If you search through Amazon for new cook books this year, you will come across a phenomenon – a wealth (or let’s call it a rash) of books promising healthy recipes/sugar-free/detox foods, etc.
What you will also notice is plenty of celebrities jumping on that bandwagon…
TV presenter and fitness fan Davina McCall’s latest book is Smart Carbs (she has also written books about sugar-free eating) and ex-Radio 1 DJ Fearne Cotton will also leap on that gravy train with a book called Cook Happy, Cook Healthy scheduled for publication later this year.
General moves towards promoting cleaner eating and cooking for yourself are welcome – but many of the so-called sugar-free recipes that have featured in magazines promoting such cook books aren’t sugar-free at all.
They rely on dates, agave syrup, maple syrup, beetroot, pureed bananas and other such super sweet foods* which are sugary and will have an impact on blood sugar levels for anyone eating them – a similar kind of impact you might get from eating an “ordinary” slice of cake made from flour and cane sugar.
As any diabetic can tell you, your body doesn’t say – “ooh, dates! So glad it’s healthy sugar. No need to flood the system with insulin to compensate…”
[Or need to inject large amounts of insulin to cover the dates – if you are a Type 1.]
What would I rather have? In all honesty, I’d rather eat a slice of really nice cake made from the ingredients that make great cakes, such as white flour and sugar, and butter – and eat it very, very occasionally.
We do feature sugar-free recipes on this site and in our book, The Diabetes Diet – proper sugar-free recipes that don’t use maple syrup, dried dates and pureed bananas (sugar by another name), but are still indulgent.
Let us know what you think!
*Not to pick on anyone in particular, but Prima magazine recently featured recipes from Jo Pratt’s book In The Mood for Healthy Food, which it called “clever, guilt-free bakes”. The carrot cake recipe featured ripe bananas, maple syrup, grated carrots, and sultanas and raisins.
Diabetes Diet 
Totally agree with you! It really annoys me when a recipe includes 300g of dates! What do you use in your occasional sweet treats?
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Hi there, fellow sugar spurner! 300g of dates is certainly sugar overload. For sweet treats, we use sweeteners… Controversial in some circles, but occasional use is OK in my book. If you don’t eat a lot of sweet treats, ordinary fruit often tastes really sweet when you have it. I’ve got a particular thing for oranges.
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You are defo on to something! We have a weekly treat rather than a daily one! Loved your infograph on how much sugar is in fruit!
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Thank you! I got it from Zoe Harcombe’s blog – you might like that too. zoeharcombe.com
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