Cooking with Artificial Sweetener

[whitakermk]

What are the ups and downs of cooking with something other than sugar when sugar is called for as an ingredient? Are there some artificial, and natural, alternatives to sugar that have worked well for you?

 

[DancingLady]

Honey works well for me. I do not use any artificial sweeteners because they are worse for the body than the actual sugar. I have also used bananas and other fruit to work as a sweetener instead of sugar with fairly good success. Sugar is sometimes needed for recipes to turn out "right" but if you are more concerned with the healthfulness of your food than the texture being just right, you can definitely get around it. I do not even have granulated sugar in the house any more, I refuse to buy it, white or brown, not allowed here anymore.

 

[Sweetkymom]

My husband and I tried making fudge and a couple of pies using
artificial sugar and let me tell you, nothing turned out at all. I don't know what we done so wrong but I've never used artificial sugar again.

 

[Ella]

It depends on what you are cooking, but substituting sugar can be tricky. Rather than find an alternative I use less as it's not crucial to how a cake will turn out or affect the actual cooking unless you are caramelizing something. I would use some lemon juice instead if it suited what I was cooking, but generally I wouldn't risk anything else.

 

[Catalyst64]

First of all, it's important not to forget that things are bad when you're eating more than you should be. If you eat a moderate amount of sugar, you'll be just fine.
Your best bet with certain things, like smoothies, would be to add fruits to it. Berries, bananas, mango, grapes, or even apples. Honey is better than sugar, yes, but it's still calorie-dense and it's mostly empty calories.
I wouldn't go for artificial sweeteners such as high fructose corn syrup, because 90% of them are not better than normal white sugar and they're actually more processed. I'd say just reduce the overall amount of sugar intake and use regular sugar when you can't switch it up for fruit or honey.

 

[kamarsun1]

What are the ups and downs of cooking with something other than sugar when sugar is called for as an ingredient? Are there some artificial, and natural, alternatives to sugar that have worked well for you?

I can't do artificial sweeteners, they can be worst then sugar for the body. I use coconut sugar and it works fine for me and my family. Dates are by far the healthiest natural sugar to eat, that and the natural sugar cane juice to drink,(not evaporated cane juice), and the natural sugars that are in fruits.