A Sweet Sweet Summer | Kitchen Stewardship | A Baby Steps Approach to Balanced Nutrition

Entries Tagged as 'A Sweet Sweet Summer'

A Sweet, Sweet…Some Season or Another: Date Sugar, Yacon, Fruit Sweeteners and Non-Sweeteners that Taste Sweet

March 28th, 2012 · 19 Comments · Food for Thought

I’ve decided to have “fruit for dessert” at least once a week around here (since last week’s Monday Mission went so well). I figure that really, if my kids have one little piece of candy per day, it’s not going to kill them, and when I do make a healthy dessert, I offer it as the [...]

Monday Mission: Eat Fruit for Dessert

March 19th, 2012 · 36 Comments · Monday Missions

Your mission, if you choose to accept, is to serve a dessert without a sweetener this week. Part off weaning ourselves down from sugar and training our sweet tooth to expect (and enjoy!) less sweetness includes appreciating the natural sweetness of things like fruit. So offer a bowl of sliced pineapple as a dessert, or [...]

A Sweet, Sweet…Spring? Coconut Sugar and Palm Sugar Step up to the Plate

March 14th, 2012 · 37 Comments · Food for Thought

See? Procrastination has its upsides: I’ve stretched the Sweet, Sweet Summer series it hit another season that allows for alliteration. Now I sound cute again. Lots of people have asked about the merits and flexibility of coconut sugar and palm sugar, and although I’m still figuring them out myself, I’ll shed some light on the [...]

Our Tongue-Tapping, Tooth-Tingling Taste Tests of Erythritol (How to Bake with Sugar Alcohols and Blends)

February 23rd, 2012 · 10 Comments · Food for Thought, What to Buy

Buying a new alternative sweetener, whether it’s as simple as sucanat (which intimidated me for over a year!) or as complicated as stevia or sugar alcohols like erythritol or xylitol, can be a tricky foray into healthier food preparation. It’s not quite like trying a new recipe or substituting whole wheat flour for white flour [...]

Xylitol, Erythritol, Sorbitol…What’s That "Ol" About?

February 17th, 2012 · 48 Comments · Food for Thought, Science of Nutrition

I probably get more questions about this category of sweeteners than any other, and for good reason. They’re called sugar alcohols, but they’re not sugar, and they’re not alcohol. You may have seen some of the “-itol” sweeteners in diabetic candy and wondered, “Is that an artificial sweetener?” You may see xylitol in your toothpaste [...]

Sorghum: A Sweetener with Actual Value!

February 15th, 2012 · 60 Comments · Food for Thought

I saw a list recently of sweeteners humans consumed 100 years ago. It was about five items long, and sorghum was one of them. (Ha! If there were still only 5 I could have been finished with this crazy Sweet, Sweet Summer series by now!) The article also mentioned that folks ingested about 2 pounds [...]

The Dangers of Artificial Sweeteners — Are They Safe for Kids?

February 8th, 2012 · 80 Comments · Food for Thought

In fashion, which I know absolutely nothing about, believe me, it’s vital to know about the next new thing. As the fashion changes, so must one’s wardrobe. In food, marketers would like you to believe it’s the same system. Chemists create a new “food” in a lab, advertisers promote it, and once it’s in every [...]