Healthy Alternatives to Refined Sugar

Vegetarian or not,  if you are diabetic, interested in lowering your sugar intake, suffering with fatty liver disease or another health condition, and you want to lower your sugar intake, you need to understand refined sugars and the alternatives you can enjoy! My tips this week help us identify different sugars + find some healthy alternatives to refined sugar. 

Tara’s Tuesday Tips: Let’s Talk Sugar

Healthy Alternatives to Refined Sugar

What is refined sugar?

Table or white sugar, brown sugar, powdered or confectioner’s sugar, corn syrup, and dextrose.

Sugar is a simple carbohydrate that the body converts into glucose and uses for energy. Refined sugars begin as sugar cane + then are stripped down and enhanced. Because they are chemically simple structures, they are easy for your body to break down. The opposite of a simple sugar is the complex structure in the sugars in fruits and dairy. 

Why all the hype about sugar consumption?

There has been a lot of attention and research centered around refined sugars over the last few years.  This research has revealed that consuming more refined sugars than our bodies need can have a negative impact on our moods, our ability to make decisions, and even affects our memories.  Excess intake of refined sugars puts us at risk for a whole host of obesity related diseases, diabetes, depression, and even heart disease. This type of sugar is digested very quickly causing blood sugars to spike and in turn, insulin levels to also spike.  After our bodies use what we need, and the rest is excess.  With a lot of sugar being broken down at once, it gives our bodies a lot at once. In turn, our bodies can’t use it all at once. The excess is stored as glycogen and then as fat. Doing this over and over again is when our bodies can’t properly handle all of the excess and we see problems begin. These problems lead to illnesses such as obesity, fatty liver disease, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes. 

What foods commonly contain refined sugars?

Packaged foods, candy, ice cream, soda, yogurts, white breads, sauces, pastas, energy drinks, mixed or blended coffee drinks, ketchup, BBQ sauce, “fat free” foods, fruit juices, cereals, packaged oatmeals, granola and granola bars.

Making the switch to healthy sugar alternatives:

Swapping out refined sugars for healthy sugar alternatives helps prevent that quick skyrocket spike of blood sugar and insulin with the rebound low and the subsequent excess storage.  Healthier sugar options are less processed, rich in minerals, take your body longer to process/break apart and therefore have a lower glycemic index. Lower glycemic index = sustained energy not rapid energy.

Where to begin:

If you are used to consuming sugary sweets, the switch to natural sugar sources will be an adjustment.  These alternatives are not as sweet.  The taste and texture of baked goods made with these sugars takes some getting used to.  However, combining these healthier sugars with whole grains and healthy fats turns baked goods into a nutritious, balanced snack or meal.

Give yourself a refined-sugar-free-week.  If you are used to a lot of sugar, you might get withdrawals.  If you do, then you know that you really needed to detox your body off the addiction. The sugars below are simple swaps to replace the refined sugar (white or brown sugar).  I don’t include any artificial sweeteners in this list.

IT’S ABOUT BALANCE!

What you do most of the time, matters most!

If you have been reading my tips for a while, you know I am a huge advocate of balance in your life.  A little sugar is ok.  A lot of sugar as part of your daily habits needs some reevaluation. Here at MVF we eat sugar! For instance, we occasionally eat ice cream and splurge on a fancy coffee drink or cookies. We also use simple sugars in our performance fuel as endurance athletes. However, for our regular daily fuel, we incorporate healthy sugar alternatives to maintain balance. We look out for not making excess sugar a routine part of our daily meals, but, if we want to enjoy something sweet we do it! Knowledge is power. Often times, there are things we are eating or drinking that have lots of sneaky extra sugars, read your labels!

Healthy Sugar Alternatives

• Honey:
  • Contains a wealth of antioxidants along with trace amounts of vitamins + minerals. New studies on honey are showing that consuming honey might help with decreasing inflammation markers and LDL cholesterol. In other words, honey is a better option than refined white sugar but still contains fructose and can affect blood sugar if consumed large quantities. Honey-avoiding vegans avoid honey due to the exploitation of the labor of bees to produce the honey. If you don’t consume any products made by the labor of animals, honey is off the list for you.
  • My favorite recipes using honey: Homemade Granola Bars,  Meal Prep Cookies.
• Maple Syrup:
  • With only a slightly lower glycemic index than regular sugar, maple syrup has a better overall nutritional profile but should be used in moderation.  It is a thick, sugary liquid made by cooking down the sap of a maple tree.  Maple syrup is a better choice than sugar because of its high antioxidant content along with iron, zinc, calcium, potassium, and manganese. 
  • My favorite recipe using maple syrup: Pumpkin Quinoa Breakfast Bowl, Healthy Peanut Butter Chickpea Muffins, Apple Cinnamon Granola Recipe.
• Blackstrap Molasses:
  • High in potassium, antioxidants, and calcium, blackstrap molasses is a great replacement for refined sugar especially in baking. This is a sweet, brown liquid made from boiling down sugar cane to yield a thick syrup.
• Monk Fruit Extract:
  • An extract created by first removing the skin and the seeds of the monk fruit.  Juice is then collected and dried into a concentrated powder. This results in a natural sweetener 100–250 times sweeter than regular sugar. Monk fruit extract is also very high in antioxidants, and has anti-inflammatory properties.  Read the labels because it is often packaged with artificial sweeteners or erythritol so be careful when purchasing this.

These are my personal favorites:

• Coconut Sugar:
  • High in minerals, low in glycemic load, shares all the fabulous benefits of its coconut relatives including.
  • My favorite recipe using coconut sugar Healthy Pumpkin Cookies, Healthy Eggless Oatmeal Banana Bread.
• Turbinado Sugar:
  • This is a dark sugar, less refined, and coarser than white sugar.  It has a very rich flavor but has less moisture than brown sugar so be careful using it as a 1:1 replacement in recipes. Try turbinado sugar in your coffee, or on top of oatmeal. 
  • My favorite recipes using turbinado sugar: Vegan Chai Sugar Cookies, Buckwheat Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars, Vegan Buckwheat Chocolate Chip Cookies, Healthy Eggless Peanut Butter Cookies, Healthy Eggless Almond Butter Cookies.
• Dates:
  • High in calcium, iron, phosphorus, copper, manganese, and fiber!  Date puree is super easy to make and you can substitute 1 cup of sugar for 1 cup of date puree in any recipe. Soak 10 pitted dates in 1 cup hot water for 30 minutes and then blend until you get a thick paste.
• Bananas:
  • High in potassium and fiber, a ripe mashed banana is an easy substitute in baking.  Bananas are a good replacement for the fat in a recipe (eggs or oil) while allowing you to reduce the sugar you need. These treasures can also easily replace sweeteners in smoothies, yogurt bowls + oatmeal. Combine 1 cup mashed, overripe banana with a few tablespoons water; puree until smooth, adding more water until you get a smooth consistency.
  • My favorite recipe sweetened with bananas 3-Ingredient Cookies or Easy Blender Waffles.

Hope this helps!

All the best,

Tara 

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