Here you will find natural alternatives to highly processed sugar. These alternatives will also provide small amounts of nutrients that you do not get in regular sugar.

In its raw powder form, Lucuma fruit can be used as a natural and nutritious sweetener. The lucuma fruit tree or “La Lacuma” originally comes from the dry, subtropical region of the Peruvian Andean coastal valleys, although it now also grows in Ecuador and Chile at elevations between 1,000 to 2,400 meters. While the fresh fruit remains difficult to source outside of its local region, it is now readily available in dried powder form. The tree’s nutritious, round, orange-centered fruit is becoming well known for its sweetness, especially among raw food proponents. Lucuma has especially high concentrations of calcium, phosphorus, beta-carotene, Vitamins C and B3, fiber, iron and other valuable nutrients. In terms of the Lucuma fruit’s sugar content, the percentage amount present in the dried pulp from mature Lucuma fruit is: 8.4% glucose, 4.7% fructose, 1.7% sucrose, and 0.06% inositol. In its raw powder form, Lucuma fruit can be...