In moving our family towards more wholesome eating, I have recently discovered the variety of sugars/sweetners available to us. It comes in liquid, powders, crystals, and syrups. Choosing the right kind is important in restoring our family's health. The worst forms of sugar are the refined sugars/sweetners. They include table sugar, brown sugar, fructose, corn syrup, and artificial sweetners such as Aspartame, Saccharin, etc. The best kind of sugar is natural. It can be found in fruits. Some less refined sweetners include honey, maple syrup, grain syrups, and natural sugars. Our family has choosed to use Stevia and Xlyitol to replace refined sugar. Stevia is a natural herb sweetner and Xylitol is a sugar alcohol that is helpful in managing blood sugar levels. Since we have a history of diabetes in our family, some of us need to be even more careful with our sugar intake. We also use Sucanaut which is evaporated cane juice and blackstrap molasses with no processing. We use the Sucanaut to replace brown sugar in baking. The less processed, the better.
We also try to reduce the amount of sugar that a recipe calls for. Since we don't consume as much sugar as we used to, our taste buds have adjusted accordingly. While we used to use more sugar, I find that now we are using less sugar and we tend to experiment more with spices in our recipes. We tend to use more spices even in our baking which sparks our taste buds to enjoy the meals more.
On another note, my seed catalogs have arrived and I am getting quite anxious to get my seeds and do some outside planting. Of course, first, we have to make our raised beds. Today, we put our new compost bin together! So, tonight at dinner, I made sure all vegetable scraps were saved to be readied for the new composter. I feel like a kid in a candy shoppe. The one thing that I am NOT looking forward to this season is the stink bugs! I heard they are supposed to be even worse this year. Ugh.
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