Three Sweet Choices

Honey can be an anti-wrinkle, beauty-food!

Hi all! Following my post on agave nectar and how it is likely not the healthy sweetener we may have thought, I wanted to share some sweet alternatives! For optimum beauty and health, I recommend using sweeteners of any kind in moderation. But -- life's too short not to enjoy some sweet treats, right? So, here are three great choices you can consider.

Raw Honey

Raw honey (never pasteurized honey, which has all the goodness processed right out of it) is my favourite all-natural, unrefined sweetener. You may have heard honey get a bad rap from certain media sources because it ranks high on the glycemic index -- very close to sugar. And it is absolutely true that honey can spike your blood sugar, so it's important to use it in moderation -- or to avoid it if you have any sugar or weight issues.

However, in tiny amounts, honey can be beautifying! From a Western stance, honey contains trace amounts of minerals, enzymes, amino acids, B vitamins -- and even phytonutrients that may have anti-cancer properties! From an Eastern viewpoint (Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurvedic medicine) honey is a top beauty food. TCM believes that honey is an anti-wrinkle food that nourishes and regenerates the skin. And with its calming effects on our internal organs, honey can actually slow down the aging process. (Interestingly, a University study conducted in New Zealand a few years ago, showed that honey-fed rats were better able to combat signs of aging). 

It's best to limit honey consumption to about a teaspoon a day (and less than that if you are dealing with sugar or weight issues). One of my favourite sweet treats is to mix a small dollop of high-quality raw honey with some raw pistachios or almonds -- yum, this tastes way better to me than toffee or any other sugary-sticky sweet out there!

Stevia

For beverage-sweetening and baking purposes, stevia can be a good choice. Stevia comes from an herb in the chrysanthemum family, and various cultures have used the leaves for hundreds of years to sweeten teas and foods. The good thing about stevia is that it won't spike your blood sugar the way sugar will (and in fact, some studies have shown that stevia actually helps to stabilize blood sugar). The (possibly) not-so-good thing is that some people don't like the aftertaste. However, when using stevia in small amounts in recipes, that taste-thing is generally not an issue. And -- here is the brand I've heard highly recommended for superior taste and quality. I haven't yet tried this brand myself because I can't find it in my area, but I plan on getting some for taste-testing.

Xylitol

The name makes it sound like an artificial sweetener (which I would NEVER recommend) -- but xylitol is actually an all-natural product, albeit processed. Our own bodies can produce xylitol naturally, from the various foods we eat. Xylitol was originally derived from the fiber in birch tree bark (which you can still find, but it's expensive) in Finland when there was a sugar shortage during the war. Today, most of the xylitol on the market is derived from corn husk, so always look for xylitol sourced from NON-genetically modified corn. 

Because our bodies absorb xylitol slowly, it won't spike our blood sugar like regular sugar. It's an amazing sweetener -- it looks and tastes practically like sugar, with the only noticeable difference being that it leaves a "cool" sensation on the tongue. A couple of things to be aware of with xylitol: too much can have a laxative effect(!), so don't go crazy with it; and like chocolate, xylitol is toxic for dogs.

There are some interesting health benefits that are now being linked to xylitol -- including collagen-stimulation, anti-bacterial, and bone-building properties -- yay, definitely a promising beauty food! 

I have used xylitol and stevia for making sweet treats, and I must say, they were pretty awesome -- no one could tell that I used sugar substitutes! Again, I recommend using these natural, but refined, sweeteners in very small amounts. But they are definitely my choice over regular sugar or other sweeteners.

In another post, I'll look at why we absolutely want to avoid beauty-stealing sugar! I'm hitting the road for the next week, so you'll see a little break in posting, but will be back on track the following week. In the meantime, if you haven't already, you may want to sign up for my free RSS or email feed so that you automatically receive my latest posts! Have a great week, everyone! :)

Comments

[Kristina]

Thanks for the sweetener info!!! I have used Stevia in the past and have always liked it. I think I'll stop again using the popular sweetener deemed 'healthy' and go back to Stevia.
K.

[BeautyCosmopolite]

Hi Kristina - I'm guessing by "popular sweetener" you're referring to those little pink packets of artificial sweetener. :) Yes, stevia is a far superior choice, that's great that you're going to go back to that! Thanks for writing!

[smg]

I just bought some Stevia, different brand from what you mentioned, but a lot goes along way. There is some aftertaste but not horrible like the artificial sweetners that I gave up on long ago. I also purchased some Xylitol, have not really baked with it yet as I'm unsure how to substitute amounts in my recipes. I also just starting reading Daniel Amen's latest book 'Change Your Brain, Change Your Body'. Not sure if you are familiar with his recommendations but he seems to be able to support his theory with scientific based research.
Interested in your thoughts on his philosophy.

[BeautyCosmopolite]

Hi SMG - that's great that you got some stevia and xylitol! For baking, I find that xylitol is pretty well a one-to-one substitute with regular sugar. It works really well, and I think most people wouldn't be able to tell the difference -- I think you'll really enjoy it! Some people use a combo of stevia and xylitol, but that takes a little more experimentation to get the ratio right -- I've used that combo to sweeten 100% cocao, and it was great! If you're using xylitol in a recipe that calls for a LOT of sugar, you might want to try the stevia/xylitol combo as you don't want to use a huge concentrated amount of xylitol.
Re: Daniel Amen's book, I haven't read it, but I believe I saw him on PBS some time ago, and found his information compelling. I'd be interested to know what you think as you get deeper into the book and if you feel it's worth putting on the "to-read" list! Thanks! :)

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