Sugar, How sweet it….is? Or is it?

If  you haven’t guessed yet, I like to cook and bake.  I have always enjoyed trying new recipes and I have a collection of cookbooks that would make my local library jealous.  My husband and son are almost always willing guinea pigs and I have no doubts that they will give me their honest opinions, never sugar-coated.

Recently, I have been doing a lot of research and learning a lot about the foods we eat and the things that we have always been told is good for us.  And I have been shocked and surprised to find that most of these foods are not only nutritionally empty, but they are also harmful!  Because of this new knowledge, I have been trying to “healthy up” my recipes.  Using whole wheat flour and natural sweeteners, local and organic produce and meats, our own eggs have become the new normal in my kitchen and my recipes.  And much to my delight, the recipes generally come out just as good, or even better!

Another thing my research has done is made me passionate about sharing this information with others.  It’s not that you couldn’t find the information on your own, it’s that maybe; like me, you’ve never had a reason to ask the questions or doubt conventional wisdom.

When I think about baking, I think of something sweet.  And when I think of sweet cookies or cakes, I think of white refined sugar.  How else am I going to make those oatmeal cookies or that carrot cake?  And although I know that sugar is a treat and is most likely not a good source of nutrition, I never realized just how nutritionally empty and potentially harmful white sugar can be.  And I didn’t realize that refined sugar, or worse; chemically made sugars like high fructose corn syrup, were in almost everything we eat.

White refined sugar is made by extracting the natural juices and sucrose from sugar cane, then it is put through many cycles of washing, boiling, centrifuging, filtering and drying.  When left at this stage, it is the caramel colored sugar often referred to as raw or turbinado.  The raw sugar is then bleached by using lime or carbon dioxide to whiten it, and then it is filtered through a bone char filter to remove any impurities.  The result is the snowy white, fine-grained sugar we all know.

Now, sugar, whether raw or refined, should only be consumed in moderation.  It has known health risks, like diabetes, obesity and tooth decay.  The problem is that refined sugar, or sucrose, is in almost every processed food or drink that we eat, and the more we eat, the more we want.  Like a drug, sugar gives you “sugar high” and an inevitable crash.  So we end up looking for that next sugary treat.

High fructose corn syrup (hfcs) has been replacing refined sugar in most processed foods and drinks because it is cheaper to use.  But the health risks are just as bad or greater.  High fructose corn syrup is chemically derived from corn stalks, and is in no way a natural sweetener.  Our bodies cannot break down the compounds in hfcs, so it is absorbed straight into our blood stream and liver and causes our metabolism to function improperly.  Disturbances in metabolism are linked to  increased appetite, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, dementia and more.

Sugars and fructose do occur naturally in foods that we eat, and are nutritious and good for us.  Complex carbohydrates are a great way to get a sugar fix and, unlike refined sugar, they stabilize your blood sugar levels and provide lasting energy.  Fruits, veggies, dried fruits are great complex carbohydrates and honey and maple syrup and fruit juices can be used instead of refined sugars in recipes, for a sweet treat.  Raw sugar is a better alternative to white because it hasn’t been bleached.

So if you’ve been wondering why the recipes I share always use maple syrup as a sweetener, now you know.  I tend to use maple syrup because it comes from my own sugar maple trees, or my neighbors.

*Blueberry Coffee Cake*

3/4C butter, soft

1C 3oz pure maple syrup

4 eggs

1tsp vanilla

3C whole wheat flour

1 1/2tsp baking powder

3/4tsp baking soda

1/4tsp salt

1C sour cream

FILLING

1/4C raw sugar

1tbsp whole wheat flour

1/2tsp cinnamon

2C fresh blueberries

1. Cream butter and maple syrup.  Add eggs, one at a time.  Add the combined flour, baking powder and soda, and salt,

alternately with sour cream.

2. Spoon 1/3 of batter into a greased and floured bundt or tube pan.  top with half of combined filling ingredients

and half of blueberries.  Repeat layers and top with remaining batter.

3. Bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes, or until toothpick inserted

comes out clean.

Enjoy!