Natural Sweeteners

Extracts from the leaf of the Stevia plant have been found to be high in antioxidants that prevent the DNA damage that leads to cancer, according to a new Indian study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. "These results indicate that Stevia rebaudiana may be useful as a potential source of natural antioxidants," said lead author Srijani Ghanta, of the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology in Kolkata.

Imagine for a moment, a natural food product up to 50% sweeter than sugar that can actually provide you with healthful benefits. Sound too good to be true? I thought so too. Until I discovered this natural elixir has many health-promoting factors. This sweet sticky substance I’m talking about is honey. But not just any old honey. It’s not that jar of processed, refined honey sitting in your pantry. That jar is just as bad as sugar and those other toxic artificial sweeteners that I keep telling you to throw out. This perfect natural food I’m talking about is raw unprocessed honey, humankind’s oldest sweetener.

You loved cinnamon as a kid, and you were right. Naturally sweet and delightfully aromatic, cinnamon is a wonderful power food just waiting for you in the spice rack. Mulled apple cider simmering on your stove with a stick of cinnamon is the ultimate aromatherapy for your home. And as we will show, cinnamon is tough enough to do it alone, without added sugar, calories or fat.

Tests have shown the sweetening agent, the glycoside stevioside, is thirty times sweeter than granulated table sugar. Because it is a whole herbal food, stevia contains other properties that nicely complements its sweetness. A report from the Hiroshima University School of Dentistry indicates that stevia actually suppresses dental bacterial growth rather than feeding it as other sugars do.

While the detrimental effects of refined sweeteners such as whitesugar and corn syrup are still being debated, there’s little doubtthat Americans consume far too much of it. While natural sweetenersaren’t nutritional bell ringers, they are generally considered toproduce less of a shock to the body’s blood sugar level becauseamong the nutrients found in whole food sugars are necessary minerals that help with sugar metabolism.