can't/won't eat sugar

[lph]

No, not me, a colleague. And it only concerns me because on Fridays we all eat lunch together, 20-25 people, and take turns bringing in a cake or muffins, or ice-cream, or something. My turn tomorrow. So I'm used to no dairy, because of my allergic dh, and I've tried a couple of no-gluten recipes, because of another colleague who can't have gluten. But no sugar? I really can't think what I could make as a treat that doesn't have sugar in it. I can bring some fresh fruit of course, but that doesn't quite cut it compared to the freshly baked blueberry muffins I was thinking of.

Any suggestions? Or do I just smile and say sorry?

Anyone here avoid sugar - like really avoid it? As far as I know it's a choice, no medical reason, she just feels better not eating sugar.

[7rider]

There's lots of sugar in fresh fruit.

[ny biker]

Well, it sounds like other people bring things with sugar when it's their turn. Is that a problem for your colleague? Or does she just skip dessert?

[OakLeaf]

A salty snack like homemade cheese crackers?

[Roadtrip]

There are some newer natural sweeteners (Truvia comes to mind), not your common sweet & low artificial stuff, but not had personal experience in baking with them.

Good luck!
Shannon

[TsPoet]

As a type 1 diabetic, with a mother who's celiac --- bring what you want! people with issues need to deal with them themselves.
If you want to be nice, bring a veggie platter alongside, or something. But, it really isn't necessary, no matter how hard you try, you can't accommodate everybody.
I bet your colleague eats lots of sugar without knowing it - like in fruit.
Hold your wonderful blueberry muffins up to the screen so I can smell them

[VeganBikeChick]

If you wanted to go all out, you could make this raw strawberry cheesecake...it's got agave in it instead of sugar....but an above poster was right, strawberries do have natural sugars...

http://www.theppk.com/2009/05/raw-st...ry-cheesecake/

[GLC1968]

There are lots of sugar substitutes if they will eat that. I have a friend who makes a delicious sugar-free cheesecake, but it is chock full of artificial sweeteners. I am 100% zero sugar right now including no artificial sweeteners (paleo) and to be perfectly honest, it's extremely difficult to eat like everyone else. Sugar is in EVERYTHING. Did you know that bacon has sugar in it? Or mustard? I didn't before starting this!

Anyone who is avoiding sugar of all types including artificial sweeteners will just forgo eating anything sweet. For me, I do eat fruit. So when we have big potlucks at work, I stick to fresh fruit. I do not hold it against anyone who doesn't accommodate my needs (unless it were MY birthday, of course!). I doubt your coworker would either.

[lph]

Thanks people. It's refined/white sugar she doesn't eat. I can't see the difference either between that and say, grapes, but I guess there is one. Curious if anyone here would know. I'm a bit careful with overloading on sweet things myself, but that's a blood sugar thing, so it makes no difference what kind of sugar. Since my dh so often has to pass on the really yummy desserts and sauces at restaurants I try to be a bit extra considerate of people's dietary restrictions when I can, but this one had me stumped.

I'm bringing blueberry muffins

ps. yup, I remember reading that ketchup has as much sugar as chocolate sauce. My poor son gets told that every time he reaches for the ketchup bottle On the other hand, it did teach me that tomato sauces taste a lot better with a pinch of sugar in them.

[OakLeaf]

It's refined/white sugar she doesn't eat.

I rarely bake with refined sugar. Evaporated cane juice substitutes 1:1 for white sugar in most recipes - it adds a bit of molasses flavor, but that's an asset for a lot of recipes.

(I'm not sure what you get in Norway, but "brown sugar" in the USA is refined white sugar with varying amounts of molasses mixed back in, and because of the added water content, you might have to tweak recipes a little bit to substitute. Not so with unrefined evaporated cane juice and its various forms - Sucanat, turbinado sugar. Demerara sugar might take a little tweaking just because the crystals are so large; maybe better to reserve it for a garnish.)

[lph]

Can I ask why? Taste or for health reasons? I'm assuming evaporated cane juice is harder to get hold of.

I'm not in any way advocating a high-sugar diet, just trying to understand why someone would try so hard to avoid all traces of refined sugar unless allergic, which I've never heard of.

[Blueberry]

Can I ask why? Taste or for health reasons? I'm assuming evaporated cane juice is harder to get hold of.

I'm not in any way advocating a high-sugar diet, just trying to understand why someone would try so hard to avoid all traces of refined sugar unless allergic, which I've never heard of.

I try not to use white sugar because I don't eat beef. Part of the refining process is filtering it through bone char.

I usually use agave and honey.

[OakLeaf]

Can I ask why? Taste or for health reasons? I'm assuming evaporated cane juice is harder to get hold of.

It's easily available in the USA, but it is more expensive than white sugar.

GMO sugar beets are one reason I avoid white sugar, although "pure cane" white sugar is available - the (IMO completely unnecessary) energy involved in refining is another, probably my #1 reason if I had to pick one. And I buy only organic sugar, which although it comes in various degrees of refining, for whatever reason I've never seen it as highly refined as chemically grown white sugar usually is. It's always got at least a little bit of color and flavor.


ETA: Substituting honey means adjusting the liquid content, and since a lot of baked goods recipes don't contain any liquid other than what's in eggs that are needed for binding, substituting honey can get pretty complicated. (Unless you're using a powdered egg substitute, in which case it's easy to reduce the liquid by most of the volume of the honey.) I've never had good luck with yeast and honey, either, although I haven't baked any raised breads in ages.

And as far as baking specifically with raw honey ... is there a point to that?

[limewave]

A friend just made me really yummy cookies that used 2 whole cups of agave nectar (no sugar). Pricey little cookies, but they were yummy whilst being dairy-free, gluten-free, and "sugar" free.

[soprano]

I vote for taking some nice normal muffins. If you accommodate one colleague who is gluten-free but not another person with a known dietary restriction, it looks bad. Your sugar-free coworker is going to be well justified in taking offense. Both of your coworkers have made a choice to stop eating a food that made them feel sick. Treating them differently is asking for trouble.

In any large gathering of people, it's going to be near impossible to accommodate everyone's dietary needs and preferences. It's hard to know where to draw a line. Accommodating a known lethal allergy (I'm thinking peanuts) is a no-brainer in my book. It's pretty much accepted that vegetarians should be accommodated at group meals. On the other end of the spectrum, in our society we routinely serve high-fat, salty food to large gatherings and expect the people with heart disease who aren't supposed to be eating that stuff to suck it up and deal. Where you can get into trouble is when you start picking and choosing who you are going to accommodate.

Refined sugars (and minimally refined sugar products) tend to be very, very high on the glycemic index. Some fruits are also high on the GI, but whole fruit includes fiber which lessens the impact of the simple carbs. Also, the number of carbs matters; carrots are high on the GI, but the number of sugars you ingest in a serving of carrots is negligible compared to the number found in a cinnamon bun or a piece of fudge. If your colleague is sensitive to blood sugar lows, she is probably avoiding refined sugars because they can make the blood sugar spike and then crash. Fruit might not set her off the same way. I have hypoglycemia and I can't have sugar or honey, but I'm OK with most fruits. (Just not dates! Way too much sugar in dates! Those things need warning labels!)

Or, maybe she just wants to eat healthy; avoiding processed and refined foods is an easy way to do that. The more I learn about food additives and processing methods, the less I want to have anything to do with processed food. There are also politics surrounding the sugar industry that she might not want to subsidize. I could go on - there are many, many reasons to avoid the sweet stuff.