Happy Tuesday guys!
Guess what? Sugar in moderate amounts is okay, as long as it’s natural, unprocessed, healthy sugars.
Surprising statement?
I'm amazed at how often people are surprised by this statement, and think that as long as they stay away from any and all sweets they're being "healthy". But there's just so much more to it than that. I mean I used to think this too!
Take it from someone who quit eating any an all added sugar for the better part of a year. Yep that's right. No sugar, no maple syrup, no brown rice syrup. No added sweetener. Just natural sugars from fruits and other foods.
Why I quit sugar
The reason I quit was that I was gaining a lot of weight from excess added sugar in my daily foods and coffee. And I had not realized this but I was consuming way over my recommended daily intake of sugar. And this was predominantly the main reason for my weight gain.
Recommended daily intake of added sugar
But it's actually not that hard to do. According to the American Heart Association (AHA), the maximum amount of added sugar women should consume in a day is 100 calories per day (which is 25 grams or 6 teaspoons), and for men it’s 150 calories per day (which is 37.5 grams or 9 teaspoons).
So now let's take a small mocha frappucino at Starbucks: 42 g of sugar. One can of coke: 33g of sugar. 1 serving of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream 27 g of sugar.
So okay, what happens if we consume too much sugar in the body? Well, if our body doesn't use all the energy that it gets from the sugar, then it gets stored as fat throughout the body.
I was basically running my body from one sugar crash to the next. What do I mean by this? Well I would have a bunch of sugar in my coffee, then I would experience the crash (low energy and completely wiped out), and then I would have my next sugar-loaded coffee to recover from the crash, and so on... And gaining a ton of weight from all the excess sugar in the process.
Natural sweeteners
Well, I've since discovered that natural organic sugars that are unprocessed or minimally processed, don't do this to me. There's no crash, and no excessive weight gain, as long as I consume them in moderation (25 g per day). There's also no desperate cravings for more sugar and junk, which processed sugar can often bring about.
A bit of sugar's history
Did you know that in the 1800's sugar was classified as a drug, and in some towns it was only sold behind the counter in apothecaries.
Ensuring I eat natural sweeteners
So by creating these guilt-free sweet treats with natural sweeteners, I'm getting my sweet kick, but without all the terrible side-effects of processed sugar. And this is also why I started developing my own recipes and blogging about them. I find that if I can control everything that goes into my treats, that's the best way to ensure they're healthy. And now you guys can do the same.
Cashews, the healthy nut
These cheese cakes are loaded with cashews. Although, cashews are low in fiber, they are a very healthy superfood for a number of reasons. Firstly, they contribute to eye health, they help prevent heart disease and diabetes, and are an excellent source of good fats which assists with metabolism and weight loss. And they're loaded with protein. There's about 40 g of protein in one cup of cashews.
Here's how I did it
Ingredients
For the base
2 cups oats ground (measure before grinding)
2 tbsp organic maple syrup
1 tbsp coconut oil, melted (I used Bulletproof XCT coconut oil, no melting required)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 bananas
2 tbsp peanut butter (can also use any other type of nut butter)
For the "cheese"
1 cup raw cashews soaked
1 tsp lemon juice
2 tbsp organic maple syrup
Directions
The first thing you're going to do is soak your cashews for 6 - 7 hours or overnight. Then once these are ready, preheat your oven to 350 F. Then in a large mixing bowl mash up your bananas. Add your ground oats, maple syrup, coconut oil, cinnamon, salt, and peanut butter. Mix until well combined.
Then put the batter in paper muffin cups in a muffin tin. Fill up the paper cups about 1/3 with the base. Then bake for 10 minutes.
While that's baking, put your soaked cashews in a blender. And blend, while stopping every so often to add small amounts of water (about 1/4 cup in total). This will help the cashews blend to a smooth, creamy texture. Then add in your maple syrup and lemon juice and blend until well combined.
Then once your base is done, pour on your "cheese" cake topping into each muffin cup (filling up the other 2/3 of the muffin cups). Then sprinkle on some cacao nibs for your chocolate chips. Freeze for 1 hour. Eh voila!
Store cheese cakes in freezer for up to a week. And when taking them out let them thaw out for about 5 minutes. Each cake has 2 tsps of maple syrup, 6.5 g of protein and is 280 calories.
If you liked this don’t forget to vote, follow and comment! And thank you for all your continued support!
Recipe and photos are mine and original. Shot on iPhone 7 Plus.
You can also connect with me on Instagram
And for more of my clean and healthy recipes click the links below:
Sweet Potato Salad with Arugula, Sunflower Seeds and Goat Cheese
Chocolate Ginger Cookies
Green Mint Chocolate Chip Smoothie
Banana Nut Butter Crepes
Cinnamon Chia Overnight Oats
Zucchini Fritters and Homemade Tzatziki
Mint Chocolate Coconut Bark
Strawberry Partfait Bars
Vegan Pizza and Homemade Pesto
Raw Chocolate Fudge Bites
Double Chocolate Banana Muffins a.k.a Chocolate Banana Bread
Chocolate Avocado Pudding
Chocolate Sweet Potato Brownies
Peanut Butter and Chocolate Donuts
Sources:
http://www.raggedsoldier.com/sugar_history.pdf
http://www.healthline.com/health/are-cashews-good-for-you