"SugarSubstitutes" news and stories

Many years ago I switched from sugar to one of those artificial sweeteners; used them for years until a scare story linking Aspartame with an increased risk of cancer made me switch again. Now my thinking goes that unrefined natural sugar may hold more calories but at least it is as natural as possible.

The Wall Street Journal (limited access unless you are a subscriber) reported yesterday that the EU has found no evidence of a link between Aspartame and cancer; this supports an American study from last month that reached the same conclusion.

The experts also confirmed that the safe daily level of Aspartame (40 milligrams per kilo of body weight) was well above what people consume normally. You would need to ingest 80 of the little packets to exceed the level.

A quick search on google revealed dozens of sites (I wont link to them as many are pure sensationalist stuff) glorifying the horrors of this additive so it may take awhile for the true facts to be generally accepted.

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When I read Andrew's post on Sugar High Friday I chuckled to myself. Mwa ha ha, I said evilly. I've been practicing for this event for over a year!

Yes. You see, last August when I became pregnant, I consulted with a midwife about how to reduce the possibility of having a second c-section. Her advice, given my particular situation, was to try to keep the baby's weight down by switching to a very low-carb, almost no-sugar diet during the last few months of the pregnancy.

I was completely unsuccessful in my attempt to either (a) keep the baby's weight down or (b) avoid a c-section. So this will NOT be a post about pregnancy diet strategies. It is, however, a post on how to bake delicious things with no, or very little, refined sugar. Because I'm a bit of a sugar freak. I adore baking, and there's nothing that makes me happier than curling up at the end of (every) meal with something sweet. I thought, at first, that it was impossible to go without sugar.

Happily, I was wrong.