Sugar

Natural sugar comes from sugar cane and sugar beets. I remember my grandfather, a south Ga. farmer, growing sugar cane. We would sit on the fence outside the garden and Papa would take out his knife cut the sugar cane into pieces for each of us kids to gnaw on (gnaw on -that's a southern term =to chew on). It was a real treat. Sugar ain't (isn't) what it use to be. Papa’s was naturally grown with the help of God. Today, sugar is manufactured in the “lab” by man. Table sugar, or sucrose is made by removing everything from the sugar cane but the sucrose (not to be confuse with sucralose which is artificial sweetner/Splenda). One of the components removed is fiber. When the fiber is removed the sugar enters our blood stream at a much faster rate. The fiber slows it down. We get a sugar high and then we bottom out. An interesting fact is that the workers that harvest the sugar cane chew on the sugar cane all day and there is a low rate of diabetes within them. They are eating the sugar in its natural God made state. Not everyone can process sugar, diabetics for instance. Doctors advice diabetics to consume artificial sweeteners. If you read the article "Is the GRAS greener on the other side" you know that this is a mistake. One thing you need to remember about doctors is, they are not nutritionists. They are only taught a small percentage about nutrition in medical school, if any. This is why they refer you to a dietitian or nutritional counselor. There are alternatives to refined sugar. One being honey. In its raw state honey enters the bloodstream fairly slow. The key word is raw, honey should not be heated. Heating honey changes its properties, so honey is not a good alternative for cooking. One that I like best is Stevia (a herb). Remember from the GRAS article, my philosophy is “if you can’t grow it don’t eat it”. I have a small container growing in my yard. You don’t have to grow Stevia yourself its just good to know you can. Stevia is sold in health food stores and of course the Internet(I am currently using NOW Foods brand that I purchased via the internet www.iherb.com). It is sold in form of ground Stevia herb( this is the actual plant ground-it needs to be diluted), a fine white powder (like sugar) and liquid (which can be processed with glycerin or alcohol). It only takes a few drops of the liquid, Stevia is considered 100 times sweeter than sugar. Stevia does not affect blood sugar and is recommended for people with diabetes.