Xylitol: A Sweet Natural Cure

Xylitol tastes fantastic as a sweetener, and using it makes your teas, deserts, shakes, cereals, candies, and sundry tasties into medicine. Though agave has become the main sweetener used these days in the world of conscious eating, deserts sweetened with them in almost every natural restaurant and home kitchen, I would like to recommend xylitol instead as it seems preferable. While agave is 27 on the glycemic index, where sucrose is 100, xylitol is 7. Agave is better than sugar, certainly, and has a nice consistency similar to honey, but it has few health benefits compared to xylitol, so why pass up the opportunity to make every ingredient move us towards more harmonious bodies?

Xylitol is naturally occurring in many foods such as berries, and even in our own bodies. For our food preparation, it is presented to us in a tasty powder by NuNaturals company, which I have come to trust as a provider of consistently excellent health foods.

Xylitol is anti sugar. Sugar leads to osteoporosis, and xylitol prevents and reverses it. Sugar leads to tooth decay, and xylitol reverses that. Sugars lead to candida and other fungal overgrowth, and xylitol reverses that. It is a cure for what ails our society of cravings for sweetness. It gives it to us when we want it, and helps cut the cravings because often, they come from blood sugar imbalances and candida overgrowth. Xylitol evens out blood sugar and is great for diabetics. It reverses aging and chronic diseases, enhancing the immunity, once again, the reverse of sugar.

Xylitol can drastically take down the acid producing bacteria, keep bacteria from forming on the teeth, and it creates more saliva, and more tooth enamel. It prevents tooth decay, so drinking tea often sweetened with xylitol, for example, would be beneficial for the dental health.

While these are both available from other companies, I personally use a combination of stevia, by NuNaturals, and their Sweet-X crystals. It's handy they carry both products. Stevia has so many health benefits, and doesn't give the body even the 7 on the glycemic index that xylitol does. So to keep all sugars down to a minimum, I prefer stevia, a supplement I can enjoy as a food. As good it tastes alone in foods, it can taste even better combined with xylitol, which has a more traditionally accessible taste we associate with sweetness. More people can appreciate its taste than they can stevia. When I use stevia in some foods, if I want just a little extra wonderful taste, I add the xylitol, and it's perfect. It's also important sometimes when preparing some foods to have some bulk. Stevia is so concentrated it doesn't work in all cases therefore, but xylitol does. These can both be purchased through http://www.nunaturals.com or at your local health food store in a variety of brands. Raw cacao has become the rave these days because of it's health and mood enhancing effects. At all the fun events I go to where there happen to be conscious foods laid out for us to enjoy, there is hand made raw cacao candy, and it is always combined with agave, but think twice. It's excellent with xylitol. Be the one doing something different next time.

My confession is that there have been times when I've just poured myself a little handful of xylitol in my mouth. All by itself. Yum.