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Sugar replacement

So, due to my allergies being so bad down here, I've decided to change my diet and see if it helps.  I'm finally going completely vegan (I know, I know, it's about damn time!) and I'm giving up all pre-packaged and processed foods along with sugar. 

For baking purposes, because I'm going to need something sweet to eat, what I can I use to replace sugar?  Is agave syrup considered sugar, like molasses?  Is Stevia man-made like all the other sugar replacers?  I'm looking for something natural as a replacer since supposedly sugar feeds infections (I'm on sinus infection #2 since moving here 2 months ago).

Truly, sugar is the only thing I'm worried about . . . how sad is that??  :-[

Well, I can tell you that Stevia is not man-made; it's a plant extract that's really sweet, but also slightly bitter in large quantities.  It's also really expensive, and I've never baked with it so I don't know how much you'd need as a replacement in a recipe.  Agave is a good sweetener but it is still sugar, and you also have to watch your liquid levels in a recipe and doesn't work so well if you want a crisper cookies - it leaves baked goods really moist, which is usually a good thing.  Sucanat is the most whole form of sugar, meaning it's the least processed and retains the most nutrients of the sugars available, but it also leaves things with a darker color and has a slightly molasses flavor, which is nice in the appropriate dishes.  florida crystals is dehydrated cane juice and i think the closest to refined sugar, so in recipes it is probably the easiest to switch out.  hmm that's all i can think of for now, but i can come up with more, I'll let you know!  Oh and brown rice syrup it a great sweetener, really thick and sticky, and the best for your body to process bc it has a low GI number and is a more complex sugar with a mix of sucrose, fructose, and glucose.  i hope that helps a bit!

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Yay for going vegan!  :D I use Florida crystals..so I don't think that really helps you much. Hopefully cutting all these things out at once won't make it TOO difficult/overwhelming for you!

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Xylitol is good. It doesn't give you cavities, doesn't have any 'sugars' (just sugar alcohols, whatever that means), is from a tree, and is in the form of white crystals, like table sugar. It is kinda expensive, though. I found 6 oz of it for 4.59. I mostly use agave necter when I want things sweet.

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