Sweeteners 101. Which is the best?

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"Kids Eat Clean Blog Clean Eating How To's and FAQ's - Sweeteners Oct 30, 2012

I never really noticed how many different types of sweeteners there were until I really started to read labels. I knew the basics - check the nutrition label to see how many grams of sugar there were, make sure “sugar” isn’t listed as one of the top three ingredients, and avoid high fructose corn syrup. But the more I learned about what’s in my food, the more sweeteners I realized were hidden inside!

I frequently get asked what sweeteners are “good”, which ones to cook with, & how to choose. So here’s your guide to all the major sweeteners I think you should be aware of, and how they fit into a real food, unprocessed diet.

Granulated Sugar (AKA Table Sugar or Cane Sugar)These types of sweeteners come from the sugar cane or sugar beet plant. I’m not going to explain the entire scientific refining process, but instead I’ll just list out some of the terms used to describe what happens in the factory to go from plant to table: clarified with lime, treated by a phosphatation process, spun in a centrifuge, bleached by sulphur dioxide, treated in a carbonation process to produce a whiter product. Doesn’t sound like “real food”, does it?

Brown Sugar Same process as above, but then cane molasses are added to achieve the brown color (3.5% molasses for light brown sugar and 6.5% molasses for dark brown sugar).

Evaporated Cane Juice Basically a creative name for granulated sugar that the food industry uses to “trick” consumers into believing their product a healthier choice. The only big difference is that is goes through one less processing step than regular ‘ol table sugar!

Raw Sugar This is considered a “minimally processed” cane sugar because it doesn’t go through the bleaching process of white granulated sugar. It is not really “raw” in the sense that you might believe it is because there is still some processing that takes place from plant to table, but it is less processed than other varieties of crystalized sugars.

High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), Corn Syrup, Corn Syrup Solids These sweeteners are created using a highly processed method. The corn producers do have it right when they say that HFCS is no worse for you than any other type of sugar. True - sugar is sugar, after all. However, consider how many processed, pre-packaged food products on the shelves contain some type of corn syrup today, most of which were made from genetically modified (GMO) corn. If you choose to only eliminate corn syrup sweeteners from your diet you would probably cut out about 80% - 90% of processed food on the market today. It’s a great place to start!

Brown Rice Syrup Frequently found in many processed foods that are marketed as being “healthy”. It is made by culturing cooked brown rice with certain enzymes (typically from barley) to break down the rice starch which then creates a sugar. Thus, there is a bit of processing involved in a laboratory to create the sugar and it should not be considered a “natural” sweetener.

Agave Nectar / Syrup Comes from the Blue Agave plant that grows primarily in southern Mexico. Sap is extracted from the plant and heated at a low temperature to produce the sugar. Although agave ranks well for being unprocessed, it is also very high in fructose, even higher than HFCS. Our body doesn’t metabolize fructose very efficiently, and new research is showing that a diet high in fructose is a major factor in obesity among other conditions. It’s a better real food option than other processed sugars, but just limit your consumption.

Stevia One of the newest sweeteners to become popular in the market, it is an herb that can actually be grown in your own back yard. Its leaves can be ground and used as a sweetener in many home-baked recipes or drinks. So stevia in it’s purest form would be considered a pretty good real food choice. However, Truvia is a popular brand of the sweetener stevia and was developed jointly by the Coca-Cola Company and Cargill. If you’ve ever tried Truvia, you have probably noticed that it doesn’t look like a ground up herb that you grow in your back yard, but more like table sugar. The makers of Truvia have been very secretive about the manufacturing and production of the product, and you can bet there’s quite a bit of processing involved. 

Honey This is one of the best, all-natural sweeteners you can choose. Look for a locally produced honey at your farmers market since research has demonstrated that most (if not ALL) mass-produced honey found in the grocery store has been processed and stripped of all its nutrients. The absolute best is raw honey, which contains some pollen and even small particles of wax. Local raw honey is sought after by allergy sufferers as the pollen impurities are thought to lessen the sensitivity to hay fever.

Maple Syrup I’ve saved the best (and my favorite) for last. We buy maple syrup by the gallon in our house and I use it in baking, in my coffee, on our morning zucchini carrot pancakes, and in smoothies. I’m only talking about 100% pure maple syrup, not the kind in a womanly-shaped bottle. Maple syrup is collected in the spring from the maple tree and is boiled down to extract the pure syrup without any additives or chemical agents. If you live in a syrup producing region, find a local producer at your farmer’s market as the prices are typically a little bit better than in the grocery store.

The goal in a “clean eating diet” is to stay away from any type of sugar that has been refined or processed, and consume only sweeteners that are as close as possible to their natural state. However, keep in mind that sugar is still sugar, and it still equates to calories, regardless of how processed it is. Use any type of sweetener in moderation. You’ll be surprised at how quickly your taste buds will adjust!"