Cooking with Sugar

I began writing this blog 12 months ago on a flight to my cousins wedding but life happened and I’ve never hit the edit and upload button.. So here goes

I’m not an expert on sugar, I’m just a mum aware of the outcomes when my son has consumed too much, it’s like his brain cannot process it and he can’t keep his emotions intact. So sad really and I can’t bear to watch it happen. So as of Easter we have been on a chocolate ban (with a few slip ups ;)) I wanted to compile a list of sugars people use and add to cooking to get the picture of how much sugar is actually added to our foods (homemade).

World Health Organisation suggests 4tsp added sugar per day for a child and 6tsp for an adult

Of course there are different types of sugars; refined, unrefined, artificial, different nutritional value and different reactions within your body. I just wanted to bring attention to the quantity of sugar we are adding into our food.

Ingredient Per serve Per 100g
Honey 12.4g 82.5g
Maple Syrup (100% pure) 29.9g 85.5g
Golden syrup 5g 74g
Rice malt syrup 5.5g 55g
Agave Syrup 7.6g 76g
Stevia 0 0
Xylitol 0 0
Medjool Dates 39g 66g
Dried dates 16.5g 65.9g
Sultanas 20.8g 69.3g
Raisins 22g 73.2g
White sugar (including castor sugar, icing sugar) 4g 100g
Raw sugar 4g 99.8g
Coconut sugar 4.6g 88.3g
Brown sugar 4g 98g
Condensed milk 55.9g 55.9g
Milk Chocolate cooking 22.9g 61.8g

*based on reading labels of supermarket brands I have personally purchased/used in the past

I’ve just broken down the sugar content on 4 recipes from a simple google search

Here are the results…

Recipe Total sugar Total sugar per serve Per tsp
Basic Chocolate Cake 340g 34g/serve 8.5
Anzac Biscuits 178g 7.41g/serve 1.85
Bliss Balls (Dates) 288g 11.87/serve 2.97
Caramel Slice 431.35g 28.75g/serve 7.1

 

Simple Tips

  • Being mindful of the amount of sugar you are consuming
  • Try a sugar alternative (eg. Coconut sugar instead of white sugar)
  • When cooking start slowly and gradually reduce the amount of sugar/recipe (If the recipe says 100g sugar, try 80g, then 60g)

If you haven’t already check out “That Sugar Movement” or better still watch “That Sugar Film” life changing!!!

Here is a blog on hidden sugars in packets

https://thatsugarmovement.com/added-sugar-vs-natural-sugar/

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