Five natural sweeteners that may be better than sugar include Sucanant, Agave Nectar, Honey, Coconut Sugar, and Stevia Extract.
If you have a sweet tooth that just can not be tamed, perhaps alternatives to white and brown sugar would benefit your health.
Although there is no great calorie difference, except with Stevia, there are more nutrients and trace minerals to be found in less processed sweeteners.
Also, there are clear health benefits to honey which surpass them all.
However, there are those who will say that sugar is sugar and it is best to simply ween yourself off of all things sweet.
Read for yourself to see which is the best for you.
For a less-processed alternative with small amounts of nutrients in it as well, look for sucanat, which is simply dehydrated sugar cane juice. Sucanat (an abbreviation for sugar-cane-natural) has a stronger molasses flavor than refined white sugar and retains all of the nutrients found in natural sugar cane juice, including iron, calcium, vitamin B6 and potassium. Though, as New York University nutritional scientist Marion Nestle points out: “The amounts of trace minerals in raw sugar are so small that they are nutritionally insignificant.”
