Just Make It Naturally Sweet

Despite the powerful health conscious wave among the middle and upper middle income segment of India during the recent years, sugar still remains one of the chief ingredients of India’s bakery industry.

- Jhuma Biswas

However, at the same time, with the growth of health consciousness, the usage of natural sweeteners is also on the rise in India. It is common knowledge that added sugar in diet gives you excess calories without any nutritional benefit. This can lead to an increased body weight, which in turn can lead you towards greater risk of high blood pressure and diabetes.

Therefore with health consciousness in the post-modern Indian society gaining ground, there has been lots of talk and practice of usage of natural sweeteners as sugar substitutes in the country’s food & beverage industry, which of course includes India’s bakery and confectionery industry too.

Honey, maple syrup, dates, stevia and coconut sugar are some examples of natural sweeteners, whose extensive use in dessert preparations can reduce the usage of sugar and other artificial sweeteners in their preparations.

Sweet, Green and Healthy

Stevia, also called meethi tulsi in Hindi, is a natural, plant-based sweetener with zero calories. Stevia, a wonderful natural sugar substitute, is extracted from the leaves of the plant species named Stevia rebaudiana, which is also commonly known as stevia. According to Wikipedia, Stevia rebaudiana is a plant species in the genus Stevia of the sunflower family.

Stev ia rebaud iana i s nat ive to Paraguay and Brazil in South America. Guaraní peoples of South America have been using the stevia plant for more than 1500 years, who refer to it as sweet herb. These days, the plant is grown mainly in Brazil, Paraguay, China and Japan.