Sweeteners

Sweeteners are confusing. What is ok for our bodies and what is better than others?

In times gone by, sweeteners and sweet foods were few and far between. In most climates, fruit was seasonal unless preserved and much less sweet than modern cultivars. Honey was typically all that was available as a sweetener and it was opportunistic as tribes would rely on coming across a wild hive and someone would have to brave breaking into it to reap the rewards.

Now we are faced with so many options.

Artificial sweeteners are added to foods as a cheap taste enhancer. They tend to be very processed and toxic to the body. These include apartame, sucralose and others that are super sweet and have potentially serious health effects for our bodies. Aspartame has been connected to brain and nerve issues in some people, but there has been a lack of research on the side effects of these sweeteners.

Keto sweeteners are highly processed but considered better by some people as they may help avoid blood sugar spikes. These include xylitol, allulose, monk fruit, erythritol, stevia and others. But xylitol is so toxic to pets I wonder how good that is for humans. Stevia has recently shown to cause kidney damage and may potentially be a contraceptive.

Real food sweeteners seem to exist on a scale of more or less nutritious in many people's eyes. The reality is that they all spike blood sugar if you go into you pantry and have a sugary cake. Honey and less processed sugars are less likely to deplete minerals in the body than white sugar. There is no real difference between any of the whole food sweeteners. They generally are processed by your body therefore it reacts in the same way.

So, at the end of the day, if you want something sweet now and again make sure you eat it after you have had a decent amount of (animal) protein, like after dinner. That goes for fruit too. This will avoid the sugar spike and blood sugar crash. If you are craving sweets you may need to talk to someone about your diet as it or your body systems are possibly out of balance.

A photo of one of my hives. We had a huge harvest this year despite the strange weather. They started eating their cappings (wax seals on top of the honey).

Pic of one of my hives. We had a bumper harvest despite the poor summer. They had started eating their cappings (wax seal over the honey) as the weather was so poor.