The Sunday Stew: Date Paste As A Whole Food Alternative To Added Sugar

About six months ago, Kory and I learned the truth about added sugar when we watched the documentary, Fed Up, free on Netflix. At that time, we were already doing a fairly decent job with regard to limiting processed foods at home.

But when we learned that the American Heart Association recommends no more than 6 teaspoons of added sugar per day for women and 9 teaspoons of added sugar per day for men, we realized there was still room for improvement in our own kitchen.

With regard to our children, the allowance is even smaller.

Parents, listen up.

For preschoolers, the daily allowance for added sugar is only 4 teaspoons or about 16 grams!

To give some context here, one can of soft drink contains approximately 7 teaspoons of sugar. That’s twice what a preschooler should have on any given day of the week and a teaspoon over the daily allowance for the average woman.

The statistics about the correlation between the consumption of added sugar and obesity are shocking.

Did you know that one soda per day increases a child’s risk of obesity by 60%? Or that 98% of the 4,000 food-related ads that children see each year are for products that are high in fat, sugar, and sodium? Or that in 2012, Americans consumed 765 grams of sugar every 5 days, or 130 pounds of sugar each year?

And the truth is, most of us aren’t hitting this number because we’re eating homemade baked goods 5 days per week. It’s because added sugar is an ingredient in almost everything we consume off the grocery store shelves except for raw meat, vegetables, and fruit.

And because of the incredible strength of the sugar lobby in our nation’s capital, you will note that, while food labels do contain the number of grams of sugar in any given product, they do not include what percentage of the daily allowance this amount represents.

Why?

Because if we had access to that information, most of us would stop buying these kinds of foods altogether.

It makes me sick.

And angry.

In fact, I’m trembling as I type this, because I believe the food industry is preying on us.

Especially our children. The calories in/calories out theory on the correlation between diet and exercise is a lie. Because it would take a 110 pound child 75 minutes of bike riding to burn off the calories from one, 20 ounce bottle of soda.

75 minutes. For one soda.

Who has time for that?

The truth is we are what we eat.

It Starts With Food.

And we’ve got to stop consuming added sugar in such excessive amounts. We’ve got to back out of the fast-food drive-thru and step up to our stoves, cooking simple dishes with fresh ingredients to feed our families.

I’m not saying we can’t ever have cupcakes again. I certainly don’t want to be “that” mom. And I’m not saying exercise isn’t important.

But I am saying that if we make better choices at home and in our school and work lunch boxes, we will have more discretionary calories we can withdraw from when we’re presented with amazing foods that are worth the indulgence.

For me, that no longer includes M&M’s (except on Halloween night, of course).

Or sodas.

Or baked goods from the grocery store.

For you, it may be something altogether different that you scratch off your list. But I do believe when we’re armed with this knowledge, it will impact the way we eat.

So in the spirit of saying no to added sugar, and saying yes to whole foods, we’ve been eating a lot of dates around here.

Dates are something I wouldn’t touch before Whole30 and something I now adore. They’re sweet, and they’re good for us!

And I recently learned that dates, when converted into a paste, can be used as a sugar substitute in many recipes.

So far, I’ve used this strategy in BBQ sauce, oatmeal, and smoothies. And it works great! The rule of thumb is to use the same amount of date paste that the recipe calls for in added sugar. So two teaspoons of brown sugar is now two teaspoons of date paste.

I’ve also learned that date paste can be made in bulk and frozen in ice-cube trays so it’s easily accessible when we need it. I’ll be using this in some of the recipes I post here, so make up a batch in bulk and freeze it, and you’ll be ready to go!

Here’s what you need (printable recipe card at the bottom):

First, put a pot of water on the stove and bring it to a boil.

While the water is boiling, pit your dates.

Next, put the dates in a large bowl and cover them with boiling water.

When the skins break loose of the flesh, remove the dates from the bowl, reserving the liquid for later use.

Remove the skins from the dates.

Put the dates into a mini-chopper or food processor and add 6-10 tablespoons of the reserved water for every 10 dates. Blend and continue adding water until you achieve a paste-like consistency.

Next, spoon the date paste into ice-cube trays in 1-2 tablespoon increments, depending on how you intend to use this in your recipes.

Place the tray(s) in the freezer until frozen solid. Then, crack the date cubes into a freezer bag and put the bag in the freezer until you need it!

Voila! A healthy alternative to processed sugar when a recipe calls for a little sweetener! (Please note: There are many recipes in which we’re foregoing sweetener altogether, because we’ve found that as we continue cutting sugar out of our diet, we just don’t need as much sweetener in our foods. But some foods do need a little sweetness in order to achieve the mix of flavors we’re looking for. For me, BBQ sauce is on the list. That’s when the date paste comes in handy!)

For more information on the truth about sugar, visit www.fedupmovie.com.