sweet enough

I am always interested to read new articles and research about sweeteners and the multitude of ways we can sweeten foods; in as healthful a way as possible. By this I have always thought (until now) that this meant that ideally the sweetener ought not to raise blood sugar levels too quickly or too drastically (low glycemic index and load, and preferably fructose over glucose based). This has thus ruled out all dried fruits, honey, rice and date syrups, maple..... and the dried sugars associated.

This left me with agave nectar, stevia, yacon and xylitol. But I have been reading about agave nectar, or specifically the nature of fructose metabolism which has me feeling like these are not good options either (apparently it falls upon the liver to metabolise fructose and can be a heavy burden for the organ to deal with, as well as being akin to using high fructose corn syrup, apparently the health benefits of agave have been grossly over marketed). You can read Mercola's great take on agave-fructose here, and Weston Price articles on the processing of agave here and here. Raw agave is good in that it has the minerals and vitamins intact but it's still a fructose based sweetener. Also agave is not a 'whole' food, it's the sap only and is contraindicated for those who prefer to get their nutrients from the whole plant (or near as). So now what?

Xylitol is dried birch bark, again an extracted fructose, used a lot in the Raw Magic book, but not in other raw books I have read.

Yacon, again an extracted nectar, I am still using because it's a good prebiotic, and I like that it is so as a 'food' rather than supplement, it's absolutely lovely in my newly invented breakfast smoothie, I am eager to get out of bed to make it and wake up keen to head downstairs (recipe in a minute).

Stevia? I tried ages ago and didn't like at all, too minty. I'd like to try it again though and see if I have changed my mind on the taste.

Fruit, I already know to eat in very small amounts to byline fructose consumption, I do, and preferentially fibre, vitamins and minerals associated by it's consumption can be found in vegetables anyway.

My sister prefers to use manuka or raw honey as a sweetener (even in raw chocolate making, which I have not yet tried) since it has medicinal properties and also is a whole food and it doesn't take much to sweeten something with honey, a little goes a long way.

It's starting to dawn on me that humans are just probably not meant to eat sugars (insulin resistance, overworked livers). What a sad thing for those with massive sweet teeth (that would be me). I tend not to be moderate, I decide something and stick to it, I am not a cheating sort of person with foods, although am happy to adjust and change when/if I read more, discover something better. But I do like something sweet each day, I just do.

It's exciting and interesting on the one hand to read new literature on such things but then you have the little 'poor me' slump - and the what the feck will I eat now then?

But then of course comes the nice bit where you start getting ideas and trying stuff out and a whole new buzz starts to happen with something new found.

This is what I am experimenting with right now: that I can use Lucuma powder (in whole fruit powdered form, this is a sub tropical nutrient dense fruit from Peru) and also Mesquite meal (ripened ground seed pods from the Mesquite tree, a Native American food staple) and raw carob powder to produce a nice malt-maple-creamy sweetness without the need for liquid sweeteners. That maybe I am happy to try using a bit of honey again. That I find cacao powder just a bit too stimulating mostly.



This morning I found we were totally snowed in again (this makes lots of people happy though so it's not all bad). The gritters and ploughs have abandoned us here and my dh is working from home. So no shopping, no postman (!) and so no expected and hoped for delivery of raw cacao butter. Plus nearly out of coconut butter/oil too. What a dilemma for a girl who likes her daily bit of sweetness. I went through every cupboard in the kitchen to see if perhaps I had a bag of dates lurking. Nope. And so I invented something that actually I am wild about, a big thanks to the snow for this recipe, I would not have made it otherwise :)



Coconut Cream Crunch

1 block of organic coconut cream (the little ones you find near Indian food)

Melt this (very gently stirring all the while it burns so easily) and add one tablespoon of manuka/raw honey.

In another bowl mix well together:

40g of Mesquite powder
40g Lucuma powder
40g raw carob powder (if you are ok about using raw chocolate powder you can instead but it won't be as mellow)
1 cup or a very large lazy handful of buckwheaties
1 tsp of Suma (Brazilian ginseng) *optional, not for taste just medicinal goodness*
pinch of crystal/sea salt

Add the coconut cream to the powder mix and stir stir stir. Really work it with your spoon mashing and folding until it's all a big crumbly brownness, work in every last speck of powder.

Scoop this all into a little paper lined tin, flatten down with the back of the spoon and put to set in the fridge. It will become solid at room temperature too just takes longer. Cut up when you are ready to munch or when it is slightly soft still for nice neat pieces.

This is so sweet and mellow and coconutty with that nice crunch from the buckwheaties. Lovely. I love that it doesn't have flax or any nuts/seeds, or even cacoa powder or butter and it still hits the spot.


Breakfast Smoothie (for one person)

Add to the blender:

2 tblsp of shelled hemp seeds
2 tsp mesquite powder
1 heaped tsp of hemp protein powder
1/2 a banana
1-2 tblsp of melted virgin coconut oil/butter
one large glass of water
drizzle of yacon syrup

Blend blend, pour and suck up through a straw. Delicious! Felt very energetic, smiley happy, and no hunger all morning with this.





Quick Chcolate Sauce

Lump of goat butter set in pan to melt, maybe 2-3 lg Tblsp (you could sub coconut butter which would be miles better, I just ran out)

~when melted add and blend:

2 tsp lucuma
2 tsp raw carob powder
1 tsp raw cacao powder
1 tsp raw honey

Pour over banana for a quick desert. (The idea for this recipe was taken and changed a bit from the website mentioned below)



Also, a final website I just discovered and really like; it's gentle, not preachy and has some fabulous free raw recipe pages : Have Raw Cake and Eat It. This AP Mama uses sweet wholefoods such as apricots, dates and whole food powders (as above) rather than extracts to sweeten her goodies. Still mulling over the use of dried fruit here......