Philosophical Vegan Forum

Anybody like occasional sweets, but try to cook lower sugar?

What do you use, and why?


I like Stevia (it has a weird taste for some, but it doesn't bother me); sometimes I like to just chew on a leaf. Though it's been a little controversial, I haven't seen any convincing evidence as to any meaningfully negative effects. Great to spike tea, or things like that.

For cooking, I love Xylose (related to Xylitol)- it's not as sweet, but it's great for savory dishes to add just a touch of sweetness, but a lot of browning and depth due to the maillard reaction (it's also a good probiotic and works well with fermentation- if you like to ferment). It creates some pretty awesome browning during baking if you mix it in with your nut cheese concoction for the top of pizzas-- I don't even have words to describe the deliciousness.


If I'm going to make something seriously sweet, like a cheesecake, I'll usually use a mix of sugar substitutes to prevent any of the side effects or aftertastes of any one from dominating.
You have to go seriously easy on the Xylose, or you'll pay for it later. I don't use that outside of stuff I'm either baking (for the browning) or fermenting.
Xylitol is the same way, in a slightly different sense (no good for browning and fermenting- but it's great in moderation for health, particularly dental health).
Stevia has the weird taste- particularly if I'm cooking for guests. The extracts are more expensive, but seem to reduce that.

Sucralose has been interesting to use; but I don't like the lingering sweetness it creates when you hit the amounts necessary to make something taste seriously sweet.

Some people are scared of the synthetic ones too; and while I'm not, I try to be respectful of that.

What do you mean by substitutes? Does this pertain to desserts only, or baking ingredients as well?

I usually prefer to try not to use packet sugar such as Splenda. I read it can give you diabetes at higher rate(?). I don't normally make sweet foods/bake so I wouldn't know much about alternatives.

dan1073 wrote:What do you mean by substitutes? Does this pertain to desserts only, or baking ingredients as well?

Baking as well. It's particularly applicable for some Asian dishes, like Pad Thai, where the sauce is very sweet and normally contains obscene amounts of sugar.

dan1073 wrote:I usually prefer to try not to use packet sugar such as Splenda. I read it can give you diabetes at higher rate(?). I don't normally make sweet foods/bake so I wouldn't know much about alternatives.

Well, sugar can give you diabetes

I think the prevailing interpretation of studies is that, when feeding on things only and highly sweetened in that way (as a major calorie discontinuity between perception and fact), it can result in over-eating when returning to sugar sweetened foods- or excessive consumption to compensate, or triggered by the sweetness. As far as I know, the studies cited never controlled for amounts. They're kind of dubious at best.

Good video from Healthcare Triage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mf82FfX-wuU&feature=kp

If you eat the same amount of food, and you just swap out the sugary stuff for artificially (or alternatively) sweetened, you should be in the positive nutritionally.

unless my memory is not serving me well, but didn't Dr. Michael Gregor review different sugars and conclude that these artificial sweeteners are not healthy? Ive generally avoided any sweeteners other than sugar.

TheVeganAtheist wrote:unless my memory is not serving me well, but didn't Dr. Michael Gregor review different sugars and conclude that these artificial sweeteners are not healthy? Ive generally avoided any sweeteners other than sugar.

I'm not sure, I haven't followed much of his stuff.

Sucralose may or may not be healthy in larger amounts, but it's used in such amazingly small quantities that it doesn't make a big difference. An amount smaller than a sesame seed can make a glass of water sweet (600 times sweeter than sugar).

I found an article of his here:

http://nutritionfacts.org/2013/05/07/is ... sweetener/

I've been wanting to try erythritol for a long time, but I've yet to find it, and it doesn't seem as affordable (since it's less sweet than sugar, but much more expensive).

I found his older video here:

http://nutritionfacts.org/video/a-harml ... sweetener/

I don't really agree with some of those rulings. Particularly Xylitol. It's laxative if you consume a lot of it- and only if you do it all at once without building up your tolerance level. I've never seen any evidence it's harmful, aside from that very visible side effect (I don't worry as much about things that I know are happening, so much as the unknown- although it will ruin your afternoon plans if you make the mistake of eating one too many Xyiltol cookies).

I haven't seen the links to migraines for Sucralose. I'm thinking that's old and been debunked- or it's like the MSG-migraine link.

This is news to me, though:

The consumer advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest, downgraded sucralose from "Safe" to "Caution" in June 2013, citing a new study linking sucralose consumption with leukemia risk in rats.[26][27] However, they also write that "It [sucralose] appears to be the safest artificial sweetener, though no independent tests have been conducted". The original Italian study has been criticized of being poorly executed and reported.

From wikipedia on Sucralose

That's very recent. I'll be interested to see what kind of response that receives.
I still trust that it's the safest on the market until hard evidence says otherwise (in which case, I'll switch).

I believe there's good reason to use no calorie or lower calorie sweeteners over sugar (which is an empty calorie)
Of course, fruit is sweet too, but not an empty calorie- it provides some value along with that sugar, so that's OK (in moderation, of course).