EATINGWELL
Over the past several years, I have stopped using refined sugar completely. I don't miss it at all since I don't like sweets, nor do I do much baking. However, when I cook with a recipe that calls for a sweetener, I have learned to use natural fruit juices, fruit purees, agave syrup, or homemade palm sugar that I buy directly from the maker in a far-out village in Phetchaburi.
During this holiday season, I decided to write an article about healthy sweets for my city's newspaper in the US. I shopped around for the three essential ingredients a baker needs: sugar, fat and flour. I started my search for sugar substitutes. Ones, the general public can buy easily for cookie recipes. I found several possibilities at an upscale organic market, the Whole Foods Market. Among the different kinds of raw and unrefined sugar on display, I spotted palm sugar, the essential sweetener that Thais have been using in our cooking for centuries. This was the first time I found it for sale in an American supermarket.
The palm sugar came from Indonesia. It was beautifully packaged and looked more like brown sugar than our home-processed Thai-palm sugar, which is soft and liquid. It commanded a hefty price of $3.99 (about 120 baht) for just a measly 8 ounces (227 grams). It seems that health conscious Americans have discovered the goodness of palm sugar while Thais are cooking and consuming refined sugar in an ever increasing and alarming rate. The same refined sugars Westerners have come to reject as "bad" food.
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About the author
- Writer: Su-Mei Yu
- Position: Writer
