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Power On Plants | Healthy Food, Christian, Entrepreneur, Energy, Inflammation, Weight Loss, Cholesterol, Menopause, Blood Pressure, Meal Prep Ideas, Vegan Food, Plant Based, Fatigue, Productivity, WFPB, Lifestyle Medicine
278: Date Syrup As A Healthy Sweetener
•Jarrod Roussel, PA-C and Anita Roussel, BSN•Episode 278
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Ever wonder how sweet your plant-based diet can be without compromising your health?
Our latest deep-dive into date syrup will arm you with the delicious knowledge you need for enjoying sweets the whole food plant based way.
We're peeling back the layers of this natural sweetener to show you just where it sits on the good-better-best scale.
While it's derived from whole, nutritious dates, date syrup isn't quite the nutritional champion its whole fruit counterpart is, mainly due to its missing fiber content. But fear not, we're not just here to talk about what it lacks - we'll also guide you through making and using date paste for that fiber-rich sweetness your body craves.
Plus, we'll get into the nitty-gritty on reading food labels for optimal health, debunking diet and wellness myths that keep you stuck in your health struggles. This episode will equip you with the savvy to choose healthy sweeteners.
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Sometimes , when you're starting something new , it can feel like foreign territory , and part of that is you just don't know the lingo when it comes to whole food plant based . That also includes ingredients . What is this strange , seemingly foreign ingredient and I just don't know what it is ? And then , when you figure out what it is , how do I use it ? And today we're talking about one such ingredient date syrup .
Speaker 1
Hey sister , welcome to the Power On Plants podcast . Are you tired of staring into the fridge wondering what to eat so you can just feel better ? Do you want to avoid spending hours in the kitchen making complicated meals in the name of health ? Would you love to leave fatigue behind and finally have the energy to do all the things you want to do ? Hi , we're Charity in the Need to Resale , christ followers , healthcare professionals , parents of four and big fans of great tasting food .
Speaker 1
We , too , tried exercising more , eating natural and clean foods , but we still found ourselves struggling with what we thought were changes that come with age or bad genes , and we weren't finding answers to traditional routes . So we dug into the research and created our secret nutritional weapon sustainable plant based living . The truth is , you can eat more whole plant foods , and it's not hard . You just need the way that's realistic and delicious so you never feel deprived . If you're ready to enjoy your meals , no longer be held back by your health struggles and actively live your life , then you're in the right place . So grab your favorite plant based cup of happy pop in those ear buds and let's get started . So I have a question for Jared Is it syrup or syrup ?
Speaker 2
I've always said syrup . Some people do say syrup , I have heard syrup , but usually in movies , videos or people that are visiting the south from other places .
Speaker 1
Yeah .
Speaker 2
I've heard actually pecan , pecan pecan , pecan , pecan , pecan . Yes , although I've always heard and have said pecan .
Speaker 1
Yeah , our area of the south is pecan and syrup , so we're going with that today . So date syrup , let's talk about it . First of all , what is it ? Okay , a date is obviously a whole plant food , and if you're new to whole plant foods and haven't discovered dates yet , discover them , do yourself a favor . Especially , if you want to learn delicious desserts , use the whole plant food , use dates . Obviously , date syrup is a syrup made from dates , so it's not going to be whole . It doesn't have the whole date in there . It is all dates , though it is all dates , so in that way it's whole . But just know that sometimes eating whole food , plant based there , is good , better and best . So best here would be to eat what ?
Speaker 2
The whole date .
Speaker 1
The whole date .
Speaker 2
The whole kitten kaboodle .
Speaker 1
Right and then better is kind of the middle ground .
Speaker 2
Right .
Speaker 1
Better is kind of the middle ground , so you'd have better being date paste . You can make that at home . You can soak some dates in a little bit of warm water , take the pit out and then grind those dates up , blend them up in your high speed blender with some water . How much water ? As much water as you want , depending on how thin you want your date paste . I call this paste because it has all the fiber and all the nutrients still in there .
Speaker 2
And it has a consistency of paste .
Speaker 1
Yeah , and so you can use that in some of your baked goods in some different ways to sweeten things . But if you plop date paste into a drink , you're going to have some chunky stuff in your drink . You may not want that . Now I use dates to sweeten drinks , but I put the date straight into my drink when I'm blending them . So if you do that , that's going to work great to sweeten your things . So always choose dates first . Next , the better option instead of the best , the better option is gonna be your date paste . We've just talked about that .
Speaker 1
But what is date syrup ? Date syrup is a syrup made from whole dates . It should only have one ingredient . Remember always flip that bottle over and look at the ingredients label in any kind of processed food . Now , obviously , with a whole food , one of the beauties is you don't even have to worry about an ingredients label because it's just that one whole food . There is no label . That's the sign that it is best . That's one of your big signs that you got the best thing in your hand when there's no label required .
Speaker 1
But the good is date syrup . So you don't wanna eat a whole lot of any processed sugar . It is somewhat processed . Some of the fiber has been removed from the syrup to make it thinner . It's not as thick and pulpy , but it is still 100% date .
Speaker 1
So if you need a liquid sweetener , date syrup can be a good option . Just don't be pouring it all over everything you eat and tell yourself this is healthy , just like you used to do with oils on your salad dressing . And hmm , you know , here I am squeezing it over everything . And it's date syrup . It's gotta be healthy Because it's 100% dates . It says that on the ingredients label . So don't say to yourself I can't have this . It's okay to have some date syrup . I think it's one of the better options for a liquid sweetener . But don't say to yourself I'm gonna just squeeze it all over everything because you lose some of those nutrients . You lose the fiber that goes along with it and it's taking the place of those other foods you could be getting into your life that are really great for you . That are the best things .
Speaker 2
Now just had a thought , because you had mentioned about it's 100% dates . So I think one place where the label can get kind of tricky is that it will say it's 100% dates . Now it is true that product has nothing else but dates in it . So it is 100% dates , but it's not 100% of the date .
Speaker 1
Right .
Speaker 2
So you may need to be aware of that distinction because , again , getting the whole food is best because you're getting everything that was in it , that grew in that . And it's not that date syrup is necessarily bad . It has its uses but , like you're saying , you don't wanna use it on everything and use a lot of it . Use it where appropriate . Use it as a really good natural sweetener as compared to , like a refined white sugar .
Speaker 1
Right . And if you really just need a liquidy sweetener , that's where I would say to use it . You know where you might have used maple syrup or something like that , use it there . Think about that . So again , if you want a sweet drink , I would say , if it's something you can get into the blender , drop a whole date or two in there and just blend it until it's completely smooth . If you don't have something like a NutriBullet Pro or a Vitamix or a Dynapro , something like that that's going to really pulverize everything , then I would say , go with something like date paste or the date syrup .
Speaker 2
Which I would say our go-to is typically putting the whole date in it . I mean , that's what we normally do .
Speaker 1
I would beverages and anything like that , that I can get the whole date in . We even do that with some of our baked goods and things like that , because I want the whole food . When I can get that in , that is the best choice . But how do you use date syrup Again , any way , you might use maple syrup . Think about it like that Say you made something like brownie batter , hummus and it turns out it's not quite sweet enough for your taste .
Speaker 1
You could drizzle just a little bit over the top . So what's on the top and not stirred in is going to taste sweeter . So a lot of times there's a trick for you to using less sugar . I'll add less into whatever I'm making and then drizzle a little bit on the top so that it hits my tongue and it tastes sweeter . Right , there's a gold nugget there , so it tastes sweeter because it's on the surface . So you don't always have to completely sweeten things as much .
Speaker 1
Like we have some gluten-free chocolate cupcakes that my daughter makes . She created this for me because I was eating less and less sweet as time went on and they were having cake one day and it's much healthier version of cake . But she knew I wanted to stick with more gluten-free at the time and they are delicious . But she didn't make them very sweet . She put some dates in there , but they're not super sweet . So then on top of it sometimes I put our chocolate frosting , which I make with a little bit of date syrup . I used to use maple syrup . If you have the Power Plants Cookbook you might see maple syrup in there . If I haven't changed it yet to date syrup , I've been going back and doing some of that to my recipes because I really do love date syrup . It just gives this richness of flavor . It's wonderful .
Speaker 2
I was wanting to say that it doesn't just add sweetness , it adds a very rich depth of flavor to it . So , having just a little bit sprinkled on the surface , it makes it really , I feel , like next level . So making whatever it is less sweet and then adding that on top is a great way to achieve that sweetness level without too much sugar , but then also that extra flavor .
Speaker 1
I'll even do that with my oatmeal , like , instead of stirring a sweetener in , I'll just drizzle some over at the top of it . I think it makes it really sweet and then you've got your fruits in there that are naturally sweet . It's just an easier way to cut back on your sugar usage . So drizzling it over your oatmeal is a great way to sweeten that . Or what about your waffles or your pancakes ? You know what I love doing when I was little I don't know if any of you did this and I would hate to even look at the ingredients label , but we used to buy the blueberry pancake syrups or the different berry flavored ones , and I know they were not healthy , like they were not pure maple syrup , even that healthy . Right , they weren't pure maple syrup , they weren't . I just I would hate to see what was in there . I don't know . I don't know how to explain that .
Speaker 2
Go back in the time machine and look at the label .
Speaker 1
Yeah , I know , I don't , I know we didn't do it back then .
Speaker 1
Look , there are some things . I want to go back in the time machine and tell myself and it would probably I don't know if it would be to look at the label , because that might really scare me and set me off a little bit if I did that . But here's the thing I liked how it tasted back then . So you find your new favorites . If you take frozen berries or fresh berries , you can put them on the stove with just a little bit of date syrup drizzled over them . The berries are going to release their natural juices as they heat up , which are already sweet , and then you just want just a hint more sweetness . You can add a little date syrup in there and stir that in . It is the quickest , simplest . I'm not talking about bullet for 30 minutes , bullet for 15 minutes , I'm talking just . I'm talking about just heating it up until the juices are released from the berries and you've got that little hint of sweetness in there from the date syrup . I don't think the date paste does that quite as well . You can do that with the date paste . Just make sure you don't burn it , because it can be thicker if you don't add a lot of water . But if you do that it's very much like those syrups that I ate back in the day that I loved . And then I take that syrup and it's way less than just putting straight maple syrup or straight date syrup onto my waffles and pancakes , because I've got the juices from those berries and the extra nutrients from that , and then I just put a little bit of that sweetener and I start drizzling that all over my waffles and my pancakes . It's delicious . And then , of course , I piled up more berries and nuts and things like that on top of my waffle to make it extra healthy . And it's really very delicious , very satisfying . That's one of my favorite ways to make fruit syrups with it . I think it's so good . That's pretty much date syrup in a nutshell .
Speaker 1
Now you know the difference between good , better and best date syrup , date paste and the whole plant food , the date itself . So does that mean you're not whole if you plant based , if you eat a little date syrup every now and then ? No , come on , let's get real . Okay , you , you do you , but realize that that is not going to be the best . You do want to get more fiber , and so , again , don't pour it all over everything without hesitation , thinking I'm getting the whole date here . We've talked about that . Now we busted the mist . You understand the difference between the three . But it doesn't mean it's evil either . It doesn't mean it's bad for you to have a little bit every now and then in things , because maybe you're wondering , like , how do I sweeten this certain drink ? And I don't have a high powered blender yet this is one way to transition over and we still eat some from time to time . We still eat and enjoy dates .
Speaker 2
I've been using it in places . It has its place . Other liquids we do .
Speaker 1
And you want to know one of our absolute favorite ways to use it . Get inside podcast insiders experience where we'll show you and tell you about our favorite way . Just getting there and ask the question hey , what's your favorite way to use a date syrup ? It's a new secret . That's just so fun for dessert . We absolutely love it . It blew our mind the first time we discovered this . You can get into podcasts and side experience and find out about that by going to power on plantscom forward slash P I E . That's power on placecom forward slash pie .
Speaker 1
There are so many benefits to being in this group . It's really a no brainer . I mean , you get in there , it's free . You can search every single podcast episode for any topic you're looking for when it comes to your plant based journey . I mean , look , we've got about 270 plus episodes . Now Maybe , when you're listening to it , we've got 370 , 470 , 570 , right , as it grows
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Speaker 1
Plus , you can come in there and ask your questions to each other and share your favorites . Don't forget to share that , because as you share , others are going to share with you . What does that mean ? Oh , that's going to take a long time I don't have time for that . I need to know I'm talking . Snap a picture with your phone and post it very quick and easy to do on this platform . You're not on Facebook inside our free group . We don't do that because Facebook is distracting , social media is distracting . This is a place that is specifically for you to accomplish a goal which is to feel your very best so you can fully live your calling . That is what we're here for . That's what we're all about , and podcast Insiders experience is going to help you do that . We look forward to meeting you there . We cannot wait to meet you . We can't wait to get to know you more , and we'll see you again soon on Power On Plan .
