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Sucanant or Cane Sugar?
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I am wondering I go back and forth with these two sugars. Does anyone have an knowledge on which one is better than the other? I usually go by price and what I can afford at the time but that’s not the right reason to buy for.
Well, metabolically speaking, sugar is really sugar. There’s actually not a huge difference in how your body processes sugar. Sugar naturally occurring in a piece of fruit, with fiber and nutrients, is marginally better. But added “natural” sugars like cane sugar, turbinado, and sucanat are not metabolized any differently than table sugar. There are small amounts of nutrients in the less processed varieties, but not enough to make it “ok.” Your healthiest bet is to use NO added sugars. At all. I know this is tough, but in a world where nearly everyone gets type 2 diabetes anymore, it’s smartest to just avoid the stuff and eat a piece of fruit when you want sweet. I can recommend a video by a pediatric endocrinologist that I really enjoyed if anyone is interested, giving the details of how sugar—-pretty much any sugar–is metabolized.
That said, we do occasionally for special occasions produce a baked goodie, and when we do, we like honey for non-chocolate treats, and sucanat for chocolate treats. We halve the amounts in the recipes. But we love how sucanat seems to intensify chocolate flavor. Cost doesn’t make much difference for us, since I doubt I’ve used a cup of added sugar in the entire last month.
We use coconut sugar and honey. I like coconut sugar and honey because they are very low-glycemic sweeteners–lower than sucanat, cane sugar, and even molasses. The downside to coconut sugar is that it’s not really sustainable. I used to use some sucanat, some coconut sugar, some honey, and some cane sugar, but it’s simpler to stick to the two I believe are healthiest for my family. I have had issues with hypoglycemia in the past, and I find that less sweets for me keep my blood sugar more regulated anyway. Consuming low-glycemic sweeteners also means my blood sugar doesn’t spike and then drop rapidly whenever I do eat a cookie or a brownie.
I like this article from Keeper of the Home, too.
Ok I use Xylitol/Stevia and maybe I need to do the switch with my kids and dh.
My question to bookworm would be what do you do for the sweet tooth? We make brownies from beans, and other great treats but what about having some cookies around? I guess that is the big one. My family makes a double batch of cookies every week. the kids get one cookie for a snack twice a week and the rest end up in my dh’s lunch box for work. What do you do for those sweet things?
Ok so maybe I need to start a seperate thread about treats w/o the sugar… hmmm what are your families doing for sweet treats? We have fruit or veggies or cheese type treats once a day, but after dinner my family likes a sweet snack. Give me ideas and I will run with them!
We use Sucanant for any brown sugar substitues as it tastes a little bit like molasses (very light flavor) and raw cane sugar for other pastry substitues. I’ve heard there is honey granules that can be substitued as well. I highly reccomend http://www.breadbeckers.com as they have a TON of free classes they stream through there website. The main class goes over all baking substitues (grain, sugars, oils, ect.)
By the way we use raw honey in everything we can, but sometimes the chemistry of the recipe just doesn’t work.
Misty, I personally don’t think there is anything wrong with keeping a jar of cookies around, especially if they’re not packaged, store (or Girl Scout!) cookies. One cookie a day made from whole ingredients isn’t going to hurt anyone. If you have members of your family who struggle with weight or who are wanting to lose weight, then maybe you need to do no cookies, but IMO cookies are not the enemy; it’s what the cookies are made of. If we get so legalistic that we deprive ourselves, we’ll eventually swing the other way and go overboard whenever we do have the opportunity to consume sweet treats. The reason I like grain-free baking (I use 90% coconut flour in my grain-free baking and almond flour sparingly) is because the ingredients like coconut flour don’t break down into sugar the way even whole wheat does. Whole wheat will spike your blood sugar. Maybe not as much as refined white flour, but it will nonetheless.
I don’t like using honey for cookies, as they tend to spread a lot when baking and the cookie sometimes doesn’t have great texture.
Anyway, I keep a batch of cookies, muffins, or quick bread made up every week here too. I’ve already taken so much away from my family (wheat, bread, pasta, rye, sourdough, corn, tortillas, and more) that I’m about done taking away. Being able to make banana bread or blueberry muffins or chocolate chip cookies grain-free and with a whole sweetener is my way of giving back to them (and me!) and making us feel a little more “normal”.
I totally agree Lindsey. I don’t think the cookies are bad per say. And we use almond flour and WW to make things. Lindsey do you have a source for a good price on the coconut flour/sugar? I use it but very little because of the cost. Might you share if you have a good source?
I wanted to just see what others were doing for the sweets without the using the sugar form as Bookworm mentioned. I know she has growing boys and I would bet they like a sweet now and then! A banana/apple/grades are great but thought looking for more ideas w/o sugar would be a way of ‘adding’ to my recipes not getting rid of things.
Honey – I don’t mind using it but doesn’t always turn out the way I want it to. Either the bater is to sticky and we loose 1/2 of it the the fingers (my kids do the baking) or as mentioned they flaten. Sometimes I get good results but not always.
My kids are by no means overweight, we like to try and buy within our budget the best food for us. That said, as I mentioned maybe I should stop looking at other things and use what I personally use, stevia/xylitol. Xylitol is great cause it’s a 1:1 ratio. Truvia is also good, though spendy, I use it in small one meal portions. Stevia, is almost to sweet for me.
This is a great post that seemed so simple is now turning into so much more. I love when that happens.
@crazy4boys, I’m working on them!!! I’m hoping to develop several new recipes using coconut sugar for my cookbook. If you want immediate recipes, I highly recommend Nourished Kitchen’s Guide to Grain-free Baking. It’s part of the Spring eBook bundle I posted yesterday. I paid $18 for it, and now you can get it for $1.50! Her Banana Chocolate Chip Bread and Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins are delicious!
Thanks Lindsey! I’ll look the bundle over again. I already have several of the books already, but perhaps I need more.
Misty, another option for you would be to try some date-sweetened treats. I have never used date sugar, but I have made homemade Larabars that are sweetened only with dates. Here is that recipe. If you spend a few minutes Googling, you’ll find others.
Here are some I just found, but have never made:
Magic Cookie Power Bars (call for dates and coconut sugar)
Date-Sweetened No Bake Cookies
ETA: Misty, you keep using whatever works for your family, but I thought you might find this blog interesting. It talks about the not-so-bright side of xylitol.
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