12 Steps to Whole Foods

APPENDIX A
Recipe Ingredients
These are ingredients in 12 Steps recipes that you may be unfamiliar with.
Whole-Food Sweeteners
Agave. A syrup or “nectar” derived from a plant similar to cactus. You can find agave online or in
health food stores raw and organic. It’s a liquid sweetener and thus can’t be substituted directly for
sugar in baking without alterations to the recipe. Despite being very sweet, it has the glycemic index
of sugar and a neutral taste and is, therefore, an excellent sweetener for sauces, dressings, and green
smoothies.
Coconut Palm Sugar. This is my favorite sweetener for baking, with its neutral taste and easy 1:1
substitution (for refined sugar) in a recipe. It has a glycemic index (GI) score of 35, which makes it a
low-glycemic food with slow conversion of sugar in the bloodstream. It has up to 1000% more of
minerals like nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, zinc, iron, manganese (and more)
than agave, honey, or maple syrup. It’s also the world’s most sustainable source of sugar, as coconut
palms are twice as productive as sugar cane, can grow in very depleted soils (sand), and improve soil
structure. This sweetener is not yet widely available—especially in raw, organic form—so we offer it,
at a bulk discount, in our annual group buy on GreenSmoothieGirl.com and by the 5 lb. bag year round.
Honey. In its raw state, honey is extremely nutritious. Some theorize that eating raw local honey
ameliorates seasonal allergies. It’s very sweet, so you can substitute half the amount of honey when
sugar is called for in a recipe. Its effect on your blood sugar is virtually identical to sugar and it is high
in calories, so use it sparingly.
Maple syrup. A whole food with a flavor most people like, maple syrup is rich in minerals. (Don’t
confuse real maple syrup with the brand-name “syrups” on most grocery shelves, which are corn syrup
with maple flavoring.) Real maple syrup does have a high glycemic index and high calories, however,
so use it sparingly. The ratings for maple syrup are confusing: Grade B is the most unrefined, so choose
that over Grade A whenever you can.
Molasses. Buy blackstrap, organic, and unsulphured, and you have a very nutritious sweetener, very
high in iron and B vitamins. It’s one of the most inexpensive sweeteners (a gallon costs about $5). Not
everyone likes the dark taste of molasses, but it makes great ginger cookies, and I use it in granola.
© Copyright Robyn Openshaw 12 Steps to Whole Foods 337