Four Natural Alternatives to Sugar

It’s official, we eat way too much added sugar. What is added sugar? Well, it’s the sugar in food and drinks provided by added sources, such as sugars, corn syrup, honey, and maple syrup, as opposed to sugar already present in the food. For example, the sugar in your muffin is added sugar, but the sugar in a fruit is not. The average Canadian consumes 13 tsp of added sugar per day, whereas the recommendation of the World Health Organization is 6 tsp. This high intake puts you at risk of developing chronic disease and dental cavities. Here are some ways to can decrease your consumption!

1. Use mashed bananas in recipes to decrease sugar content. Usually a 1 for 1 replacement ratio can be used. You have to make sure to decrease the content of liquid to maintain the same texture. A reduction of ¼ cup of liquid should be plenty!

2. Add stevia leaves to your tea or coffee. Stevia is a plant whose leaves have a natural sweetness to them. You can grow this plant at home. So when you’re making that morning cup of tea or coffee, cut a couple leaves off your Stevia plant and steep in your mug for a couple minutes. Your beverage will taste sweeter without the effects of added sugar.

3. Use unsweetened applesauce and vanilla extract in your plain yogurt to add some flavour. This can easily reduce your sugar intake by a couple teaspoons for every half-cup of yogurt!

4. Puree dates and use as a substitute to sugar or brown sugar when making homemade sweet sauces, such as ketchup, BBQ sauce or sweet and sour sauce.

There you have it, on top of just cutting out high sugar-content foods, you now also have great substitution ideas!

Stéfanie Rosser, P.Dt., Nutritionist for Zero Diet

The Zero Diet brand is first and foremost the conviction that healthy eating is a primary factor to attaining a healthy weight and a balanced lifestyle. Thus, we offer nutrition counselling with nutritionists who are members of the OPDQ with our Zero Diet nutrition program in our centers and in companies. We have also developed a healthy frozen food product line that fulfills rigorous nutritional criteria as well as two healthy Zero Diet cookbooks.

http://www.sugar.ca/Home.aspx

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Four Natural Alternatives to Sugar is a post from Nautilus Plus. The Nautilus Plus blog aims to help people in their journey to fitness through articles on training, nutrition, motivation, exercise and healthy recipes.
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