Sugar & Substitutes

[Kitt]

The doc I'm seeing for BHRT wants me off sugar . She was the one who suggested I do an elimination diet to see if I was gluten sensitive (I am).

Is it doable? Just learning to live gluten free, now this. Anyone have anything similar going on in their lives and how do you cook & bake without sugar? Not that I use that much, but needing to know for future reference and baking. Do you use stevia, honey or agave? She was very strict about not using artificial sweeteners.

Thanks.

[Mizzo]

Many gluten-free recipes call for agave and Honey. I have never seen a gluten-free recipe call for a sugar substitution like Stevia.

[Mizzo]

BTW there is a website call SS & gluten-free ( sugar substitute and Gluten free) additionally they have other allergen free recipes. I have only made 1 recipe from it but they were good cookies.

[freeatlast]

The doc I'm seeing for BHRT wants me off sugar . She was the one who suggested I do an elimination diet to see if I was gluten sensitive (I am).

Is it doable? Just learning to live gluten free, now this. Anyone have anything similar going on in their lives and how do you cook & bake without sugar? Not that I use that much, but needing to know for future reference and baking. Do you use stevia, honey or agave? She was very strict about not using artificial sweeteners.

Thanks.

You can substitute Splenda in equal amts. for sugar if you want to go that route. You can also find MANY gluten-free recipes that call for natural sweeteners. gluten-free Goddess uses agave in a lot of her recipes. Many people use natural sweeteners in their recipes on their gluten-free blogs.

Here's a flatbread recipe that needs no sugar and is my new favorite bread (comments by Emilia):

Gluten-Free Flatbread

by Emilia on May 11, 2008

Psyllium husk is great for people who are starting out a gluten-free diet since it promotes the healing of the stomach. I eat it mixed with water and also some glutamine if I accidentally happen to eat some gluten and it helps with the pain at least for me.

Gluten free flatbread

- 1 cup (2,4 dl) quinoa flour

-1/2 -1 tsp salt

-1 tbls psyllium husk

-3/4 cup (2 dl) water

Preheat oven to 200 Celsius (400 F).

Mix the salt, psyllium husk and flour together, add the water gradually so that it resembles a thick porridge, wait for a couple of minutes and then spread the batter on to a baking tray lined with baking paper.

Add the water gradually if you want to be on the sure side. It should look somewhat like porridge.

Let it sit for a couple of minutes and then spread it on to a baking tray lined with baking paper. I like to make mine small and round like small pancakes.

Sprinkle some seeds, herbs, salt or olive oil on top if you want to. I sprinkled some poppy seeds this morning.

Bake for approximately 20 minutes, the time depends on the flour you used and also on how thick you have spread it. The thinner it gets, the faster it bakes. When I’m in a hurry I usually spread the batter very thinly and it bakes in 10 minutes.

[jenngolightly]

You can almost always sub honey for sugar. The taste will be different, but you will get used to it. I prefer the taste now and almost always substitute with honey. There are different kinds of honey. I do not like clover honey.

[RiceGuy]

I never bake with sugar, only Stevia. Sure, the recipe must be adjusted, since you'd only be using a fraction of a teaspoon in place of a whole cup of sugar, but it is certainly doable.

If the reason your doctor wants you off sugar is because sugar cane is in the grass family (as is wheat and other gluten grains), then other types of sugar might be an easier option for you. If this is the case, try beet sugar. It is sucrose, just like cane sugar, only it's from beets. Looks, measures, pours, and functions just like regular sugar, and AFAIK it tastes the same too.

If there's a blood sugar issue, the only types of sugar which I'm aware of that don't have the impact on blood sugar which sucrose has, is fructose. In which case agave or granulated fructose (both of which are sweeter than sugar, thus you'd use less) might be options open to you.