I always thought that I was eating a good healthy diet which used to start with stuffed paranthas accompanied by a cup of hot tea and a typical day used to end with a glass of milk at bed time. Sugar sweetened beverages, home made desserts and usual vegetarian meals were things I used to pamper myself with. Being vegetarian,that was more of like a standard daily diet with rare (twice a month) visit to a near by restaurant for lunch or dinners over a weekend.
Despite of being really carefully in picking the ingredients, way of cooking, I always felt that something was not right, as I would get sick once a year, may be seasonal cold, or flu, or viral or other ailments, so was constantly in search of “whats really wrong”, and one of the eye opening discovery was this thing called “sweet poison”, a very common “refined sugar”.
Sugar….. why is it called sweet poison?
Sugar is a routine ingredient in our daily and we have become addictive to sugar, and reason why experts say it is “addictive” is because it is like “pleasure trap” that results in “binge-eating” and that’s really eating disorder! More over, refined sugar is scientifically proven to be “empty calories” and a “zero nutrition”!
It is so common for us to add that one teaspoonful of sugar to our morning cup of tea or a to the post lunch coffee cup on a busy work day….so the question is what are the alternatives to white sugar or refined sugar?, after all, we just can’t take “sweetness” out of our diet just like that…..you gotta be kidding! Let’s look at the list of healthy, nutritious, natural, no-chemical alternatives –
Dates – I love dates. I personally prefer and recommend Medjool dates for they are sweet and succulent and often called the diamond of the dates, check them out here.
Raisins – These can easily replace white/refined sugar in baking dishes, laddus, halwa etc. check them out here.
Jaggery – Its best alternative to refined sugar if you want to add it to your beverages (tea, coffee….). It also has medicinal values. Check it out here.
Honey – A good alternative, natural. I don’t prefer to use it as it is sourced from animals, but limited or medicinal use is just fine.
These alternatives are not only healthy but also have medicinal values as long as used in moderation. Believe me your body will say thank you to you if you quit white/refined sugar.