Sweeteners

I can live without sugar, but if you ask me to cut the sweet taste out of my diet, I’ll go ahead and keel over! Hey, sweet is essential! After all, it is one of the 6 basic tastes: sweet salty, sour, bitter, pungent and astringent. (Okay seriously, what is “astringent” suppose to taste like? I have no idea! Vinegar maybe?)

The trick is to satisfy the sweet tooth without feeding candida. Luckily, there are some products out there that will do just that.

Stevia

Ease of purchase: Moderate

I favor this one the most. I use only pure stevia, not the kind that is mixed with lactose or any kind of maltodextrin. I use it with almost anything except for grains, particularly glutinous ones. For some reason, the combo of gluten and stevia does not cooperate well with my digestive system. I sometimes use a little stevia to increase sweetness when I use others sweeteners that are not as sweet as sugar on their own. I like Trader Joe’s Pure Stevia. Good price and product.

Erythritol

Ease of purchase: hard

This is a sugar alcohol, but unlike the other ones (xylitol, mannitol, maltitol, sorbitol), it’s absorbed by the body, so it doesn’t cause gastric distress if you don’t overdo it. It has a cooling effect like mint does, so when using it to bake something warm and spicy, you have to use another sweetener to cancel that effect. Vegetable glycerin will do that. Creaming erythritol with butter also gets rid of the cooling effect. I use the organic kind sourced from sugar cane by Wholesome Sweeteners. It’s called “Organic Zero”. Now Foods makes one from corn. Erythritol is hard to get. I found the brand I use at Whole Foods. You can also order other brands online.

Vegetable Glycerin

Ease of purchase: moderate

I like using this for baking. It gives texture to baked goods that we’re used to when using sugar. It does lose some of it’s sweetness the longer it’s heated. This can be allergenic for alot of people, depending on what it’s made from. I have used two kinds-one from Now Foods and one from Heritage Products. Now Foods glycerin is sourced from vegetable oil. Heritage Foods glycerin is sourced from palm kernels. I used it often during the first 3 months on the Attogram program.

Yacon Syrup

Ease of purchase: hard

Yacon syrup is pressed from the roots on the Yacon plant, and the plant is kin to the sunflower. It stores it’s carbs as fructooligosaccharide (FOS), so it doesn’t feed yeast. It has a honey or molasses consistency and a caramel/molasses flavor. It’s great as a sweet binder since vegetable glycerin isn’t thick enough. I also like to use it instead of dates in my raw food desserts. I saw this recently at my local Whole Foods store. It’s also available on the internet.

chicolin/inulin

Ease of purchase: hard
This is made from the chicory root. It’s often combined with Stevia to dilute it’s sweetness. It seems this is manufactured only by the Wolfe Clinic and I’ve only seen it offered at the Wolfe clinic website and the Whole Approach shop.
Update 03/28/09: Inulin is the same as chicolin. Chicolin is a brand name. You can purchase inulin online.

All other sweeteners actually feed candida, including agave nectar and brown rice syrup.

Update (10/27/08): Agave can be used in moderation after you have reached a certain stage in the Attogram program. My suggestion is to use agave in stage 2 or stage 3 of the program and to use it occasionally.