Raw Food Sweeteners: A Guide to Sugar, Minus the Guilt, Full of Pleasure

The Raw Food Diet is sweeping not only the nation but also around the world including countries such as Germany, Italy and even England. As the summer has come around the corner though, it is hard to pass up those sweet iced coffees from Starbucks or those delicious sweetened drinks such as ice tea and lemonade. Unfortunately almost all the traditional summer foods have been sweetened by cane sugar, which does not meet the raw food diet guidelines for better living. In addition, other diet programs do not allow the consumption of sugar such as Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig and et cetera.

Do not be worried though, there are some natural ingredients that I have found that not treats those sweet taste buds but also is healthy. Whenever dealing with sugar though, try to keep the amounts lower than your green food choices.

1. Dates: These are wonderful natural sweeteners that are straight from the plant, there is no processing or heating involved. At my house, we prefer to use dates on a daily basis to make mock pancakes, in smoothies, in raw mock milk and so on. In addition, the taste is so sweet, my family members like to chomp on a few dates as a snack instead of eating a candy bar; they are just that sweet.

2. Agave Nectar: This is nectar that can sometimes be hard to purchase in smaller stores however can be purchased in bulk online. Check it out here. Agave syrup is quite simply from an agave plant, this is not a cactus however much like a Yucca plant. The syrup is made from the sap that is produced from this plant a few times throughout the year. In my opinion it tastes much like honey however it is even sweeter. In our house we like to make a blend with agave and some fresh berries to produce pancake syrup and for smoothies. Basically it can be used in anything that requires maple syrup. The best part, it does not give you a "sugar rush" because it has a low glycemic index which means it does not stimulate insulin like most sweeteners. This is especially good for diabetics and/or children. Use this in a ½ to 1 ratio since Agave is much sweeter than refined sugar.