Introduction

Trying to remove such a widely and heavily used group of ingredients from your diet… and ‘having a life’ can be a real challenge, there’s no doubt. There is, however, a generally very simple fix when it comes to cooking at home without refined sugars, with some simple habits to develop when it comes to shopping.

There is a plethora of delicious and flavoursome food out there that doesn’t have (or simply doesn’t need) the inclusion of refined sugars. The recipes in this book will help you ditch them, using instead some of the many natural sugars and sweeteners available that act as brilliant swap-ins and substitutes, leaving you just as satisfied, less ‘bouncing off the wall then crashing’ and certainly better health-wise too.

Too much refined sugar can increase your chance of developing heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and encourages weight gain and acne… to name a few. We all know it’s bad for our teeth, and that too much refined sugar (and therefore a bad diet, with lots of processed food) can cause havoc with energy levels and mental health.

One thing to note, though, is that sugar is sugar (whether it is refined or unrefined); it’ll all get absorbed straight into the bloodstream once consumed, raise your blood sugar (though at varying speeds and durations depending on its glycemic index), and while it’s great to treat yourself and enjoy sweet foods, balance, like everything in life, is key to a healthy lifestyle.

This book focuses on meals that would usually include refined sugar, but the amount of sugar or sweetness has been reduced as much as possible and, most relevantly, the types of sugar have been converted to non-refined sugars, all of which are natural.

A big part of reducing refined sugars in your diet is just focusing on eating unprocessed, unrefined foods as a whole. Easier said than done, but hey, you’ve got to start somewhere.

Xylitol, though it sounds pretty chemical, is a natural sweetener made from a variety of tree barks (and some veg too). It’s the ingredient that looks, tastes and works most like caster (superfine) or granulated white sugar. This has been used in some of the dessert recipes to achieve as much of a similar outcome as one would have when using refined sugar. I’ve also used lots of coconut sugar. It looks and tastes more like a muscovado sugar, but make sure you pass it through a sieve as some hardy boulders can appear, which you want to avoid when adding to a cake mix, for example. Elsewhere, you’ll see natural syrups like maple, agave or date syrup, all of which are brilliant unrefined ingredients. Honey is a great option, and is also used.

A lot of the sweetness throughout the recipes has been extracted from cooking with fruit and sweet vegetables, taking advantage of their natural flavour and fructose, while also giving you vitamins and nutrients! Make sure the fruit you use is at its ripest, so that you benefit from the ingredient at its sweetest stage (and therefore from its moisture too, particularly in baking).

In terms of cacao and chocolate (and with all-natural sweeteners), make sure you read the ingredients on the packet to ensure they are all natural: raw cacao with no refined sugar added! There are some great products out there. You’ll be able to find some brand advice throughout the recipes.