Thursday, June 27, 2013

My take on sugar and it's substitutes


Sugar as well as sugar substitutes are a thorny topic in health conscious circles. There is plenty of reading to be done with arguments, debates, scientific evidence, personal testimonies; all with differing opinions on whether they are good or bad for you and in what quantities. 

So as with most things I follow my guiding principle of 'all things in moderation'. 

I don't have a huge sweet tooth but when I get a craving I like to indulge it properly. I would find it hard to live without cheese cake, ice cream or good quality chocolate from time to time. I try not to over do it (not always successfully) and in between I use sugar substitutes like xylitol and stevia. 

I am not a fan of the taste of either of them though. Xylitol has an empty metallic taste and stevia is sooo intense and has a mild licorice taste. I have however found the perfect solution. 

Mixing xylitol and stevia together in the ratio of 1 cup of xylitol to 1 tsp of pure stevia powder, compliment each other perfectly. I find the taste really pleasant. In fact I ran out of the mixture and for a week I have been using regular sugar in my morning coffee. Yesterday I made up a fresh batch of my xylitol stevia mix and much preferred the taste in my coffee this morning.

My husband who is a sugar fiend and hates sugar substitutes also really likes this combination. He uses it willing and asks for it when it runs out. We do however use it moderately and I also only buy the GMO free Xylitol.  

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