Top 4 natural sweeteners

Every week expert nutritionist and clinical hypnotherapist Lowri Turner answers your health, fitness and wellbeing questions. Here are her top 4 natural sweeteners.

It’s the new health enemy: sugar. Scientific resarchers are now warning that it could be linked to everything from obesity and diabetes to dementia. No wonder governments around the world are looking at ways to curb all our sugar habits.

In theory, this makes sense. The problem is we love the sweet taste. In a toss-up between a cupcake and a broccoli floret, not many of us would choose a floret of the green stuff with our morning coffee. Even in less obviously sweet foods like spaghetti sauce or bread, sugar is a hidden ingredient. So what can we do?

Fortunately, there are now lots of sugar alternatives that deliver a hit of sweetness without the blood sugar disrupting, calorie load of real sugar. And, I’m not talking about the more chemicical options such as aspartame. The market for ‘natural’ sweeteners is growing and with it the range of options. Here are my top five sweeteners and how to use them.

1. Jaggery/Palm sugar
What is it?
This is the new kid on the sweetener block in terms of British consumers, although it is actually a pretty ancient food, used in India and Asia. Made from sap of the coconut palm tree, it scores ecopoints for being sustainable and if you look for certain brands it’s also organic (Conscious Food’s Palmyera Jaggery). Jaggery is sweeter than sugar, so you use less of it. Plus, it has a GI of 35-40, as opposed to white sugar’s 100. This means it releases its natural sugar much more slowly. It is also high in both iron and vitamin B12, important for vegetarians.
How do I use it?
Brown and granular, like normal brown sugar, it has a slightly butterscotchy taste. Can be added to tea/cofee but also has a high burn point so is good for baking.