Adjust your snacks to your lifestyle, sex and age. Check out which sweetener suits the best for kids and which one for women in menopause.
While working on my Cake Book (still in progress) I was deep diving into the science of sugars and carbs. One hand I’ve been trying many things myself for years, on the other hand one life time would not be enough to try everything. I’m grateful for scinece that we can just look up facts and rely on them next to personal experiences.
What you must have noticed when you look back on your life is that your needs are changing depending on your lifestyle, age, work. So it’s worthwhile adjusting your snacks accordingly.
Here now I just want to summarize a very important finding shortly.
Looking at low GI (Glicemic Index) natural sugars/sweeteners, the best option from all stand point seems to be dried fruits.
You are better off pasting priorly soaked dried fruits than applying honey, erythritol or cocos sugar even.
If you are ready, let’s see which dried fruits?
For kids, who still keep moving, running around, raisins can serve the needs perfect, because raisins are one of the most calory rich dried fruits, and kids muscles need to burn more glucose than we, adults. The best thing about raisins is that they contain phytochemicals, that fight the bacteria in your mouth which lead to cavities, so they actually promote healthy teeth and gums [1]. Men can always handle more calories than women, especially if they are phisically active. They can handle raisins as sweetener every once in awhile. For women 45+ I would recommend to sweeten cakes with raisins only occasionally.
For adults with skin problems or women fighting hair loss [2] dried figs can be useful, though calorie wise richer than dates or prunes. Dates show antyinflammatory properties [3] and beneficial for bone health similarly to prunes, so both are wanted for women in or after menopause, especially prunes because they promote estrogen metabolism helping reduce carcinogenic estrogens associated with breast cancer [4].
[1] Christine D. Wu: Grape Products and Oral Health; The Journal of Nutrition, Volume 139, Issue 9, September 2009
[2] Samer A Dhaher, Abdulla A Yacoub,1 and Ausama Ayob Jacob2: Estimation of Zinc and Iron Levels in the Serum and Hair of Women with Androgenetic Alopecia: Case–control Study, Indian J Dermatol. 2018
[3] M. M. Essa, Ph.D., M. Akbar, M.A.S. Khan: Beneficial effects of date palm fruits on neurodegenerative diseases, [PMC] 2016.
[4] Brinkman MT1, Baglietto L, Krishnan K, English DR, Severi G, Morris HA, Hopper JL, Giles GG.: Consumption of animal products, their nutrient components and postmenopausal circulating steroid hormone concentrations. [PubMed] 2010 Feb;64(2):176-83
Comments