OK: so last week I ruminated about sugar and fake sugar… I know it’s not good news to be digging into either refined white OR fake stuff, but that’s not to say that my brain and my cravings are always 100% in line. There just HAVE to be other options!

Here’s my trial-and-error list of sugar alternatives…

• Maple Syrup:

I’m a Quebecker by origin, which makes me a child of the maple sugar belt. There was even a home near my elementary school that tapped its trees and made syrup right there… how very Canadian! (image source)

There’s scientific evidence that maple syrup, like brown sugar and honey, has an intermediate-level antioxidant effect, which is good! I have a fear of looking old before I have to (which is ironic, because I don’t look my age), so antioxidants are a huge plus for me. (If you’re interested, as far as sweeteners go, blackstrap molasses totally wins for antioxidants, and Agave comes dead, dead, dead last…)

However, I only found one scientific study that said anything in any direction about Maple Syrup. After that, all the sites that went on and on about maple syrup were always things with URLs that made it super-clear that these were maple producers, or other groups that would only benefit by people buying maple in large quantities. With sites like that, I’m just sus… So that’s not great… and nor is the fact that maple syrup is pretty costly.

But I love the taste! So I’m glad that there’s *something* good about Maple.

• Agave Nectar:

Oh, agave, you hurt me so! For awhile, I was reading a lot of buzz about how agave is so natural, so unprocessed, which is SO much better for you than refined white!

True, it doesn’t raise insulin levels like refined white, so it’s sometimes touted as the best alternative for diabetics. That made me buy a HUGE bottle of it last summer, and I was pretty pleased with myself for my low-GI sweetener, especially because I like the taste.

And then it all came crashing down… I won’t even link any posts for this part, because if you Google “is agave bad for you?” you’ll see an eyeful of what basically comes down to “it’s 70% fructose, compared to about 55% for high fructose corn syrup”.

That means, your liver has trouble breaking it down so it’s hard on your body.

And it’s also INTENSELY processed, as it turns out: check this out, especially the part that says “While the label may claim that the agave is “organic and all-natural,” the label does not explain that the syrup has gone through an extensive process of chemical refining which changes the enzymatic structure of the syrup, converting it into a man-made chemical fructose.”

This is especially a problem in the US compared to Canada, I think, because here health benefits can’t be advertised on a label until there is enough scientific study to back up the claims. In the US, it’s a bit more of a free-for-all, so consumers have to be that much warier. Does anyone else think that one of the greatest things about having a smart phone is the ability to Google things while grocery shopping?

Alas on Agave! I read the same verdict on this blog… not that either of us is a scientist, but we both care about the issues and did some reading, only to find that agave is not a positive step in leaving white sugar behind.

• Honey:

When I was growing up, my grandmother used to tell me to take a spoonful of honey if I had a sore throat. I didn’t like it: it gave me the same nose tickle I get if a dog gets too close…

Then I went to New Zealand. While on a tour to see the penguins on Otago peninsula, one of my co-tourists stepped on a nail in Crocs: total foot penetration. I don’t really want to talk about the fact that he was *wearing* Crocs, which to me are an abomination if you’re not gardening, taking out the trash or under 8 years old. The point is, he needed some attention on the rusty-nail-wound: they slapped HONEY on him. Manuka honey (image source) is a bit amazing: health research has tested its antibacterial properties a lot, which is SO COOL!

And I dated a Kiwi who swore by downing a teaspoon if a cold was coming on (did he know my grandmother??)… as it turned out, the honey was WAY better for me than the guy.

Remember the health scientist I mentioned who had lots of coffee opinions? He also told me once when I asked about sugar alternatives that if I’m gonna do sweet, I might as well do honey to get the health benefits of bee venom.

It’s less definitively amazing if the honey is not Manuka (just based on surfing article titles on PubMed.gov), but since that guy is a scientist and I’m not… well, OK then. With so many good reasons for it, I’m learning to like it.

And a big plus with honey is the huge variety of flavours: depending on the flower that the bee pollinates from, you can get so many different kinds—lavender, clover and acacia I’ve seen in the stores most often, and after checking out this site, I’m tempted to go looking for rarer kinds.

All good… but what about something neither fish nor fowl?

• Stevia:

…is not sugar and it’s not a chemical non-sugar sweetener… where does it factor in?

Right now in Canada, Stevia is permitted for sale as a powder, or as fresh or dried leaves… but not as a sweetener in food. It’s still considered an additive requiring more testing by Health Canada. It’s currently being allowed on a case-by-case basis, and has been approved in 108 health foods. Read more about that here.

The reason why it’s permitted in health foods and not regular foods has to do with the “patterns of consumption”. Until stevia has been fully tested and can be re-categorised as an ingredient and not an additive, it’s allowed in foods eaten for “therapeutic use”, but not foods with “widespread consumption”. I dig that the Canadian government is cautious sometimes!

What helped me turn the corner from “not sure about this one” to “I should try it!” were two things: first, this article at thatsfit.ca. The author, Doug DiPasquale is a “holistic nutritionist” (and look at Kristen’s explanation of what that means at eatingRD.com) and he definitely loves it! That alone didn’t do it for me until I noticed that my favourite whey protein powder also uses stevia. So I’d been consuming it for years without really realising it!

Anna, my baker buddy, gave me a little packet of the stuff, and I had no excuses left but to experiment.

Step 1: I bought a can of “Zevia” Cola soft drink from Whole Foods. Zevia is sweetened with Stevia, and therefore calorie-free but not chemical-y. Step 2: I drank it and at first I was underwhelmed. It’s not bad… but it’s not good! The aftertaste has NOTHING on the long-term lingering of Aspartame, but something’s still lurking!

I think I just don’t like Cola. So I tried Black Cherry. And Ginger Root Beer. And Ginger Ale. I have to say, the Root Beer was FANTASTIC! I felt like I was 10 again! I used to love some root beer, but the sickly-sweet taste of regular stuff turned me off ages ago. This was the pluses of root beer but without the “I’m possibly about to go into a diabetic coma” feeling… mmmm!

Step 3: I added a little Stevia to some plain yogurt with toasted flax seed and strawberries. Step 4: I ate it and was underwhelmed. Maybe I used too much? I just found it cloying. I tried again with less—and I just feel sort of ambivalent about it, even without the cloyingly sweet factor…

I guess it’s magical if you’re serious about cutting out sugars militantly, maybe… but I think I’d usually drink water or club soda for some fizz, and my yogurt would have been perfectly delicious with ONLY the flax and strawberries. I guess I *do* now have a go-to sweetener when I need it, though…

I’m going to call this evolution: I was once a hardcore DC girl, and now I think that a life lived with reduced sugars is a life of happiness. Stevia seems OK (and I still love my Genuine Health Proteins+), but I don’t think I need it…

Maybe I should try baking with it?