Introduction - Sensationally Sugar Free - Susanna Booth

Sensationally Sugar Free: Delicious sugar-free recipes for healthier eating every day - Susanna Booth (2016)

Introduction

You may wonder why a book of no added sugar recipes is full of sweet foods. Obviously, the way to avoid most sugar is simply never to eat anything sweet. However, eating is so much more than mere refuelling.

It is bound up with social convention, our emotions and the habits we have developed over time.

I love sweet things. Whether it’s a little something to finish off a meal, a mid-morning snack or a full-on overblown dessert for special occasions, I feel life would be incredibly diminished if I could eat only savoury foods for the rest of it. But I also know that too much sweet food is bad for my health - dental and otherwise. Unless we are clawing our way across Antarctica in a blizzard, our daily nutritional needs for sugar are small.

The key is balance: some sweetness, but not too much; a good variety of foods; plenty of fibre; lots of vitamins; small portions. We all know it, but it’s often easier said than done.

It is in this spirit that I have developed this book. Whatever your reasons for wanting to cut back on sugar, this collection of recipes can help. They combine the natural sweetness of fruits and vegetables with whole grains, nuts and seeds to offer healthier alternatives to many of our favourite sugary dishes and treats.

Some of the cakes, ice creams and desserts may be less sweet than those you’ve grown used to because it has become the norm for foods to contain high levels of sugar. But I believe that if you want to move away from a reliance on sugar, an important step is to become accustomed to things being a little less sweet. You’ll find that quite quickly you won’t notice a difference and may even experience a heightened sense of taste.

You’ll soon see how easy and rewarding it is to go sugar free - no junk, just a sweeter way to live.