List of Raw Sweeteners…
List of Raw Sweeteners to Indulge your Sweet Tooth.
Many people have the wrong idea that people who consume a diet of exclusively raw foods are extremists who deprive themselves of all things delicious and decadent, namely sweets and desserts. It can’t be too much fun having a bowl of chopped broccoli for dessert, can it?
Well, the truth is that raw foodists are able to enjoy a wide variety of cakes, pies, cookies, bars, puddings, shakes, brownies, ice cream, sorbet, and the list goes on. All it takes is a little ingenuity and the right ingredients to turn a damaging, refined flour and sugar dessert into a delicious treat with nutritive value and living enzymes.
One of the secrets to raw food desserts is finding a proper raw sweetener to substitute for the refined sugar which is in virtually all conventional desserts. Fortunately, you don’t need to look far to find something you like to sweeten your foods. Here is a list of some of the most common raw sweeteners.
- Raw honey is considered to be in the list of raw foods, although strict vegans avoid it, and the use of raw honey is somewhat controversial over concerns about the honey being taken from the bees.
- Dates are common and easy to find, but know your source. Many of the brands available in supermarkets are not organic or raw.
- Pure Maple Syrup and Raw Agave Nectar are easy to obtain and are good sweeteners, but strict raw foodists often avoid them because they are not truly raw.
- Yacon Root Syrup is a specialty sweetener made from an Andean root which has many health-promoting qualities. The root can also be found in dried powder or snackable “chip” form.
- Stevia, which became popular with the low-carb movement, is a great herbal alternative to an artificial sweetener. It is popular with low carb or low calorie diet followers because it is very sweet with a glycemic index of zero. However, still some people avoid it because it can have a bitter taste. It is most commonly sold as an extract, but can also be obtained as a whole leaf, dried and ground.
- Mesquite Pod Meal is another specialty item which can be used as a sweetener for dehydrated foods, raw desserts, smoothies, etc. It is made from the ground-up pods of the mesquite tree, and is high in protein and minerals. It has a strong flavor, so a little goes a long way.
- ·Lucuma is a fruit from Peru which is dried and ground to be sold as a natural sweetener.
- Carob or Raw Cacao are not sweet by themselves, but are used in combination with raw sweeteners to make raw chocolate or chocolate desserts. You should know that many raw foodists are in favor of using raw cacao as a natural version of chocolate and claim its health benefits are many, while others claim that cacao is an unsafe stimulant much like caffeine, and also contains toxic substances, and should be completely avoided. For those people, using carob is a much better choice. Do your research and decide which is right for you.
- Dried Mango Powder is made from mangos which have been dried and ground, and can be used to mix into raw desserts or any other powder sweetener you may be already using.
- Dried Mulberries can be soaked and blended into raw desserts, or ground into powder form as a sweetener.
- Fresh Ripe Fruits from Your Kitchen. This is the simplest way to get some sweet flavor into your foods. Ripe bananas in particular are very sweet and are commonly used in smoothies and blended foods. You may also want to chop or rehydrate some fruits you may have dehydrated in your own kitchen, or purchased in bulk at the natural foods market. Feel free to experiment.
As you can see, there is no reason to suffer on a raw food diet, even if you have a sweet tooth. The extensive and varied raw sweeteners available on the market make it easy for you to have your raw cake and eat it, too.