Is honey a good substitute for sugar?

marmiterulesok

kboss2010 wrote: »

Anything on a food label ending in -ose is sugar of some form - glucose, fructose, lactose, sucralose, maltose, glucose-fructose syrup, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) - all sugar.

Just to add,two other names for HFCS are maize syrup and isoglucose.

PS I've never heard of sucralose!

kboss2010

marmiterulesok wrote: »

Just to add,two other names for HFCS are maize syrup and isoglucose.

PS I've never heard of sucralose!

Sucralose is marketed as Splenda in the UK, it's another artificial sweetener.

Maize syrup sounds like an American junk food ingredient and isoglucose I'm guessing is sports drink related to make it sound cool? Those things make me laugh. Unless you're an Olympic athlete training for 5 hours a day, why do you need isotonic sports drinks? I go to the gym to burn calories, why would I drink extra ones to compensate for the ones I'm burning?

Anecdotally I agree with the low fat diet points being made here. Not because fat is less calorific than sugar (there are actually twice as many calories in fat per gram as in sugar) but because of its glycemic index. Sugar makes your blood sugar rise and plummet making you crave more food in a shorter space of time.

I've been trying to eat more healthily lately and spacing out my meals and I'm finding that the less sugar I eat and the more veg/eggs/pulses, the better I can tell the difference between being genuinely hungry and just craving sugar.

On the subject of honey, there's a theory (unproven as far as I'm aware) that eating local honey every day can reduce hayfever symptoms in people, the theory being that your body is constantly introduced to the pollen around you and stops reacting. If my hayfever is bad next year I might try it, can't be any worse for me than taking antihistamines which make me drowsy.

marmiterulesok

Splenda I have heard about.I've never tried it I don't think.

I used to drink lots of diet coke,but have managed to stop all that.There was a particular brand of ginger beer that I loved,but now the only fizzy drink I have is water,make at home with my Sodastream,well mostly...When I think of all those years chugging back all that aspartame. :eek:

There is a particular brand of British marmelade that I used to buy,assuming that there could be no surprises,until the day I happened to look at the ingredients label,only to find that they use glucose-fructose syrup instead of sugar.I sent them an email,saying that as long as they used that ingredient,I would not buy their product.I never got a reply.

I enjoy baking cakes,and one thing that interests me is trying to cut down on sugar in the recipes.Does anyone have any pointers?
Thanks.

marmiterulesok

I forgot to say that high fructose corn syrup (often seen as HFCS),glucose-fructose syrup,isoglucose and maize syrup are all the same thing.

Apparently that is what they use in the US for regular coca-cola instead of sugar.There's another reason they have an obesity epidemic.

I must see if I can get some links up about the evils of HFCS.

Here's a starter for you.

Cyberman60

The best alternative is no honey and no sugar.

kathrynha

marmiterulesok wrote: »

I enjoy baking cakes,and one thing that interests me is trying to cut down on sugar in the recipes.Does anyone have any pointers?
Thanks.

I use pureed apple in cakes and biscuits to replace the fat and sugar (and some of the egg if it's too runny). Some recipes I find need a little honey is the apple isn't sweet enough. I puree eating apples as they are sweeter than cookers.
Other fruit would probably work too.

tori.k

I do the same as kathynha use fruit pur!es apple, banana, fig & date ,also had good results with coconut sugar same cals as table sugar but lower GI load

kathrynha

tori.k wrote: »

I do the same as kathynha use fruit pur!es apple, banana, fig & date ,also had good results with coconut sugar same cals as table sugar but lower GI load

Where do you buy coconut sugar? Does it taste coconutty?

agreenmess

Around 2 years ago I got a hair-brained idea and wanted to only buy food which was made where I live (Isle of Man) or England. To achieve this I swapped the sugar in my tea for honey and haven't looked back since. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!

Not only is it a natural product you can get honey from somewhere which is only miles away from where you live (or closer) which to me is an amazing feat. Also since taking honey in my tea I no longer suffer with colds or the flu, and if I do get the slight sniffles that’s it, a couple of days nothing more.

The only problem I have found is it’s expensive, but the plus side of that is that I now eat less crap, a) because its so expensive to make it and b) I kinda hate the taste of sugar now!

Oh and I also process a lot of my preserves with honey instead of sugar.

HTH

tori.k

kathrynha wrote: »

Where do you buy coconut sugar? Does it taste coconutty?

No it's made from the palm blossom it more of a caramel taste to me, it's easy to get hold of, I get it from my local health food shop it is on the pricier side £2.50ish for a 250g bag, but DH is diabetic with a sweet tooth so try I to limit the baking I do