Sugar has suddenly developed a very bad reputation, and for good reason. It is extremely energy dence with little/no nutritional value. It is easily consumed in large quantities without making us feel full or satisfied but instead leaving us wanting more. We know its bad for us but still want something sweet, so how would we go about sweetening food without using sugar?

The current stand point is to cut sugar out of your diet or to limit your intake to very small amounts. But only when we activly try to cut out sugar do we realise how sugar is a large component of most food products. So if you are activly trying to remove sugar from your diet then you left with no other option then to make all your meals and treats your self!

The biggest problem though is going from 2/3 spoons of sugar in your cereal to nothing! The adjustment for some is unpalatable so sweetening food with alternative sources is the solution.

Here are a few sugar free alternatives to your usual sugar sweetened foods:

Fruit: banana; blueberries; strawberries; grated apple; mango etc.

Dried fruit: dates; rasins; cranberries; mango; banana chips etc

Nut butters: peanut butter, almond butter, macadamian nut butter; cashew butter

Sugar alcohols: xylithol, stevia, erythrithol

 Other: honey, maple syrup; vanilla essence/extract; cinnamon; ginger; lemon; unsweetened coco or cocao