Healthy Food: part 1: Healthy ways to sweeten your food - The Times of India

Healthy ways to sweeten your food - The Times of India: "Honey is an excellent way to do away with the phlegm and allergies from the body. Not only this, honey is much sweeter than white sugar and acts as a healthy substitute to it. Therefore, if you use only one-third amount of honey as compared to white sugar, your desserts are bound to taste much richer and creamier. Add it homemade sauces and salads and you can add texture and varied consistency to any dish. Drizzle it as a dressing on piping hot vegetables or mix it with a bit of chilli sauce and lemon, it is an ideal natural sweetener.

Raisins or Kishmish can be added to any sweet dish as the sweetening agent present in them gives ample amount of taste.

Dates (also known as khajur) have around 60% sugar content and the more you dry them, the more water evaporates from them, increasing the sugar content in them. However, make sure that when you use dates, you don't use them in dishes which require liquefying sugar in a liquid. This is because date sugar does not dissolve well. They are best when used along with baked dishes. So, ditch the white sugar this festive season and sweeten your desserts and baked dishes with khajur instead."