I, like most believers in Jesus, had a longing to visit Israel. The land of the Bible, the Holy Land where Jesus walked—Israel is all of this and more.
My one and only trip to the Holy Land happened in October 1998. I was twenty-three years old and traveling on a tour organized by my home church at the time, Christ Fellowship in Palm Beach Gardens. This was a great opportunity to travel to Israel and experience the Promised Land, so I took it. Being Jewish only added to my anticipation of visiting such a historic place—which housed the roots of my past as well as the very symbol of my faith.
Joining the tour group was a young lady named Nicki Tackett, whom I had met in the singles’ group that gathered on Monday nights at Christ Fellowship. We were dating at the time and both felt the desire to get married in the near future. While in Israel, I even remember shopping for a diamond in Tel Aviv. No luck on finding an affordable Israeli gemstone, but we did marry less than a year later.
Our group saw all the usual and popular historic sights. I loved Mount Carmel and the statue of Elijah reenacting the fire he called down from heaven. Seeing where Jesus spoke the Beatitudes at the Mount of Olives was awe-inspiring, as well as visiting Megiddo, the “Hill of Battles” where archeologists have uncovered twenty civilizations built upon one another.
Joining us on the trip was Hall of Fame baseball catcher Gary Carter and his wife, Sandy, which was a welcome surprise to this lifelong baseball fan. I talked Gary’s ear off, bringing up every baseball stat known to man, but he was a good sport and indulged my excitement. When our discussions turned to nutrition, he was receptive to hearing my thoughts because he was having huge problems with his aching knees after many years of crouching behind the plate. (Sadly, Gary would face far more serious health problems. He died from brain cancer in 2012 at the age of fifty-seven.)
If I had to pick a few other highlights from our trip to Israel, I’d say that swimming in the Dead Sea and getting baptized in the Jordan River topped the list. It was awesome seeing the very places I had read so much about in the Bible. This was the land of “milk and honey” promised to Moses and the Hebrew people in Exodus 3:8. The Angel of the Lord said that He had seen the oppression of His people in Egypt and that He would deliver them out of the hands of their captors and lead them to a “land flowing with milk and honey.”
For the Hebrew people, there was great symbolism in associating the Promised Land with foods such as milk and honey. If the land was flowing with milk, that meant their livestock would graze on wide-open fields of lush pasture, producing plentiful milk. The honey would come from bees that thrived on land blessed with a natural abundance of flowers, in addition to honey made from fruits such as dates and grapes.
It’s interesting that the Bible’s Promised Land was called the land of milk and honey, yet today, many nutrition experts encourage dieters to avoid dairy and sweets. I believe that milk and honey, when consumed in their correct forms, can be wonderful foods.
Unfortunately, most of the dairy and sweeteners we consume today are anything but healthy.
Nearly 800 years before His birth, the prophet Isaiah wrote 123 prophecies about the coming Messiah. Four of those prophecies are found in the seventh chapter of the Book of Isaiah:
◼ The Messiah would be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14).
◼ The Messiah would be called Immanuel, God with Us (Isaiah 7:14).
◼ The Messiah would be God (Isaiah 7:14).
◼ The Messiah would have wisdom from a young age (Isaiah 7:15).
The last bullet point refers to this verse:
Curds and honey He shall eat, that He may know to refuse the evil and choose the good (Isaiah 7:15).
A better understanding of Isaiah 7:15 comes from the original New Living Translation, printed in 1996:
By the time this child is old enough to eat curds and honey, he will know enough to choose what is right and reject what is wrong.
What Scripture is saying here is that Jesus would know right from wrong from the time He was a preschooler, when He ate His curds and honey.
Curds or cheese are made when milk is separated out into solids (curds) and liquid (whey). The white curds are slippery and have a gelatinous feel to them. Curds have a pleasant and slightly tart taste resulting from the enzymatic pre-digestion they undergo during the cheese-making process.
Back in Jesus’ time, curds were very popular in the spring and fall, traditionally the times of year when the rains came and the pastures were abundant with nutrition for the cows, sheep, and goats that produced copious amounts of milk. Since there was no refrigeration, our biblical ancestors looked for ways to preserve the milk, and forming it into curds added significantly to its conservation. Honey from bees had to be a rare treat for young and old alike back in biblical times.
When it comes to dairy products and sweeteners in your daily diet, it’s really important to choose wisely. I’ll start first with dairy by saying that any time you talk about milk, you’re sure to stir up some controversy.
There are voices who believe we shouldn’t consume any milk or dairy products. They say our bodies have no need for milk after we’ve been weaned. Our bodies weren’t designed to drink the milk of another species, they point out.
Nearly forty years ago, my parents bought in to those arguments. They were vegans when I was born, so we didn’t have any milk or dairy products in our house for the first four and a half years of my life—or meat, for that matter. They had a change of heart when Mom became pregnant with my sister, Jenna. Mom began to crave the nutrients found in meat and dairy products to nourish the life growing inside her.
I think any assertions that humans shouldn’t consume dairy after weaning are ridiculous. Humans have been consuming dairy for thousands of years, and our Old Testament forefathers practically lived off of the dairy produced by their flocks and herds, especially in the winter months when there were no fruit on the trees, vegetables in the garden, or grains in the field.
As for the argument that we’re the only ones who drink another species’ milk, I point out that if you put milk in front of another animal—for instance, cow’s milk in a saucer for your dog or cat—your pet will gladly lap up that milk. To say that humans are the only ones who drink another species’ milk is a silly analogy, as we’re also the only ones to send text messages or Skype!
I believe the right kind of dairy is wonderful for your health. I’ve long championed the consumption of cultured dairy products, which are abundant in probiotics, enzymes, and easily digestible proteins.
Ever since my first book Patient, Heal Thyself was released in late 2002, I have recommended the consumption of dairy products made from goat’s milk and sheep’s milk to the exclusion of cow’s milk. It always seemed to me that goat’s milk and sheep’s milk were easier to digest and assimilate than cow’s milk, but I never really understood why.
That would start to change in 2006 when I visited Hendricks Farms and Dairy in Telford, Pennsylvania, while on a speaking tour. I immediately noted that the owner, Trent Hendricks, had a passion to raise food sustainably and locally. After my first sampling, I can attest that his award-winning raw milk cheese, eggs from pastured chickens, and meats such as lamb sausage were delicious and nutritious, which is why health-minded people would drive hundreds of miles to buy his superior grass-fed meats and dairy products.
Trent’s grass-fed raw milk ice cream was otherworldly. That afternoon, I tried scoops of vanilla, maple, strawberry, and peanut butter and couldn’t decide which I liked best. On a personal note, I found the Hendricks Farms’ dairy products to be very easy to digest, more so than other cow’s milk dairy I’d consumed in the past.
Trent and I discussed the makeup of cow’s milk, which consists of fat, protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and water. The protein is primarily made up of two proteins: the first is called casein (about 80 percent) and the other is lactalbumin or whey (the remaining 20 percent). Within the casein is a particular protein called beta-casein with two primary variations—A1 and A2—depending on the genetic makeup of the cow the milk came from.
The A1 beta-casein affects the body differently than A2 beta-casein does. Upon digestion of A1 beta-casein, a peptide—a small fragment of protein—is formed. Known as beta-casomorphin 7, or BCM7, if this peptide gets through the stomach and into the blood, it may cause the body some problems. That could explain why many people who can’t tolerate cow’s milk complain of bloating, cramps, gas, and diarrhea. What was previously understood to be symptoms of lactose intolerance may in fact be an intolerance to the A1 beta-casein protein.
I nodded my head while Trent expounded on the topic of dairy intolerance. From reading my books, Trent knew that I was a big proponent of milk from goats and sheep.
Trent suggested that there might be more to the story. He believed that good quality cow’s milk could be tolerated just as well as milk from goats and sheep and could be even healthier, provided that the cow produced milk free of A1 beta-casein.
This was the first I heard on the subject. Could the presence of A1 beta-casein in most cow’s milk—even raw, grass-fed—be the reason why many can’t tolerate it?
I did my own research and found that all milk produced by goats and sheep is free of A1 beta-casein. I also learned that 99.9 percent of cow’s milk in the U.S. contains A1 beta-casein. But outside the United States, cows in Africa, India, and the Middle East produced milk that was free of A1 beta-casein due to the fact that their cattle originated from a different species.
Why did some cows have A1 beta-casein and others didn’t? It’s believed that a biological mutation that occurred hundreds, if not thousands, of years ago created a new subspecies of cow, known as bos taurus, with the genetics to produce an aberrant protein in its milk. These bos taurus cows became the dominant species of cattle in Europe, the United States, as well as in New Zealand and Australia.
On the other hand, bos indicus cattle (also known as Zebu) originated in the subcontinent of India and became the dominant species of cattle in Africa and the Middle East. These cows did not have the genetics to produce the A1 beta-casein protein, and thus were not linked to a host of maladies.
I was intrigued by these bos indicus cattle without the genetics to produce A1 beta-casein and wanted to learn more.
A few months after visiting with Trent Hendricks in Pennsylvania, Nicki and I took another trip together—this time to South Africa. I had been asked to speak at two conferences in Johannesburg.
I was poking around some grocery stores when I saw something in the dairy case called maas. I was told that maas was a traditional food inspired by the famed Maasai tribe that inhabited Tanzania and Kenya.
Maas was widely consumed in South Africa, and its preparation has been handed down generation after generation. The traditional method to make it was to start with a calabash, or a dried gourd from a tree. You drop a few cups of rice or corn with hot water into the calabash and shake it around to remove all the loose seeds. Then you rinse out the gourd a few more times.
Next, you pour in fresh milk and allow the dairy to “improve” or culture for about three days, depending on the temperature and the taste you want. The first batch will probably not taste good and will need to be thrown out until the calabash is seasoned.
The next time around, when the maas is ready, you pour out two-thirds and refill the gourd with more milk. You leave everything to ferment for hours or even days until it’s ready.
I really liked the maas I tried in South Africa and felt that its unique fermentation process that infused powerful probiotics and enzymes into the milk made it superior to the popular fermented dairy products yogurt and kefir. I wondered if there was some way to replicate or produce a cultured dairy product like maas in the United States.
In studying the Maasai, I learned that they were a dominant tribe known for their feats of speed and strength. In fact, as a rite of passage, a Maasai teen or young man would undergo a painful circumcision and then be required to go off in the woods and kill a lion with an instrument he made by hand. Only then could he become a Maasai warrior.
The Maasai consumed a diet that was over 90 percent dairy. But not just any dairy because the cows producing milk for the Maasai were of the bos indicus (zebu) species that produced milk free of A1 beta-casein.
This was all starting to fit together nicely, just like a puzzle. I now understood why Africans, Arabs, Jews, and Indians who emigrated to the U.S. have such problems tolerating our country’s typical dairy products. These people groups thrived on dairy from bos indicus (zebu) cattle free of A1 beta-casein in their homelands, but when they came to America and began consuming dairy containing A1 beta-casein, they experienced challenges.
After I purchased our land in southern Missouri and started Beyond Organic, I asked Trent Hendricks and his wife, Rachel, to lead our farming and ranching operations as well as dairy and beef production. Our first order of business was to create a beverage that would become the next generation of cultured dairy. We set out to replicate the legendary beverage of the Maasai tribe and bring it to America for the first time. By using cattle with the very same dairy-producing genetics of the Maasai, we created what I believe to be the most amazing cultured dairy beverage available today. Fittingly, and in homage to the warriors from Africa, we call it Amasai.
Amasai contains a unique balance of proteins in a complex that we call the “Z protein.” The Z comes from zebu, which is another name for bos indicus cattle, otherwise known as the “original cow.” Our Beyond Organic cattle have, in many ways, the same genetic makeup for milk production—or genotype—as the African cattle herded and milked by the Maasai tribe and the cattle found in India, for that matter. These types of cattle were likely milked by our biblical ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Cattle from the bos indicus species have adapted to the hotter climates in Africa, India, and the Middle East. They have humps on the shoulders, large dewlaps, and droopy ears. They produce milk containing the Z protein complex that I believe is easily digestible and provides great benefits to people of all ages.
On the other hand, bos taurus cows that produce A1 beta-casein milk in the United States and in Western civilizations may be one of the reasons why so many individuals have problems digesting and tolerating milk, but hardly anyone is talking about it.
My eyes were really opened on this subject of A1 beta-casein after reading The Devil in the Milk by Keith Woodford, Ph.D., a professor of farm management and agribusiness at Lincoln University in New Zealand. Dr. Woodford wrote The Devil in the Milk a few years ago to answer the following question: Why do health problems persist when children and adults drink commercial milk?
Dr. Woodford was prompted to find an answer after reading about research conducted at Auckland University showing that Samoan children living in New Zealand had a much higher incidence of Type 1 diabetes than Samoan children living in Samoa. There had to be an environmental reason, not a genetic one, because the children were the same ethnicity. The only difference between the Samoa kids in New Zealand and Samoa was the milk they drank.
The devil lurking in the milk, Woodford wrote, is the BCM7 that I described earlier. The BCM7 peptide produced in the body from A1 beta-casein consumption may be even more harmful to the body than gluten, the sticky protein found in the cereal grains, wheat, rye, and barley. While gluten effects two receptor sites in the gut, affecting the body’s neurological, immunological, and gastrointestinal systems, BCM7 can affect up to twenty-six receptor sites, making it potentially over ten times more dangerous than gluten.
The body recognizes BCM7 as a foreign protein and launches an attack by the immune system. If you’ve ever wondered why you feel increased phlegm in your lungs or digestive tract after consuming a dairy product, it could be the presence of BCM7, which selectively binds to the epithelial cells in mucous membranes and stimulates mucus production.
Dr. Woodford, in his book, makes a strong case implicating BCM7 to many serious health problems, including:
◼ Type 1 diabetes
◼ neurological impairment, including autism and schizophrenia
◼ impaired immune function
◼ autoimmune diseases
◼ heart disease
Depending on the genetic makeup of the person, the body can become susceptible to these sorts of illnesses as well as joint and muscle pains, fatigue, digestive disturbances, and headaches.
I urge you to check out what Dr. Woodford has to say in The Devil in the Milk and go online to investigate the potential dangers of A1 beta-casein for yourself. Look for sources of dairy products that do not contain A1 beta-casein as even most of the raw, grass-fed milk in America includes this potentially damaging protein. If you purchase dairy from a local farmer—which I’ve done in the past—then ask him (or her) if his dairy products come from milk with A1 beta-casein. If he says he’s not sure, then you can be certain that his milk and cheese contain A1 beta-casein.
Don’t bother researching soy milk. Most soy protein comes from genetically modified soybeans, which must be processed at high temperatures to reduce phytic acid levels. Even if the soy milk is organic, it can still cause a host of health challenges affecting the digestive and endocrine systems. Store-bought rice milk and almond milk are a bit better than soy, but what you’re really getting is a beverage that’s been highly processed. Making your own raw almond milk can be very healthy, if you’re willing to invest the time.
Because of what I’ve learned about A1 beta-casein in the last few years, the Rubin family has made it a point not to consume dairy products containing this protein. Not only does my family consume our cultured dairy beverage Amasai, but we also eat liberally from our collection of Beyond Organic GreenFed raw cheeses. I’m proud to say that all of the dairy products coming from our Beyond Organic ranches in southern Missouri are made from cows free of the A1 beta-casein gene. Few, if any, dairy operations in the United States can make this claim.
Nicki and I tease each other regarding whether we view our cheeses as delicacies or nutritional powerhouses. I think they’re both. Beyond Organic cheeses come from dairy cows on our GreenFed program, which means they graze to their hearts’ content on a “salad bar” of grasses, legumes, herbs, and forbs found in our pastures.
Our cheeses are incredible taste sensations, including our pungent Beyond Organic Danish Sky (blue-style cheese) and our creamy and smooth Beyond Organic Alpine White (Brie-style cheese). These cheeses are also power-houses of predigested protein and healthy fats including omega-3 fatty acids and CLA—conjugated linoleic acid—plus much-needed probiotics, key minerals, and a vitamin known as K2. In fact, cheese, particularly soft brie-style cheese, is the richest source of vitamin K2 in the American diet.
Vitamin K2 is a star-studded fat-soluble vitamin that produces a protein called osteocalcin, which assists the body in the incorporation of calcium into the bones, a process vital for bone growth and bone metabolism. I believe vitamin K2 is the second most important vitamin after vitamin D, which is critical for building strong, healthy bones and is also required for the body to absorb calcium.
Dr. Weston A. Price, a health pioneer and a nutritional hero of mine, referred to vitamin K2 as “Activator X” because of the fundamental role this nutrient plays in helping the body facilitate the absorption of minerals to build healthy bones in children and to promote a strong, healthy skeletal system for people entering middle age and the senior years.
The only better known dietary source for vitamin K2 is a Southeast Asian condiment known as natto, which is made from fermented boiled soybeans. The sticking point with most Americans is natto’s taste and aroma. There’s no doubt that natto’s stinky smell can be a stumbling block, which is why natto is best eaten when served over rice. Many claim it’s better tasting than its Limburger cheese-like smell indicates.
Our Beyond Organic cheeses smell good and are really raw, with milk temperatures never exceeding a cow’s body temperature of 101.5, making this delicious treat a source of live enzymes and probiotics. Many raw cheeses heat their milk to temperatures as high as 144 degrees, which can damage the integrity of the product.
If you’re wondering what makes our dairy truly Beyond Organic, here are some reasons:
1. Z milk. Producing milk with a unique and beneficial balance of proteins to provide health to people of all ages is a priority.
2. GreenFed. Beyond Organic cattle consume only green foods such as grasses, herbs, forbs, and legumes. Our goal is to be completely sustainable, producing all of the feed our cattle need in the form of organic nutrient-dense pastures. Blades of grass can be compared to tiny solar panels, capturing the power of the sun and transferring that energy to the cattle and then to us in the form of cheese and cultured dairy products. Most organic dairies feed grain to their cattle, and that alters the fatty acids in the milk.
3. Natural breeding. Most organic and conventional dairies utilize artificial insemination to breed their cows. Beyond Organic’s breeding strategy includes the use of specially selected bulls with the Zebu genetic, which can create healthy and hardy cattle that are extremely adaptable to our climate and environment with great longevity. Selecting the right bulls is a key to transforming any cow herd.
4. Natural calf rearing. Every conventional dairy and most organic dairies I know of pull the calf from the mom immediately after birth; the calf is fed formula and supplemented with pellets while spending the first three to six months of life in a small crate. At Beyond Organic farms and ranches, we have conducted research on the difference in health and maturation of calves raised naturally in groups fed raw milk from our herd versus calves raised by momma cows. The staggering results have caused us to implement a natural calf-rearing strategy with momma-raised calves exhibiting far greater health, growth, and maturity than those raised in calf groups without momma cows. While this requires us to keep a 25 percent to 50 percent larger herd, the health of our cows is definitely worth it.
5. Once-a-day milking. Modern dairies milk cattle two to six times per day, minimizing the amount of time the cows can spend soaking up the sun on green pastures. The Beyond Organic way is to milk cows once per day, allowing them to spend more than twenty-three hours per day outdoors on pasture where they belong.
6. Seasonal dairy. Harkening back to dairying practices of old, Beyond Organic employs a seasonal dairy strategy, allowing our cattle and our pastures to rest and recuperate during periods of challenging weather.
7. Vaccination free. To my surprise, organic standards allow for vacci-nations of cattle. Our goal is to raise a healthy herd with natural immunity.
8. Animal kindness. We practice humane animal standards at Beyond Organic. We allow calves to stay with their mothers and cultivate in an environment where our cattle can live long and productive lives.
9. Olde World production methods. Beyond Organic dairy is highly nutritious, and to maintain that value, it’s critical to use the gentlest form of processing. The milk used for our cultured dairy beverage Amasai is processed slowly and gently, taking up to 180 times longer than other organic dairy. Our cheese making is accomplished with extreme care in order to maintain the “live food” quality of our raw milk.
10. Farmstead. We believe that the best dairy is produced on the same farm that the cows are born and raised. Most dairy production is centralized today with milk traveling hundreds of miles from farm to processor. At Beyond Organic, we produce our dairy products immediately after milking, all on the same farm.
11. Artisanal. Creating healthy and delicious cheeses and cultured dairy products is a combination of art and science. In my opinion, the only way to ensure the highest quality is to produce these products in small batches the Beyond Organic way.
12. Probiotic infused. Probiotic means “for life,” and all Beyond Organic dairy products are infused with powerful probiotics to support healthy digestion and immune system function.
Following all these measures has a cost: at Beyond Organic, we estimate that we produce 60 percent less milk than organic cows fed a high-grain diet. But the milk coming out of our cows to produce Amasai and our really raw green-fed cheeses makes the effort well worth the investment.
I’ve already told you about Amasai, so now let me describe our Beyond Organic cheeses in greater detail:
Beyond Organic Raw Cheddar Reserve is made from our spring or fall milk and thus has a limited production run. The cheese is aged for a minimum of nine months to carry the “reserve” title. Our cheddar cheese is mature and characterized by its sharp cheddar taste.
Beyond Organic Raw Havarti Reserve is creamy and smooth but with a bold taste slightly milder than our Cheddar Reserve.
Beyond Organic Danish Sky is creamy with pungent blue cheese overtones. I grew up narrow in my food choices and wouldn’t try blue cheese as a child. It wasn’t until Nicki opened up my eyes to the delights of the culinary world that I finally sampled blue cheese—and loved it. Highly nutritious and loaded with beneficial compounds, Danish Sky is great on top of steaks off the grill. Or you can combine our blue style cheese with Amasai in a blender to make the best-tasting blue cheese dressing ever. Pass the lettuce wedge, please.
Beyond Organic Alpine White is a subtle, brie style creamy cheese that is easily spreadable and best eaten when gooey. This delicious soft cheese is a taste treat when spread on our EA Live Seven Seed Crackers. Like Danish Sky, our Alpine White comes in 12-ounce mini wheels. Watch out—you might eat an entire wheel in one sitting. That’s what Nicki did when she came upon a particularly yummy batch.
Beyond Organic Jack Cheese is a favorite for adults and children alike. This adaptable cheese is great on sandwiches and in salads.
Beyond Organic Raw Cheddar Bites could be the most unique cheese in America. It’s certainly a solution to the raw milk dilemma.
To make our Raw Cheddar Bites, we take our raw milk and separate it into curds and whey—the start of the cheese-making process. The raw milk curds are allowed to age for sixty days, which is the minimum amount of time a raw cheese must be aged. The resulting cheese is similar to string cheese, with a soft, creamy texture and clean flavor.
Talk about concentrated raw milk protein. For every ounce of Raw Cheddar Bites, you receive the same quantity of protein and healthy fats as one glass of raw milk. The Raw Cheddar Bites come in a pouch and can be eaten by hand, mixed into a salad, or placed on a sprouted seed cracker.
All of our Beyond Organic raw cheeses provide the goodness of raw milk to people all over America. Despite its great health benefits, raw dairy products can be legally sold in only a handful of states, with the regulators cracking down more and more with each passing year. I believe raw milk is ideal, but finding safe, reliable sources is difficult in the best of circumstances. Our Beyond Organic raw cheeses are safe, nutritious, and incredibly tasty.
Don’t Look to Goat’s Milk or Sheep’s Milk as Your First Choice
There’s a good news/bad news situation with goat’s milk and sheep’s milk.
The good news first: goats and sheep produce milk free of A1 beta-casein. That means their milk doesn’t create the BCM7 peptide when ingested, which seems to cause so many issues with people.
The bad news? Besides the perceived negative taste with goat’s milk, there aren’t any readily available organic brands of goat’s milk that I’m aware of. Because goats don’t exclusively graze and prefer to browse, almost every goat farm that I’ve seen or observed has them eating large amounts of grains, which affects the fatty acid composition of the milk. In addition, goats have issues with parasites and, therefore, are often de-wormed.
The same goes for sheep’s milk. You can’t find any organic dairy products made from sheep’s milk in stores these days, which probably has to do with the medical treatments they require. The other problem is that sheep’s milk products are in short supply.
So if you’ve sworn off raw dairy because it’s not readily available or a hassle to find—or if you’ve sworn off dairy because your stomach doesn’t tolerate A1 beta-casein very well, then give our Beyond Organic dairy with Z protein a try.
Many have commented to me that Beyond Organic has healed their relationship with dairy. All I can say is, “Well put.”
As for the sweet side of the “land of milk and honey,” my favorite sweetener is raw honey, a superfood from the hive. Raw, unheated honey is the original sweetener and was extolled by the wisest man who ever lived—Solomon—in a personal, intimate way. “My son, eat honey because it is good, and the honeycomb which is sweet to your taste” (Proverb 24:13).
Honey has been around for thousands of years, long before humankind knew about all the antioxidants, enzymes, vitamins, and minerals within the thick, golden nectar produced by bees. Raw honey is superb to sweeten smoothies, Amasai, tea, and a zillion other foods.
Evaporated coconut nectar has become another sweet favorite of mine. Also known as coconut sugar, this type of sweetener is not made from coconut meat but from tapping the coconut tree and draining the sap in a process similar to producing maple syrup from a maple tree. Coconut sugar is naturally low on the glycemic index scale, which is a plus. Here’s an interesting bit of trivia: when a coconut palm tree is tapped for its sap, the tree can no longer grow coconuts.
Even though maple syrup is heated during the production, I’m fine with this natural sugar, as long as it is whole organic maple syrup. What I’m not so excited about is the agave nectar that you see sold in warehouse clubs and supermarkets. Agave nectar is high in fructose and indigestible oligosaccha-rides, which makes it hard on the liver and difficult to digest for some people.
Sugar alcohols such as xylitol, maltitol, sorbitol, and erythritol are now routinely used in chewing gum, candy, fruit spreads, and even toothpaste and cough syrup found in health food stores. Sure, sugar alcohols taste like sugar, but the body doesn’t break down or absorb sugar alcohols, which is why they are zero or low calorie. They also seem to have a laxative effect on the body.
There’s another no-calorie sweetener that I’m not doing cartwheels over, and that’s stevia. It’s not that stevia is horrible for you by any means, but it’s my belief that when you eat something sweet in nature, then the body expects energy in the form of sugars. When consuming calorie-free sweeteners, the body isn’t fooled and will make up the calories somewhere else. There is a raw, whole form of stevia that is basically made from dried and ground green stevia leaves. This form of stevia is much better than the highly processed and extracted white stevia widely available.
I’m figuring that you don’t need to hear a long-winded speech from me about the dangers of highly processed white granulated sugar, which is found in nearly every human-made food, from ketchup to peanut butter to teriyaki sauce. This sugar comes from sugarcane, which is then processed 99.9 percent. Besides affecting your teeth in a negative way, the heavy consumption of white sugar—along with perhaps an even more dangerous sweetener, high fructose corn syrup—is a major reason why we have a huge obesity problem in this country. All those empty calories arrive with no nutritional value while robbing the body of minerals and energy.
If you’re looking for a substitute for the ubiquitous white sugar, then whole organic cane sugar is acceptable. This unrefined sugar retains many of the nutrients present in cane juice and contains amino acids, minerals, and vitamins, while table sugar is just sucrose and calories, plus traces of chemicals used in the refining process. Careful, though: even “healthier” sources of sugars must be consumed within healthy limits.
Finally, let me say a few words about artificial sweeteners—those blue, pink, and yellow packets found on restaurant tables. Researchers at Purdue University say that these sugar substitutes can interfere with the body’s natural ability to count calories based on a food’s sweetness. In other words, drinking an ice tea with an artificial sweetener instead of two heaping teaspoons of white sugar will reduce your caloric intake, but it could also trick the body into thinking that other sweet items don’t have as many calories either.
Besides, artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, saccharin, and sucralose have sparked debate for decades because they can be highly addictive and can trigger toxic substances to cross the blood-brain barrier, causing neurological problems.