We drink many cups of tea at home per day and the sugar that we have been putting into our tea isn't very healthy. I know tea do taste great without sugar but it is not easy to kick this habit off. I decided to try fruit sugar after reading about its benefit in a magazine.

I started with Fruisana fruit sugar but they are not on Tesco shelves anymore, the other alternative is Tate and Lyle fruit sugar.

Tate and Lyle launch their fruit sugar in 2005. Their fruit sugars have a low G.I. index rating (explained below) which means that its energy will be absorbed slower by the body hence there is no extreme highs and lows in energy level.

Fruit sugar is found naturally in fruits and plants. The benefit of fruit sugar or fructose is it does not have an adverse effect on our body sugar level. Have you ever felt energetic after a sugary drink and soon after feel sluggish and tired? Ordinary sugar has a high Glycaemic Index (G.I.) which means that the blood sugar level is elevated abnormally, hence giving you an instant high in energy and consequently bring you down. This is also a cause for weight gain as we crave for sugar intake again.

Interestingly, fruit sugars are twice as sweet as ordinary sugar and it contain the same number of calories as ordinary sugar. However, as less fruit sugar is needed to sweeten a cup of tea hence the calorie intake is reduced.

Each package of Tate and Lye fruit sugar contains 250g of sugar. The sugar grain seems finer and whiter than Fruisana fruit sugar, but the taste is the same. The attractive white packaging with the usual Tate and Lyle logo is suppose to be re-sealable. However, I have never been successful re-sealing the package as the seal doesn't work.

I only used fruit sugar for tea, coffee and cereal as it is too costly to use it for cake making. I have noticed that the price for Tate and Lyle fruit sugar seems to have gone on a roller coaster. It started at £0.99 when it was launched, went down to £0.55 and then suddenly went up to £0.74. I thought food prices are supposed to be coming down.

Check out the website for more info about fruit sugar and recipes.
www.tasteandsmile.co.uk