Sugar Replacement

[Cutiegirl]

I am trying to make a cranberry upside-down cake using a sugar-free substitute (erythritol and monk fruit). It tastes okay but has a terrible after-taste from the sweetener. Does anybody have a recommendation of a sweetener to try with NO aftertaste? Thank you.

 

[sunkacola]

Honey or Agave syrup.
Any artificial sweetener will taste wrong. To me, they all have a terrible aftertaste. Plus, they are made of chemicals and not good for you at all.

Or you could try stevia, it's a plant. I don't like the taste but lots of people do and it's not chemical.

 

[Cutiegirl]

I thought honey or maple syrup would still be considered a sugar that would cause a fibro flare? Am I wrong? Also, someone mentioned coconut sugar. Has anybody here been successful with honey, maple syrup or coconut sugar in their baking? (I am actually in the midst of a flare up because I was stupid. I had been doing so well so on Friday after work when my colleagues and I went out for a drink, I had a Moscow Mule. I know there is a small amount of sugar in it. So stupid. Paying for it today. I could just cry it hurts so much.) I have not tried honey or maple syrup yet in my elimination diet. So would like to hear from anybody who has tried them (whether it is good news or bad news). Thank you!

 

[sunkacola]

It is not the sweetness that causes problems, but the fact that sugar is refined down from what it was to start with and concentrated.
If you chewel a little piece of organic sugar cane it might not do the same thing.

Pure unrefined, unheated honey is very good for you, even if you are diabetic (in which case, small quantities, of course). Agave syrup is also unrefined, and has a higher glycemic index that honey or sugar, so be aware of that. Not sure about maple syrup.

If any kind of sweetener sets you off, then that's one thing. But for most people, pure natural honey won't do that. If you get honey that comes from bee hives that are very close to where you live, it will help you with any local allergies you may have to pollen in the area. But if you want that effect, it can't be from hives that are more than maybe 20 miles away.

I am allergic to many things in the air here. One time some bees built combs under my house. I liked having them there and did not want to evict them, but was afraid for the dogs so eventually I asked a bee keeper to come get them. The really good part is that very few of them died in the process, and I got some honey. Of course not too much because the bees would need it to survive until they built a new set of combs in their new home. I ate that honey every day until it ran out and the allergic reactions went away for that time period.

If you look it up you will find all sorts of benefits of eating honey. It is actually considered medicine in some cases and places.

If I eat too uch refined sugar, it will make me flare or feel sick the next day. Things made with honey never do that to me.

Moscow Mule is made with ginger beer. If you check the ingredients on ginger beer it usually has sugar, but you can actually get it made with honey if you look for it. (I like Moscow Mules). It may not have been the sugar that set you off, thoough; it could be the alcohol.

 

[Cutiegirl]

This all good to know. Yes, we have local honey and local maple syrup. I guess I will be trying them next with my elimination diet. If I don't hurt, I will look at Christmas desserts that use them as ingredients. And I will research ginger beer with honey. Thank you for the information! Much appreciated.

 

[TheSqidd]

I am trying to make a cranberry upside-down cake using a sugar-free substitute (erythritol and monk fruit). It tastes okay but has a terrible after-taste from the sweetener. Does anybody have a recommendation of a sweetener to try with NO aftertaste? Thank you.

As far as I know all of the artificial sweeteners wreak havoc on your gut biome. They also give a lot of people the runs because the body can't process them. Stevia is the only sweetener that doesn't (it's plant based). In my house all of the "sweets" we bake use Stevia. It's expensive in small quantities but in larger quantities quite inexpensive. You only use a fraction of the volume that you would sugar.

 

[JamieMarc]

If it were me, I would use stevia.

 

[JayCS]

Yeah, I'm using monkfruit as sweetener and antioxidant, definitely not for its taste!

Xylitol hasn't been mentioned yet. I'd think the taste should be OK, to me it does taste like sugar. But praps too laxative, if that isn't desired?

I'm using it directly after eating for my teeth, my "tooth cleaner" recommended it rather than brushing immediately. Proven better for teeth than sugar, but not yet proven to be actually good for teeth, like she told me. When I put about 1g in my mouth, my teeth react immediately, with a "sugary" feeling, which makes me unsure.

From my knowledge and reading it up again, unrefined sugar is only slightly better than refined sugar in most respects - simple carbs like fructose, glucose, fructose.
The WHO lump them together as 'free sugars' and recommend to keep them low (< 25g).
Vitamin and minerals content in unrefined sugars is insignificant.
Most agave products are highly processed = refined; 'natural' doesn't mean unprocessed.
Maple syrup has a little bit of minerals and antioxidants, but mainly the darkest sorts.
Agave does have a lower glycemic index, but glycemic load appears to be more important than the index.
Honey's glycemic load for 25g is 12, white sugar's for 25g is 16, for instance.
The glycemic index of maple syrup is 54, table sugar's is 65.
Less yes, but not that much.
Weight and metabolic health are worsened by all free sugars.

All these free sugar containing 'natural sugars' are bad for my teeth, acidity (cause heartburn) which I feel immediately and a dentist confirmed after I'd eaten good natural hardly 'processed' honey 10 years or so ago. And bad for my lipids - even D-ribose increases triglycerides).

So I prefer to keep them down like all simple carbs, not just the "unprocessed" ones.
(My carbs mainly come from hardly processed gluten free rolled oats/rice (11% sugar, half (?)from berries, half added as raw cane sugar and rice sugar), and sometimes quinoa.)

But coming back to the OP as well as my first sentence, I can't imagine the aftertaste coming from the erythritol, as that tastes pretty much like sugar, like xylitol, I think it's the monkfruit, so I'd just keep that out of it.
Erythritol might even be better than xylitol for teeth, better for gut/digestion and no impact on blood sugar, whilst xylitol does. Whoops, sounds like I'll have to swap to erythritol!

Monkfruit and stevia are sweet from glycosides.
Xylitol is a polyalcohol / sugar alcohol and has negligible effect on blood glucose and insulin, EFSA approved, has 40% less calories than sucrose, its glycemic index is 7% of glucose.

(thefoodmedic, eatwellnz, cancercenter, healthline....)

On an aside to "EFSA", I'm just watching a 5h UK doctor's meeting on supplements I 'bought'. This has so far has confirmed that supps are actually fairly well regulated, but European supps quite a bit more than US ones, e.g. there has to be a lot of scientific evidence to make any health claims here.

 

[sunkacola]

Xylitol hasn't been mentioned yet.

This is, of course, another artificial sweetener and I wouldn't recommend it.

Just to take note also, xyiltol is extremely toxic to dogs, will kill them faster than chocolate. Although it is not goiong to kill a human being obviouosly, the fact that it kills dogs tells me everything I need to know to avoid it like the plague. Can't be good for you.

 

[cookiebaker]

uh, no, Xylitol is not "man made" at all.. it is considered a "natural sweetener" just like stevia..

from healthline

However, yes, it is very toxic to dogs when concentrated as it is in the sweetener substitute form.

 

[JayCS]

This is, of course, another artificial sweetener and I wouldn't recommend it.
Just to take note also, xyiltol is extremely toxic to dogs, will kill them faster than chocolate. Although it is not goiong to kill a human being obviouosly, the fact that it kills dogs tells me everything I need to know to avoid it like the plague. Can't be good for you.

Like cookiebaker says it's a natural sweetener found in many foods, in Germany it's called birch sugar, as it was originally isolated from birch bark.
Good to know it poisons dogs, but so does ibuprofen, grapes and raisins, and chocolate...

 

[JayCS]

a 5h UK doctor's meeting on supplements I 'bought'. This has so far has confirmed that supps are actually fairly well regulated, but European supps quite a bit more than US ones, e.g. there has to be a lot of scientific evidence to make any health claims here.

Interesting:
Dangers from side effects of meds in US: 2%, nutritional supplements 0.0005%.
23.000 in emergency depts. per year in the US from supps, but only few actual admissions.
For the most part there is no evidence of harm, and little clinical evidence of total benefit, although often biomarkers do benefit (e.g. cholesterol improves, but not CVD).

 

[cookiebaker]

Interesting:
Dangers from side effects of meds in US: 2%, nutritional supplements 0.0005%.
23.000 in emergency depts. per year in the US from supps, but only few actual admissions.
For the most part there is no evidence of harm, and little clinical evidence of total benefit, although often biomarkers do benefit (e.g. cholesterol improves, but not CVD).

and I am betting that the majority of those Emergency visits are from over doing things.. so many seem to think if one is good, 3 would be better.... i mean, we (the USA) are the land of the Tide Pods craze, after all...

 

[sunkacola]

Like cookiebaker says it's a natural sweetener found in many foods, in Germany it's called birch sugar, as it was originally isolated from birch bark.
Good to know it poisons dogs, but so does ibuprofen, grapes and raisins, and chocolate...

Wikipedia says this:

Xylitol is a chemical compound with the formula C2H12O5, or HO(CH2)(CHOH)3(CH2)OH;

It does occur naturally in very small or trace amounts in some plants, but what is purchased for use or found used as sweetener in a variety of things from foods to toothpaste is not at all natural. It is chemically made, although the original compounds were discovered in birch bark.

So, as far as I am concerned, that does not make it a "natural sweetener", any more than refined white sugar is "natural" because it is derived from sugar beets.

If you took shredded sugar beets or shredded birch bark and didn't refine it or use the chemicals in it to create a compound that is artificially made, and used that to sweeten things, that would be a natural sweetener.

Of course, those other things are toxic to dogs. But I am not sure what that has to do with xylitol.

 

[cookiebaker]

Aspirin originally came from willow bark.. but is chemically manufactured now... it is what it is in that respect..

Xylitol was found/discovered in the natural form, and then replicated for mass production.. just like so many other things, including the greater majority of the supplements that we take..

that said, no one is saying you have to use it if you dont want to, it is simply another option.