11 Natural Sweeteners That Are Good For Your Health

Written by on January 14, 2021

Last updated on March 25, 2021 at 08:59 am

Natural Sweeteners – are they really better than sugar?

Think about how it feels like when sugar touches your tongue. The feeling is unexplainable. Human beings love sugar. Whether it is ice cream, soda, pastries, or in solid or liquid form, we all love the way sugar makes us feel.

This sense of satisfaction and pleasure makes your body and brain lit up with the happy hormone dopamine and serotonin.

Now think about how you feel after a sugar rush and when the unexplainable feeling died down? It is a feeling of weightiness, tiredness, and the inability to focus and balance your current circumstance with the surroundings.

Sugar is the number one cause of obesity, diabetes, mood swings, and tooth decay. A food item that does not discriminate among the young or old, sugar has done more damage it the world since its discovery.

Every year millions of people die from sugar-related diseases, whether it is diabetes or another? Despite the obesity, diabetes, cavities, mood swings, we love sugar and sugar-based products.

Can we live without Sugar?

Zero sugar is a hot topic and we can find books, articles and studies all across the internet.

It is good to want to live a healthy lifestyle but is life possible without sugar?

Well, yes and no! You can survive with those tiny sweet crystals called sugar, but because sugar is present in almost every food on earth, they great a balance and calmness that your body needs. The right amount is necessary to keep you alive.

If you are used to buying food or meals outside your kitchen, chances are you are eating hidden sugars regardless of the amount. Healthy salad dressings contain sugar like most items in supermarkets.

The truth is sugar, whether used as a sweetener, has some preservative traits that enable simple products to stay longer, unlike when it is in the natural state.

So before we delve into the history of sugar and healthy substitutes, the answer to the above question is maybe.

People who say yes should remember that nature has too many sugars to overlook. Whether it is sugar, honey, maple, agave, and plenty more. If you say no to white crystalline sugars, you could be consuming something else, including artificial sweeteners.

If you delete every ounce of sugar from your diet, do you know what will happen to your body? You will harm your health as your body gradually but surely feasts on itself. Life is all about moderation, including sugar consumption.

We need sugar to survive, but we need to make a healthy decision to help better our lives and health.

A bit of History about Sugar

Sugar is said to be around since the beginning of time. How else did our ancestors have the courage to swing through trees excitingly to hunt or catch fun?

Sugar was produced from the sugarcane plant. A tall, slender, thick brown or green grass cultivated in India and South America in the first century.

The word sugar is derived from the Indian word Sanskrit meaning grits or grounded.

Over the yes sugar was the economy hold nations had over one another; it was the reason for the booming slave trade and the instrument of power for leaders of yesterday.

Today sugar has a stronghold on the population of the world.

However, then sugar extracted from sugar canes was not white and granulated like the beautiful crystal on your kitchen counter.

How did Sugar make an entry?

When the Persian discovered sugar cane in the 6th century BCE, they marveled at a plant that could produce such sweetness without being stung by a bee.

You see, honey is the first documented sweetener in the world, and the process of extracting this sweetness was laden with dangers and even death.

So you can imagine the delight when they found something that involved less danger.

In the 4th century BCE, the Roman Emperor Alexander the Great first brought sugar to Europe when it arrived in the Middle East.

Sugar was used in trade-by-batter by European ship-owners who accepted sugar as payment for goods and services rendered as they traveled the world.

Natural and Artificial Sweeteners

In our bid to look for a healthy substitute for sugar, we have categorized sweeteners into natural and artificial.

Natural Sweeteners

Natural sweeteners are those products that exist in nature, possessing their own sweetness without any additional chemicals to enhance or improve the sweetness.

These types of sweeteners are found in seeds fruits, nuts, roots, saps, and trees.

Examples of natural sweeteners are honey, maple syrup, date syrup and sugar, agave nectar, Stevia, blackstrap, rice syrup, molasses, and coconut sugar to mention a few.

Natural sweeteners are nutritious and contain vitamins and minerals to balance it

Artificial Sweeteners

These are the sugar substitutes created in the many labs across the world to take the place of sugar.

They are sweeter than sugar to the tune of 150 to 500 times.

This allows them to be economical, especially for commercial purposes and cost-effective too.

Some artificial sweeteners are FDA approved, meaning they are allowed for consumption, but artificial sweeteners contain zero nutrients.

It is widely used in processed foods to preserve or enhance the sweetness.

11 Types of Natural Sweeteners – A Comprehensive Overview

If you take a walk through the natural food aisle of any supermarket, you will be wow at the number of sweeteners lined on the shelf. Some with names you can relate with, others not so much, some with exotic names that make sugar green with envy. Yet others are listed as the healthiest, tastiest, and eco-friendly. Regardless of under what guise the sweeteners appear, natural sweeteners will always take precedent over artificial sweeteners.

Cane Sugar

This is the basis of all sugars we consume in the world today but with a difference. Cane sugar is a pure unrefined sugar that is cultivated and processed under organically hygienic conditions. This sugar is nutritious, versatile, and free from any chemical additives. Unlike white granulated sugar, cane sugar tastes like dried sugar cane as it retains most of its nutritious components. Unrefined cane sugar is made up of glucose, sucrose, and fructose chain, has 17 amino acids, 6 vitamins d 11 minerals. It is not too dark in appearance and not white either.

Molasses

This is a thick dark syrup that remains after sugar cane is refined to white sugar. The darker the molasses, the more matured the sugar cane and the less sugar content present in the syrup. Molasses is very sweet and more acidic than regular sugar. It has a rich earthy flavor and is used in cooking and baking. Molasses is of three types, the light molasses gotten from the initial boiling of sugar cane syrup. This dark molasses comes from boiling the leftover cane syrup again, which is less sweet and dark. 100 grams of molasses contain about 75 grams of carbohydrates, most of which is sugar.

Blackstrap Molasses

This is the final product gotten when cane sugar syrup is boiled the third time. It contains less sugar, has a bitter tone, and a mild sweetness to it. It is nutritious and contains vitamins and minerals, including calcium, iron, and potassium. It is a good substitute for baking foods that do not require too much sugar and an excellent way to add color and flavor depth to your cooking.

Jaggery

Jaggery is a popular sweetener in Asia, especially India. It is gradually gaining popularity as a healthy replacement for sugar with positive health results. Jaggery is made from unspun cane juice. The extract sap/juice is stored in large containers to enable the dirt and sediment to settle at the bottom. It is then filtered and boiled while the impurities are skimmed off in the process. The thick paste is poured into containers and allowed to cool before use. It is better than sugar and contains high sucrose levels with lots of minerals and vitamins. Its high solubility rate makes it a great option in drink production.

Agave Nectar

This plant-based sweetener has garnered attention from vegans who love using it. This sugar is produced from the extracted juice of a succulent found in Mexico called the Blue Agave. This spiky plant is a member of the cacti family and a very healthy substitute for sugar. The extracted juice is filtered through a cheesecloth to trap impurities, boiled, and hydrolyzed. Agave nectar is super nutritious. Although it has a similar appearance to honey, it is lighter, sweeter with a slightly earthy smell to it. It has little effect on blood sugar and very digestible. Agave Nectar is great for baking, making drinks, and flavoring juices.

Brown Rice Malt Syrup

This is the resulting liquid when enzymes react with liquid from cooked white rice. The enzymes help to breakdown the starch content into sugar. The solution is a thick syrup that is subtle with a butterscotch flavor. This sugar is easily digestible and does not affect your blood sugar levels. Rice syrup is excellent for baking, puddings, and pancakes as it does not contain the high sugar sweetness of regular sugar but tastes just right. It is 100 percent plant and a good choice for vegan and coffee drinkers.

Date Sugar

Date sugar comes from pulverizing the fruits of a date palm. They are commonly grown in the Middle East and used in cooking. Unlike other sugars date, sugar is super healthy but has limited use in food because of its molecular structure. They do not dissolve or melt and will not cause any spike in your blood sugar. Date sugar is a healthy choice for diabetics who want something sweet, but wholesome. It is rich in nutrients and fibers, but expensive.

Honey

This is the first natural sweetener known to man. It is gotten from beehives and is nutrient-packed. Honey is sweeter and contains more calories than sugar. This thick golden syrup has earthy flavors and is an excellent replacement for sugar. Honey is versatile and used in baking, drinks, cooking, glazes, etc. It pairs beautifully with so many food groups adding that special richness to them.

Coconut sugar

First off, it tastes nothing like the coconut, and although it is branded as healthy, you might want to reduce the quantity you use in cooking or consume. Coconut sugar is gotten when the sap of the young coconut sap is boiled down to a beautiful caramel color. Coconut sugar is not that bad as it contains the compound Inulin that slows food absorption and maintains a healthy blood sugar level. It is used for drinks, baking, cooking, and many more.

Maple Syrup

This is the natural sugar in all its glory from the maple tree. The trees commonly found in North America produces a fluid that the locals collect in little pails before cooking it down. Although the original sap is sweet and rich in vitamins and minerals, it doesn’t have the flavor and smell of maple until it is boiled down. True maple syrup is pure maple with no additives, so be very careful when paying a container from the store.

Stevia

Bet you did not know that Stevia is a natural sweetener. Yes, this sweetener tastes 300 times sweeter than sugar, and it is gotten from a South American plant called Stevia. Stevia has a strong licorice flavor, but it is subtle and perfect for drinks and baking. This sugar has zero calories, does not crystallize or caramelize, and does nothing to your blood sugar.

11 Natural Sweeteners Compared 

Sweetener name	Measurement per 100g	Calorie	Fat content	Sugar content	Carb content In gram
Jaggery	100	392	0.1	96	94
Coconut sugar	100	387	0	100	100
Date sugar	100	382	0	98	99
Cane sugar unrefined	100	375	0	100	100
Rice syrup	100	327	0.2	55	80
honey	100	304	0	82	82
Dark molasses	100	290	0.1	56	74.7
Agave nectar	100	286	0	76	76
Black Strap	100	270	0	40	62
Maple syrup	100	260	0	60	67
Stevia	100	0	0	0	0

 

Bottom Line

Sugar is sugar – regardless of history, brand, or packaging. Cutting out sugar means teaching your brain to stop craving for sweets. 

Using sugar alternatives will not stop that craving. Using natural sweeteners will help make make healthier choices and reduce the dependency on the sugar rush slowly but surely.

If weight-loss is the reason you are curious about natural sweeteners, come join the tribe and join the 21 Day Weight-Loss Challenge.