We’ve all felt cravings before: that visceral need for something – whether it’s a hunk of dark chocolate, a handful of crisp, crunchy, salty chips, or an ooey gooey slice of pizza. But food cravings don’t just come out of nowhere – and understanding them may be the best way to overcome them.

The Science Behind Cravings

There’s a big difference between hunger and food cravings. According to Marra St. Clair, Project Juice co-founder and board Certified Nutritional Consultant, “Food cravings come down to biology and psychology.”

The biological side of cravings stems from a physical response to nutritional deficiencies or hormonal responses to individual foods. For example, a person will generally crave salty foods when stressed, sweet foods to cheer up, fried foods when their diet is devoid of healthy fats, and carbs when they’re eating overly restrictive diets.

The psychological side, meanwhile, is all about the link between a certain food and the feelings associated with it – the whole idea of comfort food stems from this side of cravings, but so does wanting popcorn in front of the television or craving a snack even when you’re not hungry, just because that’s the time you usually have a snack.

Both the biological and the psychological side of cravings are controlled by the hippocampus, caudate, and insula parts of the brain – the same three that are induced in the instance of drug addiction – so it’s no surprise that they can be tough to overcome.

7 Ways to Overcome Food Cravings

To harness food cravings, you’ll need to target both the biological and hormonal reasons behind them, and there are a number of different ways to do this.

1. Strive for a Balanced Diet

Balancing out your diet is one of the best ways to overcome food cravings. Choosing real, healthy, delicious food will help keep you full and satisfied, and controlling the kinds of food you eat rather than depriving yourself entirely will keep you from bingeing out of frustration.

According to St. Clair, different cravings can be a sign of different lacks in your diet, so focusing on what you usually crave may help you balance out your diet.

Salt cravings, for example, can stem from a lack of essential minerals. Instead of reaching for chips, be sure to fulfill your daily sodium needs with mineral-rich Celtic or Himalayan sea salt, which are rich in trace minerals. Cravings for fried foods, meanwhile, stem from a lack in healthy fats. Choose healthy fat sources like avocado, olive oil, and nuts to keep these cravings at bay.

And above all, make sure you’re eating enough food. Carb cravings hit “when your body feels deprived,” according to St. Clair. “If you are constantly craving carbs, you could be restricting your calories too much or consuming empty calories that offer no nutrition.”

Plan ahead and be sure that you’re consuming enough nutrient-dense calories to sustain your body and optimize your energy.

2. Destress

Mood plays a huge part in cravings, especially sugar cravings.

“We literally eat sugar to make us happy,” explains St. Clair. “Sugar signals a burst of serotonin that leaves you happy for a moment… but then you crash again and crave more sugar.”

Targeting your mood rather than your craving can help with this. Stop to ask yourself if you’re actually hungry, and if the answer is no, choose something else that can bring your mood up, like taking a walk in nature, reading a book in the sunshine, or calling a friend.

You can also break the cycle of sugar cravings by indulging in a slower releasing natural sugar source, like a piece of fresh food.

“Thanks to their high fiber content, apples, pineapple and berries will not cause the same drastic crash as a piece of candy or that donut does,” says St. Clair.

3. Juice Cleanse

Juice cleanses like the Project Juice juice cleanse can help effectively eliminate cravings on both psychological and biological fronts.

Because a well-designed juice cleanse feeds your body with necessary nutrients, it can help combat nutritional deficiencies and thus cravings, but a juice cleanse also breaks habitual eating habits – like snacking or a post-dinner bowl of ice cream in front of the TV.

“The forced break in your standard habitual eating can allow you to break through psychological cravings,” explains St. Clair.

4. Drink Water

The hypothalamus is the region of the brain that controls both hunger and thirst, so it’s easy to mistake one for the other; Organic Authority and EcoSalon Editor-in-Chief Laura Klein notes that this is one of people’s most common missteps.

“Some people mistake dehydration for hunger,” she says. “Drinking lots of water throughout the day can actually help keep you full.”

This feeling of fullness will help you keep from making the snap judgment to grab something easy, like juice, soda, or even snacks to fill the void.

Keeping water around in a Klean Kanteen or mason jar so that you don’t even have to think about taking a sip can make this an easy tip to follow.

5. Choose a Stand-In

According to dietitian Julie Upton, MS, RD, restricting too much can cause you to crave things even more, which means that when you finally cave, you tend to indulge.

Instead, she recommends that you choose healthier substitutes, like an ounce of premium dark chocolate instead of gooey brownies or air-popped popcorn with a dash of mineral-rich sea salt instead of chips. Pick a healthier alternative that meets the textural and flavor characteristics of the food you’re craving, and you might be able to help your body forget about the richer, unhealthier option.

6. Eat Breakfast

The oft-cited adage that breakfast is the “most important” meal of the day has recently been challenged by researchers in Canada, who noted in 2016 that breakfast consumption was not necessarily linked to instances of being overweight. A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2016 came to the same conclusions.

But while you certainly don’t need to eat breakfast to be healthy, it is a good idea to eat first thing in the morning to stave off cravings. MRI scans of high-protein breakfast eaters in a University of Missouri Study showed that these people have reduced activity in areas of the brain associated with cravings.

7. Get More Sleep

Sleeping can help stave off cravings, as your body’s hormones will be in better balance.

A University of Chicago study showed that levels of leptin, which signals fullness, were significantly decreased after a few sleepless nights, while levels of ghrelin, which triggers appetite, were boosted. These two changes caused sugar cravings to jump 45 percent, so be sure that you’re hitting the hay early enough to get eight hours. This also has the added benefit of keeping you away from the fridge during cravings for a midnight snack.

Related on EcoSalon
How to Eat Your Way to Glowing Skin (and a Happy Gut!)
Great… Now I’m Craving Coffee [Video]
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The FDA recently recommended that no more than 10 percent of daily calories come from added sugar. That’s double the recommendation of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, which is 25 grams or a little over 6 teaspoons per day. Suffice to say, those of us with a sweet tooth are on the hunt for something to replace the sweet stuff — but beware: not all sugar substitutes are created equal.

The Good

The best sugar substitutes are the most natural products, and unfortunately, that means that they all do contain glucose, fructose, or both. In other words, even if you’re subbing these ingredients in for regular granulated cane sugar, they will still contribute to your daily intake of added sugar. That said, they also contain some added benefits that make them a better choice.

1. Maple Syrup

Pure maple syrup (we’re not talking about pancake syrup) is definitely sugary, but it also contains a few other things that regular sugar doesn’t: nutrients. Not only is maple syrup filled with antioxidants (according to Pharmaceutical Biology, up to 24 different ones), it’s also packed with riboflavin, zinc, magnesium, calcium, and potassium.

“Everything the tree filters out from Mother Nature and all of the good minerals, antioxidants, and everything it is doing for the food for the tree, stays in the sugar,” explains Helen Thomas of the New York State Maple Association.

2. Raw Honey

Raw honey, like maple syrup, is more than just sugar. It also contains essential amino acids, antioxidants, and antimicrobial compounds. Local raw honey may also reduce seasonal allergy symptoms, according to research in the International Archives of Allergy and Immunology.

Just be sure that you’re buying the real stuff: a 2011 study showed that about 76 percent of supermarket honey contained no pollen whatsoever, essentially making it equivalent to corn syrup. Buy your raw honey from a trusted local source, and use sparingly.

3. Coconut Sugar

Coconut sugar, much like maple syrup, contains trace amounts of minerals. But this isn’t the only reason it’s a better choice than sugar.

“Because coconut sugar contains less fructose than white sugar, your liver metabolizes it in a healthier way,” Alexandra Caspero, R.D., founder of the Delish Knowledge blog, tells Greatist. “That means less potentially turns into fat. But since coconut sugar is higher in sucrose, it still raises your blood sugar.”

That said, it raises your blood sugar much less than table sugar. According to the Phillipine Department of Agriculture, the glycemic index of coconut sugar is nearly half that of table sugar.

We also love coconut sugar because of how easy it is to swap in for cane sugar. You can swap coconut sugar in baked goods recipes cup for cup for granulated sugar.

The (Not So) Bad

There are a few sugar substitutes that aren’t quite as good for you as our favorite sugar substitutes above, but they’re also not quite as bad as the chemical sugar substitutes you’ll find in little blue, pink, and yellow packets.

1. Agave Nectar

Agave was a very popular alternative sugar a few years back, but while this relatively neutral sweetener derived from the agave plant is a natural alternative, it’s not the healthiest. It’s slightly higher in calories than white sugar, teaspoon for teaspoon, and it doesn’t have much to offer nutrient-wise as compared with maple sugar or coconut sugar.

Agave syrup originally rose to popularity because it was said to be lower on the glycemic index, but a growing number of experts, including Dr. Axe, say that there just isn’t enough information to confirm this. In fact, some experts, including Dr. Jonny Bowden, claim that because mass-produced agave syrup is so processed, it’s about as good for you as high-fructose corn syrup.

Dr. Oz, one of the early fans of agave nectar, recently called for people to eliminate the syrup from their kitchens.

While agave nectar is better than chemical sweeteners, we can’t condone using it as a regular sugar substitute.

2. Stevia

Stevia has been used as a natural sweetener for centuries in South America, with few side effects, though some tests in the 1980s showed that stevia may have a negative impact on fertility.

Leaf stevia and stevia extracts like Sweet Leaf are both far sweeter than sugar, though they also have a slightly bitter aftertaste. With no calories and a few notable health benefits thanks to stevioside (the bitter portion of the leaf), these products are a fairly good option for those looking to cut back on sugar intake.

Heavily processed forms of stevia, however, are far more widespread ever since they were granted FDA GRAS status in 2008. These highly refined, processed forms of stevia are far removed from the natural plant — in fact, brands marketing themselves as stevia, such as Truvía sweetener, contain less than one percent stevia leaf extract, which is combined with other ingredients like erythritol to balance the flavor. Dr. Axe notes that many stevia products contain genetically modified ingredients and may cause side effects like gastrointestinal problems.

One other reason we’re not huge fans of stevia is that it has a chemical sort of aftertaste, though some blends, for example Whole Earth’s stevia product, combine stevia with other ingredients like agave, honey, and cane sugar to create a sugar substitute with half the calories and a less bitter flavor.

Whole Earth Spokesperson Bobby Valastro notes that the company’s baking blend, which combines half sugar and half organic stevia leaf extract, masks the aftertaste effectively and bakes like sugar, making it a pretty good option as a sugar substitute.

3. Raw Organic Sugar

Raw sugar, while not too far off from granulated white sugar, is actually a slightly better option. Unrefined organic sugar is not only pesticide-free, it also retains the natural nutrients in cane juice, including amino acids, minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants. We still prefer less processed sugars, but this isn’t a bad option if you’re really looking for the sweetness of sugar.

The Ugly

These are sugar substitutes we just can’t recommend. More chemical than food, we vote you stay away from them.

1. Aspartame

Aspartame, the sweetener in Equal and NutraSweet, is one of the most frequently used in the U.S., but it’s also one of the most dangerous. After aspartame was linked with carcinogenic effects in 2014, the American Journal of Industrial Medicine recommended re-evaluating the position of international regulatory agencies on aspartame.

A study in Reproductive Toxicology also found that aspartame could have dangerous effects on pregnant or nursing women, specifically predisposing their children to metabolic syndrome disorders and obesity.

2. Sucralose

Sucralose, the sweetener used in Splenda, has been publicized as a healthier version of aspartame, but while sucralose is derived from sugar, it is actually quite far removed from sugarcane.

Sucralose is a chlorinated sucrose derivative that has been shown to contain several hazardous compounds, including carcinogenic chloropropanols, according to a study published in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health.

3. Xylitol

Xylitol is one of several sugar alcohols used as a sugar substitute, none of which are absorbed very well by the body.

Xylose, from which xylitol is derived, is found in birch bark, but ever since the 1950s, it’s been known that xylose cannot be adequately metabolized by single-stomach animals and this causes digestive issues. In fact, they are often used as active ingredients for over-the-counter laxatives — which isn’t terribly reassuring when you’re using it to bake cookies.

Related on EcoSalon
Is Fruit Sugar as Bad as Regular Sugar?
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ColumnWould a revamped nutrition label help us deal with our sugar addiction?

When you grab a food product off the shelf, do you look at the nutrition label?

Chances are you do, but statistically more people look at the general nutrition facts than they do the ingredients. Our misunderstanding of nutrition makes it so that we’ll be tempted by something that has zero calories, zero fat, zero anything, and we’ll forget about what the thing was actually made with. A food product might have a bunch of zeros in it, but if you get to the ingredients and there’s a whole bunch of sugar, or a whole bunch of things that sound like sugar, you might as well throw the whole thing out.

Sugar is bad for you. There’s just no way around it. But beyond it being bad for you, it’s addictive, meaning that the more you consume, the more you consume.

As Americans, we consume a lot of it. The real sugar threat comes from added sugars, any sugar that has been added to a product that wasn’t naturally there before–that includes natural sweeteners. If you’re sweetening something, you’re adding sugar. While some of us may add a little sugar to our coffee, the serious problem comes in all that additional stuff used to sweeten processed foods. Flavored yogurts, sports drinks, condiments, even seemingly healthy granola… the list goes on. We are literally inundated with added sugar every time we go to the grocery store.

This is problematic given that in the United States we get 16 percent of our daily calories from added sugars. The World Health Organization recommends that globally, we need to get it down to 5 percent.

So the FDA has decided that it might be time to change the nutrition labels. Since people don’t always read through the ingredient list and have a reaction to items like high fructose corn syrup and dextrose, an easier way to make sure people know how much they are eating is simply to label whether or not a food product has added sugars in it.

Well that proposal sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? Not if you’re in the sugar business. Making “added sugars” a line on the nutrition label wouldn’t be the only update, but it’s an update that people in sugar certainly don’t want. Eight trade groups are so vehemently opposed to the legislation that they wrote a letter to the FDA voicing their opinion and offered to fund a study on label effectiveness. Who are these groups?

• American Bakers Association
• American Beverage Association
• American Frozen Foods Institute
• Corn Refiners Association
• National Confectioners Association
• American Frozen Food Institute
• Sugar Association
• International Dairy Foods Association

Yup, Big Sugar.

Big Sugar is doing all that it can to make sure that we keep eating as much sugar as possible, tobacco industry style. Opposing labeling isn’t the only thing. They’ve also been known to misuse scientific data, even bury it, pour lobby dollars into local sugar debates, and feature misinformation on industry sites, all to mislead the public and keep them consuming – and addicted to – sugar.

As consumers, we deserve transparency. A label won’t stop someone from having a sugar addiction, but it will at least let them know if additional sugars have been added, and that kind of transparency is essential in a modern, developed society.

It’s going to take a lot to kick our sugar addiction, but maybe the first step is a big swift kick in the pants to Big Sugar. And that means the FDA pushing lobbying dollars aside and approving the new label.

Related on EcoSalon

12 Unusual Ways to Use Sugar (Without Eating It!)

5 Natural Sweeteners to Replace Sugar

10 Health Foods With More Sugar Than Coke

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Image: Raj Stevenson

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ColumnReasons to consider striving for a sugar free diet.

There has been an excess of apples from our local farmer lately, which means every Monday I find myself stuffing a kilo or two into my backpack. They’re small, crisp and full of flavor; what a real apple should taste like. They’re a gorgeous blend of red, yellow, orange and green, a few brown spots here and there; what a real apple should look like.

With this overabundance of fruit on hand, I made a batch of apple compote for morning granola and yogurt. Simple: chop apples, put them in a saucepan with a little lemon juice and lemon zest, throw in a cinnamon stick and a few cardamom pots and cook until stewed down to a chunky consistency.

My mother used to make applesauce when I was little. I have memories of her having with a huge saucepan going on the back burner. She would freeze the batches in quart-size Ziploc bags and we would eat it throughout the winter, warming it up to put on oatmeal. Sometimes she would add in blackberries from our property which made for a beautiful golden yellow puree dotted with purple. The queen of cooking with whole ingredients, I don’t know if she added sugar when she made applesauce, but if she did, it was a tiny amount. I knew the apple sauce I ate was different than the stuff my elementary school friends were eating out of a glass jar. Their’s was a glassy puree with a thin consistency. Mine was chunky with an aftertaste of summer.

I thought about this memory as I stood making my apple compote. I sprinkled a tiny bit of raw sugar for good measure (it’s so raw and unrefined it looks like the color of earth), not because it needed it, but because I wanted a bit of a caramelized flavor.

This got me thinking about all the classic ingredients with which people have been cooking and baking sweet things for centuries; the ingredients that you used when you couldn’t just run down to the market and snag a 5-pound bag of refined, granulated white sugar.

There was a time when sugar was equated with a luxury spice, a “white gold” that was really only available to the European elite. And in the era of World War II, sugar was one of the main ingredients that were rationed, 3/4 lb for one week. Whatever did people do? Well, they functioned just fine, managing to concoct dishes that played on the inherent tastes of natural ingredients, instead of augmented and processed ones. And while it seems crazy, people used to eat fruits as a sweet treat. Shocking, I know.

But nowadays, we’re so used to sugar in our diets that fruit doesn’t cut it, and if we’re overdosing on sugar, part of it’s because we’ve forgotten how to use ingredients that are naturally sweet. Even if we do use them, we hide their flavors in a thick saccharine layer.

Sweet potatoes don’t need to be drenched in 18 cups of brown sugar (I’m looking at you Thanksgiving table). They’re delicious on their own. Grapefruit? Doesn’t need to be covered in white sugar to be a tasty breakfast treat. Apple pie? Bite into an apple and explain to me why when put into a pastry it needs an additional pound of sugar added to it. Drowning your pancakes in maple syrup? What’s wrong with some stewed fruit with a few spices? There’s no need to be Paula Deen.

According to one study, “In 1822, the average American ate [per year] the amount of sugar found in one of today’s 12-ounce sodas every 5 days. Now, we eat that much every 7 hours.” Um, every 7 hours? Anyone else see a problem here? That spike in consumption isn’t just because of sugary pies, a lot of it comes from “added sugars” – all the sweeteners that are added to processed foods – but if we aimed for a sugar free diet when we’re in charge of the cooking, we would all be doing a lot better. And if we started eating real fruits instead of the watered down GMO versions that practically beg to have sugar added. Eat real food and you don’t need the rest.

I’m not advocating for a completely sugar free diet – hello, the Swedish cookie baking of the holidays is coming up soon – but as with all things, go in moderation. Use whole ingredients, and take advantage of all the good things that nature has to offer. As much as your sugar-addicted brain might tell you differently, you don’t need that refined sweetener. You might find that a sugar free diet isn’t so hard after all.

Related on EcoSalon:

10 Health Foods With More Sugar Than Coke

5 Natural Sweeteners to Replace Sugar

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Image: Adelle & Justin

The post Striving For A (Mostly) Sugar Free Diet: Foodie Underground appeared first on EcoSalon.

Just because sugar isn’t a recommended part of your diet doesn’t mean it is entirely useless.

Sugar has plenty of uses outside of the kitchen. From reducing pain to fueling a car, sugar is a cheap and effective alternative to many cleaning and toiletry items. So, while it may be sweet in taste, the grainy powder is an effective household and beauty remedy that gets the job done without derailing your diet.

1. Feed Flowers

Mix three teaspoons of sugar with two tablespoons of white vinegar to a vase filled with water. The vinegar prevents the growth of bacteria while the sugar strengthens the stems. Sugar also helps the flowers to last longer.

2. Keep Cookies Fresh

Store your cookies in a container alongside a handful of sugar cubes in order to keep the cookies fresh. This trick also applies to cake and bread.

3. Set Lipstick

Sprinkle a bit of sugar on your lips after applying lipstick, wait a minute, and then lick it off. The sugar draws moisture from the lipstick so that the color remains while the smear potential can kiss itself good bye.

4. Smooth Lips

Dry lips aren’t just a response to winter weather. Dryness is also associated with heat and exposure to the sun; lips can start to dry out, flake, and even burn. Get that luscious pucker with a simple rub of granulated sugar across your lips. Rinse with water and apply a moisturizing lip gloss or chapstick.

5. Exfoliate the Body

Soften your skin and remove dead skin cells with sugar. Mix about ½ cup of sugar with an essential oil of your choice until it is wet enough to clump together. Scrub all over dry skin, giving special attention to the elbows, knees, and ankles. Wash out in the shower to reveal supple, glowing skin.

6. Clean Grinders

Pour sugar into your coffee grinder and let it grind for a few minutes before washing it out. The sugar absorbs flavor and smell residues left from the coffee and gives your next cup of joe a fresh start!

7. Remove Grass Stains

Get rid of those tough grass stains using a sugar and water solution that is far less harsh than bleach and other stain-removing chemicals. Simply make a paste of sugar and water, apply it to the stain, let sit for an hour, and then wash as usual.

8. Clean Grimy Hands

If you’ve worked with oil or grease and soap and water just aren’t cutting it in terms of washing the grime away, add a bit of granulated sugar to your palm and massage your hands, scrubbing in between the fingers and all around the dirty areas. The sugar helps to remove tough grease. Wash clean with soap and water.

9. Heal a Wound

There is indeed truth to the ancient Zimbabwean remedy that suggests pouring sugar on cuts and sores to kill bacteria and prevent pain. Bacteria need moisture to survive, and sugar draws water from the wound. A 6-month English study conducted on 21 patients whose wounds did not respond to conventional treatment showed that sugar was effective in curing painful infections.

10. Soothe a Burned Tongue

Suck on a sugar cube or simple sprinkle a bit of sugar on the affected area of your tongue and the burn will disappear, and immediately at that!

11. Prevent Cheese Mold

In the same way you can keep cake and cookies fresher for longer, so too can you prevent cheese from molding by storing it with sugar cubes.

12. Fuel the Car

Sugarcane can be used in ethanol, which produces fewer greenhouse gas emissions than gasoline. Brazil has already embraced using sugarcane ethanol and flex fuels – fuels made by a mix of ethanol and gasoline. Sugar-based ethanol is nearly 800 percent more energy-resourceful than corn-based ethanol.

Photo Credit: Crecord

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So you’ve figured out that white sugar isn’t your best bet in terms of health. But what’s the best alternative? We’ve filtered through the possibilities and present to you the best natural sugar alternatives so you can stay sweet this summer.

Because of its caloric content and ability to spike blood sugar levels, white sugar consumption leads to weight gain and diabetes. It is devoid of any nutrition and can wreak havoc in your body. Artificial sweeteners – aspartame, saccharin, neotame, acesulfame K, and sucralose –are not much better. They have been linked to neurological disorders and cancer. Not enough research has been conducted on them to deem them overall safe, especially in the long-term, which is reason enough to steer clear.

At the end of the day, it is always more promising to keep your intake as natural and wholesome as possible. Look to Mother Nature for your sweetening agents, and these natural sugar alternatives are what you will find.

1. Stevia

Stevia is extracted from stevia leaves and boasts antibacterial properties, contains no carbs or calories, contributes to dental health, stabilizes blood sugar levels, and aids in calcium formation to improve bone density. Stevia ranks as perhaps the best alternative to sugar out there with regards to its zero glycemic index. However, when it comes to bulk usage, stevia doesn’t make the grade. While it comes in both powder and liquid form, stevia is 300-times sweeter than sugar, so a little goes a long way. It is difficult to match the consistency in baked good with stevia as you are able to achieve with sugar. There are brands out there that mix sugar and stevia together to make white sugar a notch healthier, but to do the sweetener true justice, use it only for sweetening teas, coffees, smoothies, pudding, and other dishes that don’t rely on the texture offered by sugar.

2. Maple Syrup

Packed with vitamins, minerals and disease-fighting antioxidants, maple syrup makes for a great natural sweetener. In 2010, University of Rhode Island researcher Navindra Seeram discovered 34 beneficial compounds in maple syrup, 20 of which play a key role in human health and 5 of which had yet to be discovered by anyone in the world. These compounds help maple syrup to fight cancer, slow aging, beat bloat, and boost the immune system. To reap the most from maple syrup’s marvelous nutritional profile, be sure to purchase a “pure” maple syrup. Grades A and B are generally the best choice for eating, cooking or baking. Use maple syrup as a topping on toast or pancakes, ice cream, and other breakfast or dessert recipes. It can also substitute sugar in baked recipes – 1 cup of sugar can be replaced with 2/3-3/4 cup of maple syrup.

3. Coconut Palm Sugar

Coconut palm sugar is extracted from the buds of coconut trees. It contains iron, potassium, zinc and magnesium as well as vitamins B1, B2, B3, B6 and C. It has a low glycemic index. Coconut palm sugar appears brown like brown sugar and has a deeper flavor than regular sugar, adding a distinct and delightful aroma and texture. It can be substituted 1:1 for white or brown sugar. It is excellent for baked goods!

4. Honey

When it comes to honey, you have to be very selective of the brand you choose. No two are the same. Most honeys you encounter at the supermarket are over-processed, which causes them to lose their superpower status, and some aren’t even legally honey to begin with! According to a study, more than three-fourths of honey sold in the U.S. isn’t produced by bees. Raw honey is unheated, pure, unpasteurized and unprocessed. It is extremely alkaline-forming in the body provides a slew of health benefits. Take a spoonful in the morning on an empty stomach and jump start your day with energy from living enzymes, antioxidants, and vitamins and minerals.

5. Dates

Because of their incredibly nutritional properties and sweetness and caramel-like taste, they are a great addition to your diet in moderation. Dates are rich in calcium, sulfur, iron, potassium, phosphorus, manganese, copper, and magnesium. They fight constipation and improve digestion as well as contribute to heart health. You can soak dates to soften them and then mix them into homemade smoothies, puddings, ice creams, and other desserts. They can also be added to baked goods.

Photo Credit:  Uwe Hermann, Hardworkinghippy, Stevecoutts, SingChan, alsjhc, Itinerant Tightwad

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ColumnHow does a foodie decide what to eat and what not to eat?

It was early in the morning, NPR was on, and my mother and I were sitting at my kitchen table drinking tea. An interview came on the radio with an executive of a certain well known specialty food chain that prides itself on healthy foods. He was describing his diet, which was something along the lines of vegan paired with an acronym that described a diet with no oil, low salt and no refined foods. I looked at my mother and we both rolled our eyes.

Before you judge me for judging someone else and their dietary choices let me say this: I am very conscious about what I eat, and so is my mother. I live in one of those gluten free, often vegan, a little bit of lamb tagine here and there kind of worlds. If I’m in a French bakery you can be sure that I will order a croissant, and pronounce it correctly. It has taken a long time, but I know what works best for my body. You know what else works best for my body: not existing in a world of black and white. Celebrating living. Call it French, call it European, whatever it is, it’s about enjoying what’s in front of you, the company that you’re with and the moment that you’re in.

We cut things out, we add them in. One week it’s no white flour the next it’s salt. If we’re lucky enough to be in a place where we can think about what we eat, the routine becomes about determining what works and what doesn’t work for us. But how good are we at really doing that? Temptation sets in and we can’t help but each for that flour/butter/sugar/egg concoction while a little voice in our head tells us that we should know better.

We go on our quinoa rampages, but even that isn’t great. Moral of the story: there is no right or wrong way to eat. There is merely identifying what works well for you, both physically and emotionally, and incorporating that into your daily routine, while at the same time maintaining a certain level of social grace.

Here’s the real problem: We live in a society where mass media tells us we have to look one way and fast food chains encourage us to eat another. That leads to an ongoing battle within ourselves where we feel so guilty about indulgences that our only alternative is to turn to overly strict diets. We can’t commit to the personal responsibility of cutting out most processed grains, so we end up on the Paleo diet. We can’t resist the temptation of a buttery baked good so we nix out any trace of dairy in what we eat. We’re not able to turn down a second glass of wine so we go on a booze-free cleanse. Do we live with dietary restrictions, or do we restrict our diet because we simply can’t trust ourselves to eat well? In a world that we know isn’t black and white, there’s a balance to be had somewhere in the middle, somewhere that allows us to live well and eat in moderation.

There are people with real food allergies; the kind of thing that they will die or get severely ill from. Then there are the rest of us. If a certain food makes you break out in hives, don’t eat it. But if you manage to find a balance where most of the time you eat well, don’t get down on yourself because of a moment of indulgence. We all have them and we all need them. Appreciation is as much a part of good food as preparation is.

Looking through a vintage cookbook from the 1950s, I was thinking about how much butter and sugar there was, and how many variations of cookie could be had in one book. But this was back when society wasn’t facing an obesity epidemic, people ate real and not processed foods, and if you made a batch of cookies, you ate one. Not seven. There’s a lesson to be learned somewhere in those pages.

Yes, we should all eat more kale, reduce our intake of meat and stick to whole grains, but our focus on specific ingredients or beneficial elements – hey! it’s packed with omega 3 AND antioxidants! – detracts from our understanding of real food. Diets let us oversimplify, reducing what we eat to individuals elements that all put together, don’t paint the full picture of who we’re eating with, where our food came from, its effect on the planet and a whole other laundry list of items. Eating is just as much about emotion as it is about physique.

Food is supposed to give us pleasure, and while a variety of different diets certainly provide a lot of pleasure, guilt is just as much a part of the problem as individual ingredients. Know what your body needs and eat it. Eat food with friends. Indulge on occasion. Remember that eating is a multidimensional process; celebrate it.

You know what Julie Child says? “Everything in moderation… including moderation.” I couldn’t agree more.

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

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The easiest and most enjoyable Fika food you may ever try.

Take a trip to Sweden, and seas of Chokladbollar (chocolate balls) will likely surround you. They fill the glass cases of bakeries, ine the shelves of shops, speckle department store cafes as a welcome Fika break from shoe shopping and even sit in grocery store aisles. It’s next to sinful and downright outlandish to visit this regal land without gobbling up a chocolate ball (or two, or six). But, like most fare in Sweden, chocolate balls fall far from being vegan.

But, make them yourself at home (in 30 minutes or less!), and you’ll discover it’s the easiest vegan dessert you’ve ever made—and gluten-free to boot. All it takes is a simple butter switch. As I whipped these up in Stockholm last week (not kidding), I played around with different proportions of ingredients until it tasted just right—mixing coconut butter with a Swedish vegan butter that the grocery store clerk warned was not made for baking. Yet it worked all the same. So much so that a Swedish friend declared them among the best he’d ever had.

And, while chocolate balls can be made in an endless variety of ways—kid friendly with just chocolate; adult friendly with liqueur or rich espresso—I love the blend of unsweetened cocoa powder, mixed with a couple squares of dark (70%) chocolate and a shot or two of espresso. Plus, espresso (in smaller doses, as in these chocolate balls), has been reported to help protect against type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, liver cancer, and liver cirrhosis, and dark chocolate boasts a host of phyto antixoidants for heart health and overall happiness.

So whip up some chocolate balls for a feel good Fika that makes every day a celebration.

The Original – Swedish Chocolate Balls
from All Recipes

Ingredients

• 4 cups rolled oats
• 1 ¼ cups white sugar
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1 tablespoon strong coffee
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2, 1 oz squares unsweetened baking chocolate, melted
• 1/3 cup coconut flakes

The Vegan & Gluten-Free Version – Swedish Chocolate Balls
Makes 24-48 balls, depending upon the size

Ingredients

• 4 cups rolled oats
• 1 ¼ cups white sugar
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup coconut butter and ½ cup vegan butter (may need to add about ½ cup more, as I did, to ensure a sticky dough)
• 1 tablespoon espresso
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2, 1 oz squares dark or unsweetened baking chocolate, melted
• 1/3 cup coconut flakes (or more as needed)

Directions

1. Mix the oats, sugar and cocoa powder together in a bowl. Add the “butter” and use your hands to mix the ingredients together until a thick dough is formed.

2. In a separate, stove top pan, mix together the espresso, vanilla and dark chocolate. Mix together over low heat until the chocolate is melted. Pour over the chocolate dough mixture and combine until thoroughly blended.

3. Place the coconut flakes in a bowl or on a plate. Roll small pieces of dough between your hands to make small balls (or make any size that you wish). Roll the balls in the coconut flakes and eat immediately. For a firmer texture, refrigerate for 2 hours, and enjoy!

Note: This recipe is just the beginning. Create other varieties by adding in a tablespoon (or two) of arrak extract, a Swedish liqueur. Or, roll the chocolate balls in toasted almonds, sugar or another topping of your choice.

Images: Jennifer Barckley

The post Vegan This: Make Your Own Swedish Chocolate Balls appeared first on EcoSalon.

Easy substitutions for a plant-based lifestyle. 

One of the nasty pitfalls of becoming vegan or pursuing a more plant-based, healthy lifestyle is the allure of vegan or low-calorie products. These packaged goods mock the “real” thing with often not so forgiving preservatives, colorants, and other additives. That’s why one of the biggest challenges is finding simple, within-hands-reach ways to replace the most common ingredients with their vegan or healthy (and just-as-real) counterparts.

Brighten your kitchen, nourish your heart, and spread the love with these animal-friendly and nutritional kitchen substitutions.

Eggs

If you aren’t eating an egg-centric dish, chances are that a recipe calling for eggs is looking for either a binding or leavening agent. Eggs are viscous and hold ingredients tightly together, which is why they appear in most baked goods, burgers, and creams. They also help to leaven, or “rise” baked dishes. Depending on what you’re making, the replacement will change accordingly.

To replace one egg in a baked recipe, alternatives that have worked for me in include:

• 1 tablespoon a of ground flaxseed mixed in 3 tablespoons of water and allowed to sit until the mixture thickens
• 2 tablespoons of cornstarch or potato starch
• 1/2 large banana, mashed, but only for sweet recipes
• 1/4 cup applesauce, but only for sweet recipes

Keep in mind that the replacement should adjust according to the recipe. The flaxseed mixture wouldn’t work in a smooth batter, so opt for another alternative. If the recipe calls for more than two eggs, add some baking powder – 1/2 teaspoon per additional egg – as it will help with the rising effect.

For the pure purpose of binding ingredients in a mixture, the options are wide and varied. Instead of one egg, you could use 1/2 avocado, 2 tablespoons tahini, 2 tablespoons nut butter, 2 tablespoons bread crumbs, or 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast. Anything viscous and thick enough to hold things together without changing the taste will work. The dry replacements work best in mixtures with a liquid element.

Milk

This is probably the easiest of the bunch, because there is a hot market for dairy-free “milk” these days. Peruse the health section aisles at your grocery store and choose from the array of rice, almond, hemp, coconut, and soy milks. Avoid brands with too many additives – sugars, flavoring or preservatives.

Whenever I have the ingredients on hand, I like to make my own almond milk. All you need is 1 cup raw almonds, enough water to soak them in overnight, 1/2 teaspoon sea salt, and 3 cups water. Soak the almonds in the salt and water overnight. The next day, rinse them and toss into a blender. Blend them with 3 cups of water until thin. Separate the almond milk from its fibers with a cheese cloth. Drink immediately and store in the refrigerator.

Cheese

Dairy cheese can be replaced by any store-bought soy or rice-based cheese, but these often include strange ingredients that are necessary to achieve the same texture, taste, and look of cheese. They are also not much more forgiving in terms of calories and fat.

Luckily, these vegan alternatives make things a bit more interesting and are easy enough to make on the regular:

• white cheese dip
• sweet potato cheese
• basil cashew cheese

Keep in mind that when it comes to cheese, nutritional yeast is your most trusted accomplice. It has a cheesy flavor that, when paired with a creamy base, can mock cheese to the T (or C).

Gelatin

Ever wonder where gelatin comes from? It’s a protein obtained by boiling animal bones, tendons, ligaments, hooves, and skin. Not necessarily the kinds of things you associate with jellied candies, toaster pastries, cereals, and Jell-O.

Alternatives include carrageenan, agar-agar, fruit pectin, and locust bean gum.

Butter

In sweet recipes, you can replace up to 3/4 cup butter with applesauce. Replace the rest with a vegan butter substitution, such as Earth Balance. In cooking, where butter is scant, use a vegan substitution.

Oil

Oil has little benefit when it is cooked, literally, to death. Oil biochemically changes when it is heated, and it loses many of its nutritional benefits. Opt to enjoy oils in their raw, extra-virgin states. The healthiest raw oils include olive oil, grapeseed oil, avocado oil, walnut oil, sesame oil, flaxseed oil, and peanut oil. When cooking, use coconut oil – it has a high burning temperature and can withstand heat.

Buttermilk

To replace buttermilk, simply combine 1 tablespoon of white vinegar with 1 cup of vegan milk, such as almond, soy, coconut or rice milk.

Sugar

In baked goods, marinades, and sauces, maple syrup is a great replacement for sugar. In fact, I find that it gives the dish a deeper, more complex flavor, making it more unique and enjoyable to eat. You can replace every 1 cup of sugar with 3/4 cup of maple syrup. This requires that you reduce the dominant liquid in the recipe by 2-4 tablespoons, for consistency’s sake. Pick and choose with the liquids – you don’t want to sacrifice an important taste, so don’t reduce the oil or vinegar measurements when you have 2 or 3 cups of milk to take from. To offset maple syrup’s slight acidity, you may choose to add 1/4-1/2 teaspoons of baking soda. If the recipe calls for sour cream, buttermilk, or sour milk, skip the baking soda.

In tea and coffee, there is no need to reach for sugar anymore. Stevia is the only sweetener out there that has a zero-glycemic level and zero calories – to say nothing of its a-little-goes-a-long-way poster child status. Stevia is 300 times sweeter than sugar and if you find a brand that fits your tastes – I am a NuNaturals fan – you won’t be able to leave the house without it! I prefer liquid stevia, because it’s seamless to use and easy to carry around in my purse. A few drops later, and my beverages taste like liquid gold. One 2-ounce bottle tends to last me 3-4 months.

Some manufacturers have come out with powdered versions that can replace sugar in recipes. There are also sugar and powdered stevia mixes that aim to reduce sugar, but not completely nix it.

ALSO CHECK OUT: 

Vegan Chocolate Mousse with Sea Salt

Make Your Own Vegan Salted Caramel Ice Cream

Recipe: Vegan Avocado Alfredo Sauce

Aylin Erman currently resides in Istanbul and is creator of plant-based recipe website GlowKitchen.

Images: Furry Scaly, Robert S. Donovan, Tétine, Jeffrey W, MRBECK, Aylin Erman

The post 8 Substitutions for the Most Common Kitchen Ingredients appeared first on EcoSalon.

In search of ocean air and juicy rose hips…just outside of the city.

The other day I took my bike on a long long ride  to get to the sea through neighborhoods I never new existed. The idea was to get away from the city to breath fresh salty air and eat some newly caught clams. The bonus was that I got to pick ripe rose hips. The rose bushes were growing in the sand just at the edge of the beach. As a rose hip loving Swede, this was a happy moment and I picked as many as I could find.

Rose hips are very high in vitamin C and there are plenty of things to make with it. For example, the outer fruity part of the rose hip (often orange or red) can be dried and used for soup and tea (which can be done with the fresh fruit as well). A rose hip soup is very popular in Sweden especially among children. I love it. The soup can be eaten warm or cold, with ice cream or tiny almond cookies (mandel biskvier) that are best soaked in the soup. My favorite is to serve the the soup while cross-country skiing, eating it while smoking hot directly from a thermos. I can’t think of a better energy treat than that!

If you ever have split open a rose hip you probably know that the hairy part that surrounds the seeds creates itchiness on your skin. It’s annoying but totally harmless. (It’s actually used as an itching powder).

Fresh rose hips are often used to make jam, marmalade or jelly. You can also make schnapps, liqueur or, why not some rose hip sherry? My sister Anna Kindvall has become sort of an expert at making sherry out of rose hips. She makes it so well that a restaurant recently wanted to put it on their dessert wine list. In her wine cabinet you can find different vintages of the wine and like many other wines, it only gets better with age. The wine is sweet and flavorful. It works well with desserts or different kinds of cheeses. It’s also great in cooking and, I agree with my sister, a dash of rose hip sherry in a chantarelle sauce is heavenly.

My sister (and others) claim that the most flavorful rose hips are the ones with long narrow fruits. I have also heard that the best time to pick them is after the 1st frost. Here in Brooklyn it’s still summer and the ones I picked were all small and round (with a really nice aroma). I couldn’t get hold of winemakers yeast so I’m using instant yeast. In time we will see how my batch of  wine will turn out.

Anna’s Rose Hip Sherry

• 8 ½ cups (2 liters) rose hips (preferably the long narrow fruits)
• 3 1/3 lb (1 ½ kg) sugar
• 12 2/3 cups (3 liter) water
• 25 gr wine maker’s yeast (or fresh yeast, it might even work with instant yeast)

Roughly trim the rose hips but don’t rinse them with water as the surface contains natural yeast that are useful in the process (or that’s what I’ve heard). Make a sugar syrup by heating up the sugar together with the water. When the sugar has dissolved let it cool. Use some of the liquid to dissolve the yeast. Let the yeast start (there will be bubbles on the surface) before mixing with the rest of the sugar liquid and the rose hips in a bucket or a glass carboy. Cover the jar and let the wine sit still for three months. At this time the liquid should look clear and the rose hips have fallen to the bottom of the jar.

Tap the sherry into dark bottles (for example on 12 fl oz beer bottles). To avoid the sediment at the bottom, Anna recommends spooning up the sherry instead of pouring (can be hard with a carboy). Seal with a suitable cork or cap. Let the sherry stand for at least one more month before drinking.

Illustrations by Johanna Kindvall

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