I have really come to enjoy my weekly Hot Topic Sizzle and this week features a New Sugar. As someone in the food/food & wine industry, with a great blog and several companies to my name I have people emailing me for attention to their products. And there are some products that are upcoming worth looking at.
The idea is of this Hot Topic Sizzle is to give you the heads up for a New Sugar headed our way. It gives me hope. And it makes me feel like people are actually paying attention to what the ‘big boys’ are trying to force feed us. Take sugar for example.
I always talk about it. Sugar = inflammation. It’s as clear as a bell. It spikes your blood sugar and that’s where the problem starts. Yet all of us are so completely conditioned from our childhood to crave those donuts, want that chocolate, drink that soda, need that candy and eat those cakes. Sugar is not a food category and yet in our society it seems like it is. And for me personally? The trip away from sugar is still a work in progress. The way I started this trip decades ago, is by trying maple sugar, then coconut sugar. Both are not really ‘sugary’ but fill a certain balance when cooking.
Then, I tried eating more fruit, including an apple a day. Amazingly enough, natural fruit, even dried fruit satifies. One of the mixes I came up with is high cocoa chocolate nibs with dried tart cherries. I put this out for guests at parties, and everyone wanted to know “What is this”? It was a hit. A star was born!
But there are still many of us (including me) that eats sugar to celebrate, eats sugar to be happier, and eats sugar to remember the past and some of the joy of family once had. And some of our substitutes like Agave, which was such a big hit, still spike your glycemic index exactly the way sugar does, (unless it specifically says it doesn’t on the label) and I really don’t count on everything I read. It’s a real dilemma. That’s why I am pleased to announce Palmyra Jaggery Sugar.
According to Conscious Food in the UK, “Palmyra Jaggery – is known in India as “sugar for diabetics”. It is a unique product and brought to you for the first time in the UK. It is the only plant-based source of bioavailable vitamin B12 in the world, low GI and is exceptionally rich in B Vitamins, iron, potassium, magnesium and other essential minerals vital for maintaining good health and vitality – just one tablespoon of Palmyra contains 133% of your RDA of Vitamin B12, 222% of your RDA of Vitamin B6 (known as a vitality and sex-drive vitamin) and 664% of Vitamin B1! Researchers in India are finding that it may also help to break down the opiate-like addiction caused by processed sugar, thus freeing you from that constant desire to nibble and helping you to maintain healthy weight that is essential for leading a life full of vitality. Palmyra Jaggery can be used just as you would use sugar – in your tea or coffee, in baking and cooking, just remember that you use far less Palmyra Jaggery than you would sugar to achieve that wonderful sweet taste”.
We’ve been talking about GMO lately…. and they also say that “Palmyra palm trees are also self-healing and do not spread infections meaning that there is no need for the use of pesticides or herbicides thus giving your body a nourishing product unpolluted by industrial chemicals”.
Who could ask for anything more? Natural. Doesn’t require pesticides or herbicides. And because it’s strong, you use less and so it costs less.
Now this is why I’m glad to be living in today’s world! New discoveries every day!
Happy Eating,
Chef Marian