“No sugar please” or “Give me sugar!”

By Katie Caldesi

Over the years of creating low-carb recipes, I have been gathering information and developing my thoughts regarding sweetness in food. It is a subject I am constantly learning about and love to discuss so please feel free to comment. I am not medically trained so these opinions are my own and not given as advice to change your diet. I know the subject of sugar and its alternatives can spark heated debate, but it will be good to talk about it; other products and ideas can be added onto this article. You can message me directly through our LowCarbTogether FaceBook page here with your discoveries.

 

A few people are happy to make recipes with no additional sweetness from natural or artificial forms. They have adapted their taste to needing no further sweetness other than that from low-carb fruits such as berries or medium-carb fruit such as an apple.  Let’s call them the “Low-Sugar Adapted”. Our son Flavio and I can do without the sugar; we are in this group.

Others, however, scream that they miss sugar. Let’s call them “The Sweet-Toothed”. This group includes my husband Giancarlo and son Giorgio. We could also call them sugar addicts. Dr Jen Unwin writes about this here.

I can spend hours in the kitchen baking cakes that look like traditional cakes, biscuits and cookies that look like regular brands and making flamboyant looking desserts that get my guests excited. But if I don’t get the sweetness right for The Sweet-Toothed, all I can see are disappointed faces that there is no kick of sugar. After all my efforts and expenses all I have created is a pudding that no one will eat (apart from me and our chickens who, as far as I can tell, don’t seem to have opinions on sweetness).

We can all leave sugar out of food but usually you need “something” to take its place. That is where it gets tricky. If you cut sugar down to a minimum in a recipe, it often doesn’t work. You can use other less-processed forms of sugar such as sweet fruit, honey, treacle, coconut sugar but they are still loaded with kcal and raise your blood glucose levels. Or you use artificially made sweeteners.

 

To help make your mind up what to use, ask yourself why am I using this and what do I care about?

• are you cutting back on sugar as you believe that is how everyone should live but don’t mind if your sweetness is from natural or artificial sources?
• are you trying to lose weight quickly and every calorie counts?
• have you have gone keto and every carb counts to stay in ketosis?
• do you prefer to use artificial sweeteners to avoid consuming further kcal?
• are you a sugar addict and don’t want to set off sugar cravings?
• do you prefer to stay natural with honey, treacle or the natural sweetness of fruit?

Everyone has their own agenda and opinion and rightfully so. Have a read through the summaries below and make your choices accordingly.

Natural sweetness from foods

I have given net carbs and kcal for 10g amounts but obviously honey is so much sweeter than an apple, for example, you have to imagine the quantity used to sweeten a dish will be much smaller. I have added two chocolates as a comparison as we often use the sweetness already in the chocolate to flavour a recipe. And some of you (including my sister!) might just swing from the Sweet-Toothed to the Low-Sugar Adapted after reading this.

• 10g of honey has 30 kcal and 8.2g carbs
• 10g of caster sugar has 40 kcal and 4.2g carbs
• 10g of treacle has 29 kcal and 6.4g carbs
• 10g apple has 5 kcal and 1.1g carbs
• 10g banana has 9 kcal and 2g carbs
• 10g dried date has 28 kcal and 6.7g carbs
• 10g raspberries have 5.2 kcal and 0.5g carbs
• 10g Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate has 53kcal and 5.6g carbs
• 10g Lindt 90% dark chocolate has 66kcal and 1.3g carbs

 

You can see from the comparisons above that you can eat an awful lot of raspberries for the same amount of carbs and kcal of honey. However, when sweetening a dessert, you only need a little honey as it is so sweet.

 

The good and bad news

• honey, treacle, maple syrup or dates are intensely sweet so you only need to use them in small quantities therefore the carbs and kcal are minimal once shared between 6 to 8 people
• they will raise your blood sugar levels
• natural sweeteners such as fruit and honey have been eaten for thousands of years by humans
• natural sweeteners are considered generally safe to consume and are unlikely to upset your stomach or gut health in small quantities
• sugar has no nutritional value. Honey, treacle and maple syrup are similar in this respect
• there are trace amounts of vitamins and minerals in dates and they contain fibre
• excess natural sugar can lead to health problems including tooth decay, weight gain, poor nutrition and increased triglycerides

 

Artificial sweeteners

These are highly-processed chemical substances.

• they are low-calorie or calorie-free
• they can have an unpleasant taste – this is different for everyone
• they have been linked to cancer in rats in the past but there is no evidence that any artificial sweeteners can cause cancer in humans. Cancer Research UK and US National Cancer have said sweeteners do not cause cancer
• read the packet but many say they do not raise blood sugar levels (see note A below)
• their use (unless used minimally) does not contribute to getting rid of your sweet tooth as you are still eating sweet foods
• they may stimulate your appetite as you enjoy the sweetened food so you may end up eating more than something with minimal natural sugars

(A) Having just read Professor Tim Spector’s Spoon-Fed, he writes that his blood sugar levels did rise when he was being observed in a metabolic chamber after drinking water sweetened with sucralose. To know for sure, you can wear a glucose monitor (Freestyle Libre) and try your own response to artificial sweeteners.

Sugar alcohols, also known as polyols, such as erythritol, xylitol and sorbitol are derived from sugars. The alcohol is not the same as the alcohol you drink so it’s fine if you are avoiding alcohol to drink.

• sugar alcohols aren’t considered intense sweeteners as they are less sweet than sugar
• the nutritional analysis of sugar alcohols is misleading; they look as high in carbs but the effect on your body will be very different to sugar, they are not absorbed by your body in the same way
• sugar alcohols add the same volume to recipes as sugar so traditional recipes are more likely to work when sugar is replaced with a sugar alcohol
• they do not contribute to tooth decay
• they do not raise your blood sugar levels
• some people suffer bloating when consuming sugar alcohols in large volumes
• they can have a laxative effect if eaten in large volumes

 

Some of the more popular choices and the differences between them:

Stevia

• Some people sense a bitter aftertaste
• It has almost no kcal
• Stevia alone shouldn’t spike your blood glucose levels but it can be combined with other sweeteners that could
• you can grow the plant at home and use the leaves but the leaf is very different to the Stevia you buy in packets (I didn’t like the flavour of the leaf)

Sucralose

• It is 6 times as sweet as sugar
• 2g (as you use less of it) has 1.8g carbs and 7 kcal
• It is the most commonly used artificial sweetener
• It is stable when heated so can be used for baking

Xylitol

• xylitol is harmful to dogs
• 10g has 6.3g carbs but as explained above they do not include sugars
• 10g has 25 kcal
• xylitol can leave a cool, icy sensation in your mouth
• linked to good dental health as it helps to prevent plaque

Erythritol

• has 0 kcal
• carbs read at 10g per 10g but as explained above they do not include sugars
• it has a pleasant taste if subtle so you need about 4 times the amount of it to replace 1 teaspoon of honey
• alone it doesn’t appear to impact blood glucose levels
• and isn’t harmful to dogs

Monkfruit

• it is expensive compared to other sweeteners
• it is derived from a dried fruit
• it has almost no kcal
• carbs read at 10g per 10g but as explained above they do not include sugars
• it is rare but you can be allergic to it
• alone it doesn’t appear to impact blood glucose levels but is usually combined with an artificial sweetener that could
• has an unpleasant aftertaste for some

My conclusion

We use both natural and artificial sweeteners in our household as although we want to cut right back on sugar, we do want flavour. I feel I am hedging my bets between having small amounts of each. We have chosen to use erythritol for its flavour, because we have a dog, we want to keep the calories low in desserts and because I don’t want to raise our blood glucose levels. I use it to sweeten cranberry sauce, jellies and ice cream.

We also use the natural sugar in fruits such as apple, berries or small quantities of dates in cakes as I like the texture and flavour they give.

We use very small amounts of honey in a vinaigrette, on yoghurt-based desserts and in custard.

My advice is to experiment with how low you can go on any form of sweetness as it will be better for you and will get you used to becoming part of the Low-Sugar Adapted.