’t be mislead, sucanat is not commercial “brown sugar”.

Sugarcane is a crop that isn’t sweet on the environment; it’s hard on ecosystems and biodiversity. Buy organic or Fair Trade certified sucanat.

Blackstrap Molasses

This sweetener is what is left after crystals of sugar are removed from sugarcane or beet juice, and it’s about 65% sucrose. Blackstrap molasses contains calcium and iron and other minerals, providing nutritional value. Sorghum molasses and Barbados molasses are less nutritious than Blackstrap.

Barley Malt, Rice Amasake, Rice Syrup and Sorghum Syrup

These sweeteners are made by fermenting grains. They contain both simple and complex sugars as well as some complex carbohydrates so they are absorbed slowly into your bloodstream. They also contain nutrients (approximately half) from the original grains.

Date Sugar

Like the previous sweeteners, you can figure out the source from the name. This sugar is made from pulverized dried dates. One tablespoon of date sugar is counted as one fruit exchange in the diabetic exchange system. It contains fiber and minerals from the original fruit.

Maple Syrup

This great tasting stuff is simply tree sap. There are lots of minerals in this one including potassium and calcium. It takes 10 gallons of maple sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup. Make sure you are choosing REAL maple syrup. Under the ingredients it should say 100% pure maple syrup, not corn syrup or anything else. Making sure it is organic is important because some companies use formaldehyde to prolong sap flow. Vermont has stringent quality control for the production of maple syrup. Always check the label.

Honey

Honey is just as sweet as refined sugar and gets absorbed into the bloodstream quickly. If you want nutritional value from this sweetener, choose raw honey. Raw honey contains the vitamins, minerals, enzymes and pollen that are destroyed when honey is processed. Raw honey, particularly from local sources, may help with hay fever and allergies by building your natural immunity. My suggestion: don’t eat processed honey.

Agave

Agave Nectar is a liquid sweetener that comes from the sap of the agave plant. It’s the maple syrup of the south. Agave is heated and processed to create the light or amber liquids. I’ve read that the amount of iron, calcium, potassium and magnesium create the color tone. Agave is sweeter than refined sugar, but doesn’t spike your insulin levels as refined sugar does, but it has just about the same calories as sugar.

Stevia

This is probably the least known sweetener around. You won’t find it on many labels. Stevia is a native of Paraguay and is now grown in many countries. It has been used for many centuries and by many cultures. Extensive scientific research has been done to prove its safety, but until recently, it had only been approved as a dietary supplement. Stevia packs a sweet wallop. It’s 150 to 400 times sweeter than sugar and has no calories. It has been proven to help regulate blood sugar levels. A little goes a long ways. You can find stevia as a liquid or in powdered form.

Staying Alkaline

We already know that processed sugar and chemical replacements for sugar are acid forming and that cancer and viruses love an acidic body. Ratings for the following natural sweeteners come from a book I highly recommend called Alkalize or Die by Dr. Theodore A. Baroody:

Alkaline Forming Sweeteners

Honey – Raw 

(from alfalfa, clover and eucalyptus, sourwood & tupelo varieties)

Sucanat

Dr. Bronners Barley malt sweetener

Brown rice sweetener

.............................................

Acid Forming Sweeteners

Barley malt syrup

Fructose

Honey – Processed and pasteurized

Maple syrup

Molasses

Turbinado sugar

Eat till you Pop

Culturally, we’re programmed to eat until we explode, just like the fat guy in Monty Python and the Meaning of Life. What you want to do is moderate your intake. 


Maybe because the Blue Agave plant also gives us tequila with memories of crazy dancing, I’m partial to it as a sweetener. Maple syrup reminds me of double stacks of pancakes and Sunday mornings, so I have trouble controlling my use... raw honey reminds me of stress free days at my grandmothers. 

Over time I’ve “Trained my Tongue” to be happy with less. If you ever had to stay off sugars for a long period of time –which is something one would do on a Candida elimination diet– when you finally get to eat an apple or grape, your taste buds just explode from the sweetness. 

Find a natural sweetener that works for you, it might not be the one that someone else likes. As you use less, you’ll want less. Or better yet, eat an apple. Having a dessert or an occasional indulgence can be part of diet planning. It’s actually better if it is planned. It keeps us from going on a total binge. Take the time to read labels, and stay conscious when you eat. The less processed your food is, the healthier you will be. Your body will love you for it, so will your abs... 

We don’t have to be saints to be healthy, just committed.

Supplements

To assist with sugar metabolism

Chromium picolinate, B-complex vitamins, calcium/magnesium

To help with sugar cravings

L-glutamine, royal jelly, bee pollen, gymnema sylvestra

To assist with fat burning

L-carnitine

To balance adrenal stress caused by sugar

Licorice root, Siberian Ginseng, Vitamin C and Bioflavanoids

Train your Body, Train your Mind, Tame your Tongue.

Information on this site is not a substitute for consulting a licensed medical professional.  You should never begin an exercise routine without consulting your physician. 

Sugar Baby – Part 2

My chiropractor boyfriend and I are waiting for a driver to take us to the movie set of "Eat Pray Love" in Bali. We're sitting outside in the sun and we can smell our morning coffee.

Our coffee arrives – and these blue packages of pseudo sweet arrive with it. It’s really weird to see packages of "Equal" while we’re listening to the river, the sounds of the jungle and brushing ants off my computer. 

The ants aren't touching the Equal...

The coffee is great.

Ninety-two reasons 

Are you looking to get away from the dark side of sugar and think that Equal and NutraSweet are the solutions? You're not alone. What you'll want to know before you tear open those tempting packets is that they both contain aspartame, which has ninety-two (that’s 92!) side effects listed by the FDA. 

When aspartame is ingested, methyl alcohol – one of the primary ingredients of aspartame – is converted into formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is a dangerous neurotoxin.

A few side effects from aspartame

Memory loss

Nervous system disorders 

Joint pain

Migraines

Brain lesions

Bloating and 

Alzheimer’s disease

Aspartame is a $1 Billion industry, maybe it's just "too big to be called toxic". In spite of recognizing 92 side effects – did I mention these other side effects: hair loss, blindness and weight gain? – the FDA approved aspartame (without restriction) in 1996.  Who's got your back?

Coal Tar Delight

So you thought you’d switch to Sweet and Low instead? Your prize with this sweetener is the coal-tar compound saccharin. When did coal tar enter the food chain and who put it on our table anyway?  When politics takes over, we get artificial everything and so far, saccharin seems to be the biggest political football sweetener around. Saccharin was originally discovered in 1879, and claims the title of being 300% sweeter than sugar. 

In 1977 the FDA was going to ban saccharin but congress overturned their ruling, requiring only a warning label instead. Canada banned saccharin that same year. One writer stated that 'even when using very high doses on lab rats saccharin was only a low level carcinogen' –  a low level cancer causer. How many of those low level cancer causers do you think the government allows in our foods every day?  Now, it's your choice to eat coal tar products or not, and the government is more than pleased to tell you that it's perfectly safe. Looking at the increased rates of cancer over the last century, I'll take a guess that the low level cancer causers are adding up. By the way, the government has since removed the warning label.

Frankensugar

Advertisers have us loving Splenda – what a lovely name. Splenda is made by chlorinating sugar and changing its chemical structure to get something I call “frankensugar". The manufacturers call this product sucralose. It’s mostly pure... except for the chlorinated molecules, heavy metals, methanol and arsenic. 

According to Tuberose: Some chlorinated molecules serve as the basis for pesticides such as D.D.T., and accumulate in body fat. You would just as soon have a pesticide in your food as sucralose because sucralose (Splenda) is a chlorocarbon... chlorocarbons have long been known for causing organ, genetic, and reproductive damage. It should be no surprise, therefore, that the testing of sucralose reveals that it can cause up to 40 percent shrinkage of the thymus: a gland that is the very foundation of our immune system. Sucralose also causes swelling of the liver and kidneys, and calcification of the kidney.

High Fructose Dreams

There are natural alternatives to refined and chemically altered sugars, but before we get there, here comes High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) my “top of the list” of evil sweeteners, mostly because it is just everywhere.  HFCS entered our food chain in the 1970's, it's a highly processed corn syrup and because it is much sweeter than sugar it saves food manufacturers lots of money. HFCS is a dreamy moneymaker. It’s in everything from cranberry juice, soft drinks and yogurt to energy bars and those workout drinks you buy to help you get lean. 

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The big problem with HFCS is the fructose, a sugar that is found naturally in fruit. The small amounts of fructose found naturally in fruit won't make you fat, and it's digested with natural enzymes and fibers. With HFCS our bodies don't utilize the fructose as a source of energy so we metabolize it as fat. Not at all helpful if you're looking to lean down or show your abs.


It is known that during the 1970's and 1980's that the average American's body weight increased at a rate similar to the food industry's increasing use of HFCS.

HFCS has the ability to shut off our “full signals”.  At least with refined sugar, our bodies tell us when we’ve had enough – like when you can’t even imagine having one more bite of that triple layer chocolate cake, regardless of how much it cost and how much is left on the plate.  

Kiss from the darker side

While I think these sweeteners are depraved, you don't have to be deprived, there are natural sweeteners waiting for you. Frankly, our bodies can digest small (emphasis on small) amounts of just about anything, it's a survival thing we've developed. But why push it? Small amounts add up. When your body is processing toxins, it loses valuable functions to create new and healthy cells. Translation: you age quicker, and get sick easier. 

Artificial sweeteners are highly acid forming. Our bodies maintain a natural PH or acid-alkaline balance. When our PH balance becomes too acidic, our bodies react to survive. To neutralize the acid, our bodies take alkalizing minerals from our reserves. When our reserves are depleted, the neutralizing minerals are taken from our bones and muscles. One more thing; viruses and cancers thrive in acidic environments. 

Know what you're eating and read ingredient labels. Trust yourself. If one of these sweeteners happens to touch your lips, just know what kissed you and get on with conscious eating. Read "Sugar Baby – Part 3" next week for natural sweeteners.

Train your Body, Train your Mind, Tame your Tongue.

Information on this site is not a substitute for consulting a licensed medial professional. You should never begin an exercise or nutritional regime without consulting your physician.