Ideal Bite

Please be careful with the sweetner xylitol, it is very dangerous for your dogs.

How does the agave sweetener compare to honey? I've been using honey in my morning cup for some time now and truly prefer it to refined sugar. Am I correct in saying that honey requires very little in processing? And I use only half of what I would use if I were using sugar. One teaspoon compared to two.

I love agave nectar in my morning tea. I think it is sweeter than honey and the texture is more watery than honey so it pours easier, doesn't crystalize and dissolves with ease.

All of those "sugar" subs are pretty scary to me. I use sugar, honey, maple syrup, molasses, and real maple syrup. All real. All in moderation. All safe. ps: honey in coffee is wonderful tasting. Use local honey and any seasonal allergies you might have, with time, will greatly lessen.

Ugh. Unless you have a *strong* dietary reason to be off sugar (i.e. diabetes), there are a lot of solid scientific reasons to avoid sugar substitutes. There is a lot of information suggesting that the artificial ones (aspartame, saccharine) may actually contribute to obesity, as the body doesn't register these and remains hungry for more sugar. The research I've read suggests that the same may be true for sweeteners like xylitol and stevia. Personally, I'm with Kris. I put a small amount of honey in my tea, maple syrup in my oatmeal, birch syrup on my pancakes, and raw sugar in my baking - and I always use less than the recipes say as I think most American food is way too sweet. When I have a sugar craving, fruit usually does the job. I think this (plus the fact that I walk everywhere) is why at 32 years I'm still the same size I was when I was 17 (5'10" and 140 lbs), because I don't try to fool my body with anything fake.

I tried Stevia for a little while and realized that I hated it - but I love agave nectar and use that on the rare occasions when I need a sweetener. I also love raw honey, but I never cook with it - an Ayurvedic no-no - I just eat it raw on a teaspoon every once in a while if I get a sweet craving. For me, I just don't bother with most of the fake stuff anyway - I haven't used sweetener in coffee or tea for about 8 years, and I cook with sugar so rarely that a 2-pound bag will easily last me 6 months to a year. I do, however, go through the raw honey.

Jennifer -- for the next time this topic comes up, you might want to check out Whey Low too. It comes in bulk and is natural sugar, just 3 kinds combined to reduce absorbancy and they have a formula especially good for diabetics. This truly tastes just like sugar and is the only sugar sub I'll use in place of the "white stuff". p.s. I used to be a big stevia fan until hearing about links to infertility. Moderation is definitely the key to anything with food, right?

A few words about the -itols. While they may be more "natural" than the white stuff, many people find that they cause, um, intestinal discomfort. They include sorbitol, manitol and xylitol, among others. It can be very surprising to be out, enjoy a couple mints or some gum and then suddenly find yourself gurgling like the Indy 500.

Watch out with the stevia or other things that come in "suspended form" in liquids. We went to the local Wild Oats to get stevia and once we were home realized it was suspended in alcohol- and quite a bit of alcohol as a percentage of total other stuff. We then looked at a lot of the stuff on the shelves in the "suspended in liqid" in those brown bottles with eye droppers in them, and most had pretty high alcohol contents. My husband, being a recovered alcoholic, was glad we read the fine print before he used it. And don't say "it's just a little bit." To some alcoholics, that's all it takes.

You might want to try Flora Sweet. It's made of Prebiotic fiber (what probiotic flora such as Lactobacilli and Bifidobacteria need to survive in the gut) and sprouted mung bean extract. Doesn't effect blood sugar. I use it in my tea and in baking.