Before we start talking about the variety of sugar substitutes out there, its important to review the role of sugar in baking.  We already know the role that sugar plays in impeding weight loss and helping you to drop weight, but there's a whole other story in baking.  Sugar provides moisture and tenderness, liquefies when it bakes, increases the shelf-life of finished products, caramelizes at high temperatures, and of course, adds sweetness.  Refined sugar, whether from sugar beets or sugar cane, helps cookies spread during baking, allowing their crisp texture, too, and therefore, bakers can't simply replace sugar with a different sweetener. Though in many recipes, you can decrease the amount of sugar by up to one third without affecting the quality of the product.

Honey is one of the best health foods out here in terms of the benefits it can offer, but this of course, like with all foods, depends on the quality of the honey you buy. No I’m not talking about the honey at most people’s homes which is often half corn syrup and tastes like sugar.  I’m talking about the real deal.  You see, the processing of honey often removes many of the phytonutrients found in raw honey as it exists in the hive. Raw honey on the other hand, contains small amounts of the same resins found in propolis, a complex mixture of resins and other substances that honeybees use to seal the hive and make it safe from bacteria and other micro-organisms.

If you’re like me, you never really new the difference between Sucanat and Turbinado sugar.  Well the purpose of this post is to clear things up for you a bit.  Sucanat is a contraction of "Sugar Cane Natural.”  It is non-refined cane sugar which, unlike refined and processed white sugar, retains its molasses content when it is dried–it is basically pure dried sugar cane juice.

We now know that on of the ways to start eating healthy and lose weight is to limit the amount of sucrose in the diet, as many sucrose-based products are highly refined and are best used in moderation.  Enter Brown Rice syrup.  Brown rice syrup (BRS) (and barley malt for that matter) is composed of maltose, has a mild taste and is about half as sweet as regular refined white sugar.  It is great for diabetics and for macrobiotic diets and those looking for sweeteners that won’t spike blood sugar levels the way white sugar can...