A sweet life is possible without sugar.
Some people need to give up sugar for health reasons, such as diabetes or abnormal blood glucose levels. Others want to cut calories. And other people want more nutrition from their sweets than simple white table sugar can offer. Fortunately, many options for sweetening foods exist beyond the use of traditional white sugar.
Stevia, Truvia and PureVia
Stevia is a plant with sweet tasting leaves, and it is refined to create the products called Truvia and PureVia. All of these sweeteners have zero calories and can be used in baking up to 400 degrees F, although the results will vary slightly from baked goods made with sugar. Some people report a bitter or licorice-flavored aftertaste when using these sweeteners, and some don't notice any difference from the taste of regular sugar other than a heightened sweetness.
Splenda
Splenda is a man-made sweetener that is free of calories and is designed to be used like sugar. It is made from sugar, but is not absorbed by the digestive system. Some people have reported that they feel nauseated after eating Splenda, or that its aftertaste bothers them. Others consider it to be a perfect substitute for sugar, and cannot detect any aftertaste.
Saccharin, Aspartame and Neotame
All three of these products have zero calories, but they also have all been the focus of studies to determine whether they cause cancer. The FDA has found that each of them is safe and that there is not a clear link between these sweeteners and cancer. These sweeteners work well for sweetening beverages and foods that will not be heated, but the results of baking with them have been mixed.
Honey
Honey is a nutrition-packed alternative to sugar which is rich in antioxidants, B vitamins, and minerals but also higher in calories than sugar. It has a very floral taste that is more assertive than pure sugar. Because it is 30 to 50 percent sweeter than sugar, you can use less of it to sweeten foods. If used in baking, the foods will be more moist, brown faster, and should be baked at a lower temperature.
Maple Syrup
After boiling maple sap for several hours, most of the water evaporates and it becomes a sweet liquid made up mostly of sucrose. Maple syrup imparts a toasted, caramelized flavor in comparison to white sugar. It can be used in baking, but it is less sweet than sugar. Although maple syrup is a natural product, the only nutrients it offers (other than carbohydrates) are manganese and low levels of zinc.
Agave Nectar
First manufactured in the 1990s, agave nectar is produced by heating the sap of the agave plant which has traditionally been used to produce tequila. The starches in the sap break down at high temperatures to become sugars. This sweetener has a higher fructose concentration than high fructose corn syrup, but because of the low glucose concentration it is low on the glycemic index (it does not cause blood sugar to rise).
Date Sugar
Essentially dried dates that have been mechanically processed to a granular consistency, date sugar can be used much as you would use brown sugar, although date sugar does not dissolve well in beverages. The dates retain all of the nutrients they had when they were a whole fruit, and so date sugar is one of the more nutritious alternatives to white sugar.
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