Recently, I sent an email to Ginger Bakos, Dinosaurs Are NOT Food blogger and A Child Grows contributor, asking her what she thought about coconut sugar. And, as always, she was a fountain of knowledge about sugar of all kinds. Because, hopefully we’re all learning by now, not all sugar is created equal.
Sugar. Boy… What a crazy subject. My most recent bout of personal reading and research has been on sugar and sweeteners.
Awhile back at my in-law’s house, I wouldn’t let my son have white sugar in his tea, but let him have honey. And one of the older folks piped up “Sugar is sugar is sugar!” My brother-in-law and I said in unison, “No, it’s not!” And were met with a look as though we had suddenly sprouted four extra heads! So… I decided to spend a little time on figuring out and solidifying why that is… Here’s my take on the whole thing.
Sugar is NOT sugar is NOT sugar
The general idea of that phrase is that all sugar is metabolized the same. That alone is factually incorrect, and actually led to some not so great things like Agave Syrup and other “Low GI” sweeteners that don’t spike insulin levels, but are pure fructose and wreak havoc on your liver. We’ll talk about that in a sec. So, all sweeteners are not metabolized the same. Short and sweet (no pun intended). Of course, that always leads to the question of WHICH sugars and sweeteners are OK. And well, you probably won’t like my answer much.
While, sugar is not sugar is not sugar, on the whole, our addiction to sugar and sweeteners is just not doing us any favors, at all. And if you don’t think you’re addicted. OK.
Then I challenge you to give it up for 30 days.
All of it.
No sugar, no honey, no maple syrup, no sweeteners, no Equal, no Stevia, no dates. Nothing. You’ll soon find out not only how much sugar and sweeteners you’ve been eating and drinking, but how much the entire food industry relies on sugar and sweeteners to keep us coming back for more. (See end of post.)
So, my answer, in short, is that sugar is the devil. The devil I tell you. And as I said once before, placating your sweet tooth with substitutes may not be shacking up with the devil, but you are definitely dancing dirty with him. It’s not a terribly popular stance, but I stick to it… and here’s why. I was you. I was addicted. I thought that I could never ever give it up. I did. For 30 days on Whole30, and it was easily the MOST profound thing that came out of Whole30 for me. And once I kicked it, I realized how much it was controlling my husband and my kids. And I set out to change it. But first, I had to do a little research, and here’s what I found.
- If you have a choice, choose raw honey. As Dr. Axe puts it:
“Honey is far more than a natural sweetener. It is a “functional food”, which means it is a natural food with health benefits. It contains natural antioxidants, enzymes and minerals including iron, zinc, potassium, calcium, phosphorous, magnesium and selenium. Vitamins found in honey include vitamin B6, thiamin, riboflavin, pantothenic acid and niacin.In addition, the nutraceuticals contained in honey help neutralize damaging free radical activity.One tablespoon of honey contains 64 calories, yet it has a healthy glycemic load around 10 for 1 Tbsp, which is a little less than a banana. and does not cause a sugar spike and elevated insulin release like white sugar. Although honey is an affordable food, bees spend thousands of hours collecting pollen from around two million flowers to make one pound of pure honey.”
- Next to that, real honey and pure maple syrup are equal seconds. They are both semi-refined (as in not in their pure natural form), but are not put through heavy refining processes to get them there. If that makes sense.
- Dates come in third, but are limited in their useful scope, though, boy have some awesome paleo folks made using dates an art form. I would’ve put them second because even as a sweetener, they are used in WHOLE form, but as you can’t use them as readily as honey and maple syrup, they slipped down a notch.
- Stevia. I am ALL for Stevia, as long as you are getting Stevia and not Truvia or Pure Via. K? K. Stevia has a lot of really good things going for it. First, it is natural. Stevia you buy in the store for coffee, etc is in Soluable Fiber, which in the grand scheme of things, is not bad for you. Also, Stevia does not seem to react in the body or brain the way that sucralose, aspartame and saccharin do. In simple terms (I’m not going for a Scientific journal entry here), the chemical subs send a message with the sweet that calories are coming into the body. They then don’t come. So the body and brain react by asking for more. In fact, chemical substitutes have been shown to actually make you hungrier, crave more sweets and are actually showing to be a detriment to people with diabetes. So that makes me not have a high opinion of them. Call me biased. Stevia, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to send that false trigger, so I like it better. But you still can’t have it, when you are kicking sugar and sweeteners. I know, I’m rotten.
- Sugar Alcohols-xylitol Actually, these are not bad. Like in the grand scheme of things, they are fairly good because they actually have calories… Hence, no false trigger messages. On the downside… they seem to not be great for people with gut issues (like myself), which is a bummer. But I’m going to put them level with Stevia because it obviously has to do with personal tolerance. There is a super good gelatin like stuff that I get at our natural food store with xylitol, and my kids love it. (Sadly, I can’t remember the name! I’ll edit this later, and let you know!) Xylitol also has the added benefit of being able to be used in baking AND acting in the same way as sugar, which half the world is looking for!
- Raw Sugar/Organic Sugar/Evaporated Cane Juice. Sugar is a ratio 1:1 fructose and glucose. When it is not refined, it retains some molasses, and some trace minerals. So, unlike it’s super refined ubiquitous counterpart, it has something between it and straight to your blood stream… but not much. Also, refined sugar is whitened with bone char, which creeps me out a little. Slightly hypocritical, I know, but I never ever claimed, nor will I ever claim, to be perfect. But what the heck is the difference between those 3 things. Well, it really has to do with how far it all gets refined. Very much like the difference between raw honey and honey, raw sugar (sucanat or rapadura) vs organic sugar/evaporated cane juice is the level of refinement. Less refined is always always better.
- Last but not least is Coconut or Coconut Palm Sugar. Unfortunately, we need a little more info before I’m going whole hog recommending it for anything. Although, paleo chefs everywhere are not afraid to dump cup fulls in their foods! My concern is that all we know about it, is actually given to us by the manufacturer. Hence, I’m automatically suspect. And if it bears any resemblance to Agave Syrup, it might be low GI but high in fructose and potentially super hazardous. I’ll keep watching the news about it because if it does turn out to be a good alternative, in it’s unrefined state it retains a TON of minerals, which I love. So… proceed with caution.
What about all those subs?
Listen, I’m not your mom, but if it were me, knowing that there are so many better and more healthful option out there, I wouldn’t bother. The only reason that you are leaning on them is because they are mainstream and easy to find. Thankfully, Stevia is easy to find these days, too, so let them go. Between cancer, weight gain and actually being a detriment to diabetics, it isn’t hard to see why other alternatives are better!
Phew! That was a lot.
Oh yeah… there are WAY more sugars and sugar subs out there, but all of these are pretty readily available. I think the more things we can focus on that we can find in our local groceries that are healthful, the better the chance we have of making lasting changes!
Choose to be healthy! You CAN do it! I have your back!
Eliminating sugar from your diet for 30 days.
You have some choices, here. I’m going to just say outright that when it comes to breaking food addiction there isn’t much better than Whole30. I have done about 4 elimination diets in my life, and nothing worked the way Whole30 did either from benefit or from kicking bad dietary habits.
If you think that’s too restrictive (though, I really, really, really think you should give it a try!), here’s your job for 30 days. No sugar or sweeteners of any kind. Eliminate ANY food or drink that has any kind sugar or sweetener-including dried fruits like dates, figs, raisins, etc. No added sugar in literally anything-almond milk, sausage, bacon. If it has sugar, you need to eliminate it. You also have to eliminate milk (though not unsweetened almond milk) because lactose is a sugar. Though not Whole30 approved, you could eat Greek yogurt (but not standard yogurt). The other thing you need to eliminate is any white or refined carb. White flour (Including white whole wheat), white sugar and white potatoes. The reason is that those things tend to convert straight to sugars in your body and feed the addiction. If you are already paleo, you just have to eliminate the sweeteners and dried fruits.
Here’s why you should do it.
Once you make peace with sugar and sweeteners, you can invite them back into your life. You can forge a new, beautiful and healthy relationship with dessert. You will find that fruit is a sweet treat and things like cake, cookies, etc are eaten in very much smaller quantities and still satisfy the urge. I know, because I kicked sugar out of my life… and then I kicked sugar out of my family’s life. For good. We enjoy 3 meals and one afternoon snack time, and only eat sweets-including fruit-as an after meal treat. It has changed all of our moods and truly transformed grumpy frenetic kids. I know you will see the same things.
Ginger Bakos is a Meal Planning and Food Budget Wizard who writes the blog Dinosaurs Are NOT Food. She is committed to helping moms feed their families well and within their budget, believing that everyone can, and deserves, to eat well! Her greatest passion is freeing moms and kiddos from the “kid food” cycle and guiding them to a healthful and positive relationship with real food. She converted her very own 3 year old Master of All Things Bread and Cheese to a beet and broccoli lover, and she knows you can make it happen in your house, too. You can contact her at ginger@dinosaursarenotfood.com.