Tuesday, July 20, 2010

What is 'unsugared'?

I've been looking for a word that means 'no added sugar' when that's what I mean.

If I say 'sugar-free' it might mean I used an artificial sweetener, which I would never do. If I say 'unsweetened' it seems to imply that the recipe is lacking something, that it's austerely unsweet. If I say 'fruit-sweetened', it's overly specific and limiting.

So I'm using 'unsugared'. That means not adding sugar but being happy about the sugar that comes with the ingredients. Many fruits are good ways to add sweetness without adding sugar.

Of course not everything needs to be sweet. But some things just do, if there's a way to make them that is unsugared.

Why not add sugar? Because sugar a broken food, refined and concentrated and hence in my simple-minded way of looking at it, unbalanced.

What about honey? That depends....

2 comments:

We7 said...

So, how do you feel about stevia?

Deanne

Peg Lewis said...

Good question! Because if I claim not to want to add sugar because it is not a whole food, then I need to reject stevia, too. And if I don't want to add sugar because of something like glycemic index (but that's not why I said I don't want to add sugar), then stevia is ok.

What I really want to do is eat foods without adding sweetness. That means no sugar, no honey, and no stevia. I want to enjoy the food's flavors, not change them. Or I should say I want to LEARN to enjoy a food's flavors, because sweet tastes good!

I think I'll write a post about this. You've got me thinking.... Thanks for the comment.