Natural Sweetener

Question: What all natural food can you use in a recipe instead of sugar (and not an artificial sweetener)? also, not honey or one of those expensive natural sweeteners- just something natural and healthier than sugar

Answer: There aren't that many choices. Honey might have been one, but you ruled it out. Cane juice (can be dried) is used by natural foods manufacturers, but it may be hard to find, and it may be expensive. Stevia is a natural sweetener that some people like. It is not artificial, but it is a bit hard to control the degree of sweetness, and it may or may not be an "exact" substitute in a recipe. It really depends what the recipe is. I like to use a little jam or marmelade instead of sugar in sauces. Boiled-down apple or grape juice can also work.

Question: what is the name of that zero calorie all natural sweetener? i have seen some commercials for a zero calorie,all natural,only two ingredient sweetener & i wanted to try it so if some one would leave me the name & also what the think about it,i would greatly appreciate it. answer at the bottom plz & thk u :-)

Answer: Truvia and there is one that is a mix of Stevia (wichg is what truvia is) and sugar. Sun Crystals or soemthing like that. I think Truvia is Very strong and has a major artificial type aftertatse but try it you may like it.

Question: What is a good natural sweetener for my oatmeal? I cannot have sugar, sugar substitutes, milk, or anything artificial. We thought cinnamon might taste okay. What do you think?

Answer: I am diabetic and I love a little salt on my daily oatmeal. It adds so much flavour.

Question: What's the least fattening natural sweetener? Thinking of foods like honey, maple syrup, molasses etc. Or are they just as bad as refined sugar?

Answer: is splenla read? i think honey out of your choices

Question: Why and how is Stevia (healthy natural sweetener) illegal to grow in some countries?!?!? In what countries can it be grown, do you need a licence to grow it or something? Is it connected to the fact that regulations make it impossible to get organic tobacco in this and other countries?

Answer: i have one of those plants!! i didnt know it was illegal in some places though?

Question: Is artificial or natural sweetener better? Basically if I wake up in the morning at 4:30 a.m. to work on a ranch should I use Splenda or natural sugar to sweeten my coffe?

Answer: I'm not a big fan of chemicals in my food! Go with the sugar...it only has 16 calories per teaspoon!

Question: Has anyone tried the product Truvia (a new natural sweetener made from strawberries)? If so what do you think? yes, I know, but it said something about strawberries when I went to the website. I am not looking for know-it-alls,, thanks. I guess I just got confused since a strawberry was advertised on the label. I had already read up about what the plant consisted of. I did not need you to tell me what it was made out of. I wanted to know about the taste.

Answer: Truvia is not made from strawberries, it is made from the stevia plant. At first it has a strange, bittersweet taste, but you get used to it. I would recommend unrefined sugar, though, as the taste is better in my opinion.

Question: Is the natural sweetener, Stevia, safe for a pregnant woman to use? I'm curious if it's ok to use this stuff. I'm almost 18 weeks and I have a lot of it. Thanks

Answer: My doctor says no. She says regular sugar in moderation.

Question: I need a recipe for Chocolate cake with frosting made with an all natural sweetener like brown rice syrup? No Splenda,Saccharin,SweetNlow,High fructose corn syrup,refined sugar.. but sorbitol,rice syrups,maltitol,agave,etc are what i need instead.

Answer: here! hope this site helps http://www.dld123.com/sweetsavvy/recipes/index.php

Question: Does Sun Crystals All Natural Sweetener use whole stevia extract or just the isolated Reb-A? Does it use all stevia or reb-a like truvia/purevia?

Answer: It uses stevia, which is why it has that metallic aftertaste that you do not get with Reb-A

Question: What is a natural sweetener? What is the defintion of a 'Natural Sweetener' and some examples please.

Answer: Honey

Question: If Truvia natural sweetener/sugar substitute is okay for diabetics, why doesn't it say "sugar free"? I was just wondering if Truvia is naturally extracted from leaves and tastes sweet, how it doesn't contain any sugar and can be safe for diabetics? Because all naturally sweet foods seem to contain some sugar. Thank you~

Answer: Truvia is a stevia product. Stevia contains a sweet substance called steviol which is classed chemically as a "sweet glycoside". Glycosides are made up mainly of sugar molecules, but they have different properties. Like other alternative sweeteners, both artificial and natural, from mannitol to saccharine, aspartame, sucralose, etc, steviol has very low caloric content, and what it does have is not a fast sugar like sucrose, glucose, fructose, etc. But since it is chemically (stucturally) a partial sugar they may be relucant to call it non-sugar for legal reasons. The same is true of mannitol certainly. The question is: Does it have the same effect on your weight and blood sugar that regular dietary sugars do? If not, then that's the point.

Question: Can sorbitol powder be used as a sweetener in a natural foods product? It is listed as an artifical ingredient at some nutritional sites but it is produced by the human body and does occur in nature in certain types of fruits. What is the general concensus in the natural foods arena? Go or no go?

Answer: There is a difference in diet foods and natural foods. A big difference. Most diet foods are the worst things you can put in your body. Alot of mainstream food stores group the two together and some people have a hard time seperating the two ideas. Health food is definantly not diet food and vice versa. Sorbitol=Bad. It is an excitotoxin. http://www.answers.com/excitotoxin It is obtained through hydrogenation =bad. Sorbitol, also known as glucitol, is a sugar alcohol the body metabolises slowly. It is obtained by hydrogenation of glucose taking the aldehyde group to an additional hydroxyl group hence the name sugar alcohol. Sorbital is an artificial sweetener often used in diet foods (including diet drinks). It is called a nutritive sweetener because it provides 2.6 calories (11 kilojoules) per gram versus the 4 calories (17 kJ) of sugar and starch. Sorbitol also occurs naturally in many stone fruits. Sorbitol is produced naturally by the body, yet sorbitol is poorly digested by the body. Too much sorbitol in cells can cause damage. Diabetic retinopathy and neuropathy may be related to excess sorbitol in the cells of the eyes and nerves. Ingesting large amounts of sorbitol can lead to some abdominal pain, gas, and mild to severe diarrhea. Sorbitol can also aggravate irritable bowel syndrome and fructose malabsorption. Sorbitol is often used in modern cosmetics as a humectant and thickener. Some transparent gels can only be made with sorbitol as it has a refractive index sufficiently high for transparent formulations. It is also used as a humectant in some cigarettes. Sorbitol is used as a cryoprotectant additive (mixed with sucrose and sodium polyphosphates) in the manufacture of surimi, a highly refined, uncooked fish paste most commonly produced from Alaska (or walleye) pollock (Theragra chalcogramma). Sorbitol is identified as a potential key chemical intermediate [1] from biomass resources. Complete reduction of sorbitol opens the way to alkanes such as hexane which can be used as a biofuel. Sorbitol itself provides much of the hydrogen required for the transformation. 19 C6O6H14 → 13 C6H14 + 36 CO2 + 42 H2O The above chemical reaction is exothermic and 1.5 mole of sorbitol generates 1 mole of hexane. When hydrogen is co-fed no carbon dioxide production takes place. The advantage of hexane as a biofuel over well established other biofuels such as ethanol is that hexane easily separates from water. In fact, the energy required to distill ethanol from water in the bio-ethanol production process eliminates much of the energy advantages.

Question: Is this new all natural sweetener Sun Crystals better for you than Splenda? Is it expensive? If it is safer than Equal/Splenda I would like to switch. Does it have the same chemicals in it that Equal does that causes cancer? Here is the link to the site: https://www.suncrystals.com/

Answer: I didn't check the price, but from what I can tell, Sun Crystals is made up of stevia and raw sugar cane. Both of these /are/ natural sweeteners. The sugar cane is unprocessed, and thus doesn't contain any of the crazy chemicals that may be in artificial sweeteners, and stevia is made from a root, simply ground or extracted as a liquid and then crystalized. There shouldn't be any weird chemicals. I've used both for years, and both have been used for /thousands/ of years. Guaranteed they're healthier than whatever artificial chemicals they invented within the past century that make up Splenda.

Question: Have you used stevia as a natural, low-cal sweetener? How is it? Mainly I'd like to use it as a sugar substitute on my oatmeal (the little packets). Have you tried it? Does it taste similar to sugar? thanks! Lee: of course: I don't put anything artificial in my body. That's why I'm asking about a natural sweetener without the calories of sugar. :)

Answer: I never heard of it until I read this question. Did a google search and decided I've lived 56 years without it, I can do another 56 without it.

Question: What is the safest or most natural non-calorie sweetener on the market.? I like to use equal and splenda as a substitute for sugar and I want to know if either one is safe to use on a regular basis. I am not a diabetic,, but I am trying to keep the weight off I had recently lost through excercise and diet.

Answer: That would be Stevia which is all natural plant extract having up to 300 times the sweetness of sugar. Stevia has garnered attention with the rise in demand for low-carbohydrate, low-sugar food alternatives. Stevia also has shown promise in medical research for treating such conditions as obesity and high blood pressure. Stevia has a negligible effect on blood glucose, even enhancing glucose tolerance therefore, it is attractive as a natural sweetener to diabetics and others on carbohydrate-controlled diets. Erythritol {Z-Sweet}is also a good choice and lacks the somewhat bitter aftertaste that stevia has. Stay away from Splenda and Equal as those two artificial sweeteners are two of the worst chemical sweeteners you could ever use. Splenda is banned in Japan and most of Europe. It wouldn't be the first time the FDA pushed threw a product for profit knowing its side affects. Zylitol~ be very careful with anything which contains that stuff around your pets, particularly dogs, as chewing gum which contains Zylitol CAN KILL your dog!!http://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=pro_apcc_news082106