Naturally Awesome! Alternatives To Sugar That Have Tons Of Health Benefits

The Standard American Diet… It’s a sight to see, or not see… Either way, it’s in pretty bad shape and one of the main culprits for it is the insane amount of sugar present in our foods, particularly refined white sugar and high-fructose corn syrup. Ongoing consumption of these can lead to excessive weight problems and even diabetes. In the case of the artificial (and seemingly noxious) sweetener known as aspartame (also known as NutraSweet®, Equal® and AminoSweet) has been shown to be linked to brain tumors, not cool. So what can you do about it, how can you avoid all the sorta, kinda poisons lying in wait and still get your sugar/sweet fix? Well, I’m glad you asked because today we’ll be counting down our top picks for natural alternatives to eat and use in place of sugar. Ready? Let’s begin…

1. Maple Syrup
Maple syrup is awesome, in every way, it’s one of my absolute favorite tastes and smells in the world, sweet, kinda woody and with that maple flavor that we all love if we’ve ever had a maple candy or ice cream of some sort. Maple syrup consists of the boiled-down sap of the maple tree. It’s extremely rich in antioxidants, some of which can ONLY be found in maple syrup itself. The healthiest kind of maple syrup is Grade B, which is the highest in antioxidants and calcium, while also being the furthest in difference when compared to regular table syrup, which often contains very little to no maple syrup at all and sometimes even contain high fructose corn syrup.

2. Coconut Palm Sugar
This one’s less well known than honey or maple syrup, but what it lacks in popularity, it makes up for in health benefits, it’s made by boiling down the sap from coconut palm flowers, which is then dried and ground into granulated sugar, in appearance it often looks like brown sugar. It’s high in iron, zinc, antioxidants and Vitamin B. It’s even much more stable, enviroment-wise, than classic cane sugar, because on average it produces 50-75% more sugar than sugar cane. While there have been some doubts about it’s healthfulness in the past, it seems that coconut palm sugar is here to stay and is definitely something that you should try out.

3. Monk Fruit Extract
Monk fruit, also known by it’s original name of lo han guo, is a little, round fruit grown in Southeast Asia. If it sounds familiar, it’s probably because you’ve seen stuff like this:

Monk fruit sweetener, on average, contains about 150-200% times MORE sweetness than regular sugar, plus, there’s not a single calorie in a serving of monk fruit sweetener, meaning you can use less to get more sweet tasting food, while also avoiding extra calories, this makes makes monk fruit extract a better choice probably for dieting, seeing as it allows you to cut out some extra calories, while still getting you a sweet fix. It’s also great for diabetics, you get that sweet taste, with ZERO calories, therefore not spiking blood sugar levels and leaving to go about your day normally.