can't/won't eat sugar

[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.

[ultraviolet]

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.

This is half the reason I avoid sugar. The other half is that it can trigger migraines for me. (I also avoid caffeine for the same reason.) I also don't eat much fruit for the same reasons. I seem to be OK with small amounts of blueberries and blackberries, but most of the sweeter fruits have too much sugar for me to handle.

I'm also allergic to wheat. Put those two things together, and most group food-sharing events are pretty much out for me. I recently started a new job, and on my first day the company hosted a "New Hire Bagel Breakfast" to provide a somewhat social time for me to meet people. It was an impressive spread of bagels, cream cheeses and various jams...and everyone seemed to like it a lot. I didn't have anything, which didn't bother me at all, but the HR person who coordinated it was bothered that everyone was eating but me.

[lph]

Thanks for the input, all! I'll see if I can pick up some pretty fruit like cherries or something to drape around the muffins.

-signed,
wanna please everyone

[Dogmama]

I'm also allergic to wheat. Put those two things together, and most group food-sharing events are pretty much out for me. I recently started a new job, and on my first day the company hosted a "New Hire Bagel Breakfast" to provide a somewhat social time for me to meet people.

When I started my last job, they put together a pot luck lunch for me. There was an ice chest full of soda & one of the people said, "Sorry, no beer." I told her that was OK, I don't drink. Her reply: "Don't worry - you will."

[Dannielle]

I super avoid sugar and won't use agave because, while it has a lower glycemic index, it's still a form of sugar. It might be hard to cook a treat for someone who avoids sugar. I usually make/bring my own when the situation calls for it because I know the way I eat isn't easy to accommodate.

This recipe is one of my favorites- http://www.elanaspantry.com/ratio-rally-quick-breads/ I grate/finely chop apple and use a couple packets of stevia instead of agave. And I add some cinnamon.

[sempronialou]

I'm doing South Beach Diet so I know what it's like avoiding sugar (including cane evaporated juice and honey in addition to cane or beet sugar). On top of that I'm limited to the amount of certain good starches and fruit I can have in a day. So I generally cross off baked goods even if it were made with whole wheat flour and sugar substitutes. It's just not worth it. If I'm going to cheat, I'll cheat. Otherwise I'll bring something of my own or just get something later. Fruit is always a safe bet.