The Low-Sugar Cookbook: Delicious and Nutritious Recipes to Lose Weight, Boost Energy, and Fight Fatigue

by Nicola Graimes

Most of us eat too much sugar, which can have serious repercussions on our health and well-being. It is widely accepted that a diet too high in sugar can cause mood swings, fatigue, obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and even premature ageing. But eating low-sugar foods doesn't have to mean being condemned to a dull diet, as the wonderful range of recipes in this book demonstrates. The good news is that there are numerous naturally sweet foods and flavourings that can be substituted so that there's no need to resort to artificial sweeteners with their reported adverse health effects. Here, Nicola Graimes presents more than 100 easy-to-follow meals and snacks, inspired by recipes from around the world. Chapters are divided into Breakfasts, Brunches, Light Meals, Snacks, Dinners, Desserts, and Cakes, Bakes, Breads. You'll find delicious family favourites ranging from curries, stews, stir-fries and salads to sponge puddings, muffins and cheesecakes. Savoury foods can also be surprisingly high in added sugar, particularly canned foods and sauces, and you'll find specially adapted dishes for healthier, low-sugar alternatives. All the recipes have been carefully created to be suitable for diabetics to meet their dietary requirements. This means that they are also low in salt and saturated fat and high in unrefined carbohydrates and fibre – not forgetting packed with bountiful amounts of fresh produce. Clear at-a-glance symbols highlighting nutritional benefits provide an additional valuable feature.

Genres: Nonfiction, Cookbooks

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Jenn (One of Many, We are Legion) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy of this book!

This cookbook is best suited for super health-oriented foodies who like obscure ingredients and are looking to lower their sugar intake. This is not for novices.

For the life of me I can't figure out why there are no photos accompanying the recipes. Half of what makes me want to try a recipe - particularly one that has ingredients new to me, or looks complex, is seeing the end result. In this internet age, it's practically necessary, since I can find loads of recipes that walk me through, step-by-step, with photos displaying every single step. I personally have had the best results with those, since I have this amazing ability to screw up even the simplest recipe.

So, as another reviewer pointed out, another big flaw in this cookbook is that it is not just about low sugar recipes, but about overall nutrition. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, but it effectively requires that many people do a complete diet overhaul to be effective. These are not simply ordinary recipes with low sugar takes on them. These are recipes suited towards someone who frequents the specialty food, gluten free, and like sections in their market - assuming your market has such a section.

Moreover, this cookbook is not accessible to novice cooks, to people who shop in ordinary grocery stores, or to anyone looking for quick recipes.

I am not the world's greatest cook, but I am trying to be better. I troll the web looking for decent looking, but somewhat simple, recipes in an attempt to become a better cook and provide us with healthier meals. I have been somewhat successful in that endeavor, but being that I am such a novice, asking me to use specialty ingredients and specialty equipment is just not going to fly. This cookbook requires both, so if you don't live near a Whole Foods or other health food grocery, you're going to have a bad time.

The book starts by providing an overview of why too much sugar is detrimental to one's diet and providing details about different types of sugars. The author never provides citations, however, and I feel like if you are going to provide these "facts," there should be citations supporting it so the reader doesn't have to go an do additional research to ascertain the accuracy of the statements. Then again, this is a cookbook, so maybe I am asking too much. Of note, however, is that while it mentions the link between sugar and obesity many times, not once does it mention the very basic rule that calories in versus calories out is the single biggest contributor to obesity. Sugar, of course, plays a role in that because heavily sugared products tend to be higher in calories. The point is, sugar, by itself, isn't terribly evil - it's consuming too much that is.

As far as the recipes are concerned, I didn't find them terribly accessible. I'm an average person, with an average, probably terrible palate, and I have pretty average and basic kitchen cookware and utensils. The lack of photos only enhanced my wariness of these recipes because many ingredients didn't sound palatable to me.

Some recipes called for cookware that I don't believe one would find in the average home. Call me strange, but I don't actually own one ramekin, much less multiples. I don't own "kitchen paper." I also don't own a milk bag or muslin-lined sieve, which is required to make the homemade, low-sugar almond milk that forms the basis for several recipes (it also requires letting almonds soak overnight, which leads me to my next complaint.

I don't have the time or inclination to cook complex recipes, especially if it involves overnight prep work, which many of them did. Two of the breakfast recipes required overnight soaking as well.

In fact, I had to actually look up what many of these ingredients were.
There were tons of ingredients that I either wouldn't be able to buy locally, or wouldn't know where to look in the grocery store - unlike some recipe books which tell you where in the store to look for obscure ingredients, this one provides no such insight. This required that I actually look it up online, and then try to discern where I might find these at my local store, if, of course, they actually sell it. Of those that my local stores sell, they are all found in the specialty section, where all the gluten free and vegan food can be found. The rest are things I still don't know how to find. It includes:

- figs
- dairy free yogurt
- unsweetened coconut yogurt (not milk, yogurt)
- quinoa or millet flakes )I know quinoa is gaining popularity these days, but that doesn't make it common)
- hemp seeds
- creme fraiche
- passata
- rocket leaves
- tinned pulses (apparently pulses include lentils and beans - why not just call for lentils then?)
- halloumi
- petit pois (I remember enough French to know this refers to peas...just say peas, ffs)
- soba noodles
- flageolet beans
- cavolo nero
- puy lentils
- kaffir lime leaves
- raw cacao nibs
- ras el hanout
- fromage frais
- lucuma
- star anise
- wholemeal spelt flour

In addition, going back to novice cooks, it provided no guidance on how to prepare certain ingredients. It presupposed you already knew how to do that. I get that some of these techniques are probably very basic, but I am a total chef ignoramus. When you tell me I need to toast these nuts, you need to tell me how to do that. On the stove? The oven? In a pan? Do I add oil or spices to them? How long do I cook them? At what temperature?

I did like that each recipe had a little "health benefit" factoid extolling the virtues of one or more ingredients.

Ultimately, I shouldn't have to do web searches to figure out how to use a cookbook, nor should I have to decipher what half these ingredients are. That kinda defeats the purpose and lengthens the prep time for any of these recipes to the point where it's just not worth my time when I can go online and find thousands of free, accessible recipes to suit my needs.

[Anna Nesterovich · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really really really wanted to try this cookbook. Most of the times I try a new recipe, I have to cut sugar, usually in half. Like when a recipe asks to mix 2 sticks of butter, 2 cups of flour, and 2 cups of sugar to make dough? No, no, no, no way. A low-sugar cookbook? Yes, please! So I was cautiously optimistic when I won this book in November 2014. The giveaway details now state that the book was shipped in May 2015 (!), but it's 2017 and I still don't have a copy. I also didn't see it in my local book store, and I'm not sure I want it so much to buy it online. Overall, after all these years and feeling slightly offended by not receiving a copy I won, I move the book to the could-not-read shelf.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Low-Sugar Cookbook follows the new trend to cut empty carbs out of your diet. This book is filled with many delicious sounding recipes and provides good insight into cutting processed sugars from your life.

The recipes are easy to follow and detailed.

What would make this a 5-star cookbook for me? I do enjoy pictures of each recipe as I am a visual person, especially when it comes to food, so I would suggest adding more pictures. I would also suggest adding sources on where to find uncommon ingredients.

I look forward to testing these recipes out and finding healthier alternatives to current eating choices.

I received this ARC copy of The Low-Sugar Cookbook from Watkins Publishing Limited - Nourish in exchange for an honest review. This book is set for publication August 5, 2014.

[Online Eccentric Librarian · Rating 2 out of 5]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

This cookbook was admittedly a rather large disappointment. With no photographs of any of the items, rather complicated recipes using non standard utensils and ingredients, nearly unformatted recipes, and a rather lackluster introduction (making claims with nothing to back then up), I can't see using this any further. There are so many excellent low sugar/health/diet focused cookbooks that give much more interesting recipes in a more pleasing format. This book just sucked the life and joy right out of food and cooking - it's almost saying that when you take sugar out of food, you are going to have a bland life.

The book has a fairly generic introduction about the problems with sugar and the shift away from carbohydrates as the reason for obesity and health problems. Recipes are broken down by basic, breakfasts, light meals, snacks, dinners, desserts, cakes/bakes/breads. There are menu plans in the back as well as an index.

Each recipe has a symbol (allergy or vegan), main heading in bold, quick (usually 1-3 sentences) introduction in italics, serving size, preparation time, a stack of unformatted ingredients, then step directions in paragraph form. There are no colors, images, font variations, callouts, or anything graphic to make the recipes easy to follow. The recipes aren't listed in the front index so you need to troll through the book to find something to make. Without pictures, that trolling is really annoying

Since this is a British author, a lot of the recipes do have a British/empire slant (What is masoor dahl?) that some may find appealing. But keep in mind that the ingredients are the British terminology and you'll have to go searching for things like garam masala, cardamon pods, rocket leaves, Little Gem lettuce, etc. Also of note are the odd utensils I've never seen in any kitchen - or even heard of in any cookbook.

What it comes down to for me is that there are a LOT of great health conscious cookbooks out there. This adds very little to the genre, other than perhaps how to make a healthy crumpet. I haven't seen that in any of my other cookbooks.

Reviewed from a digital copy supplied by the publisher.

[Dana · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a British cookbook. It begins by explaining why a low sugar diet is healthy and what adverse health conditions a high sugar diet may cause. The book contains a variety of low sugar recipes and while I like that the author did make the amounts of ingredients user friendly for American cooks - the measurements are given in ml, oz, teaspoons and cups, many of the ingredients are British ingredients that are not translated into American terms and many may not be available in the US. The author did give some American terms such as courgettes/zucchini and prawns/shrimp, but other ingrdients are not explained such as passata(sieved tomatoes) - I thought that might be tomato paste, but tomato paste is also listed in the ingredients so perhaps it is tomato sauce?, and English mustard powder, undyed smoked haddock fillets, bio yogurt, groundnut oil, rocket, halloumi, flageolet beans,choi sum, petis pois, tinned cherry tomatoes, little Gem lettuce, and others. Some ingredients are not described in terms that an American cook would recognize - there is chilli (the British spelling - there are lots of those), crushed dried chillies, red chilli, red pepper and yellow pepper, but those are not descriptive enough for me to know what they are. Are the red and yellow peppers bell peppers? What about the chillis? Are they jalapenos, poblano, ancho - what kind of chilli are they referring to? In addition, some of the other ingredients are rather gourmet and will be difficult to find. There are no photographs of the recipes, although in the kindle format - and I have a paperwhite - that is not an issue, in paper copies of cookbooks, I prefer a photograph of each recipe.
Therefore, it is really difficult for me to judge whether this is actually a good cookbook or not. I received this book free to review from Netgalley.

[Elayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book Review:
Low Sugar Cookbook

This immediately caught my attention to read as it began with some really informative chapters about sugar and its alternatives. What was especially good was the simplicity of the explanations and details of alternatives some of which I had never heard of as ingredients but in order to try out the recipes had to find them and buy them! At least I already had Stevia and had used it so was not at all suspicious and was willing to try out the new ingredients suggested.
I particularly liked the explanation at the end of each recipe of the nutritional value of the main ingredients - such as brazil nuts to supply selenium, or that the lycopene in tomatoes protects against heart disease, strokes and destructive free radicals in the nervous system!
However, I am concerned that the book uses a lot of coconut oil, olive oil and sunflower oil or butter only its recipes. It is well known that cooking with olive oil can produce carcinogens and coconut oil high in saturated fat.
Why not use rapeseed oil? Which is low in saturated fat and if you use the first pressed organic virgin oil has a wonderful flavour to add to salads, stir fries and roasting vegs.
I have managed now to buy all the ingredients including Lucuram and Xylitol and brown rice syrup and cocoa nibs, so am now armed and ready to cook my first dish! The savoury recipes all look very interesting as well as the desserts and such a quick and easy way to make your own baked beans! Which you can then flavour as you wish - personally I love them with curry sauce…
Baked the spiced apple cake last night - needs some getting used to the different flavour of Xylitol and Lucuram but easy to make and cooked in 30 mins so bonus. Especially nice with ice-cream!

[Sharon Goodwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Low-Sugar Cookbook is a collection of over 100 recipes which aims to inspire us to cook easy, low-sugar meals for everyone in the family.

We find out the different types of sugar and there is advise for the foods to steer clear of and substitutions we can make for a healthier diet.

You'll find information on the Glycaemic Index (GI) - the positives and negatives plus the difference between the GI and the Glycaemic Load (GL).

Sugar and Health section details obesity, the heart, diabetes, cancer and ageing.

Food warning symbols accompany each recipe ie; allergy to an ingredient. Each recipe gives the preparation and cook time; health benefits; food facts per portion.

Pages 224 - 227 give ideas for a week menu of wheat and gluten free, vegetarian, vegan and nut free diets.

I've tried out a few of the recipes and every single one has been a hit with members of my family! I didn't find it difficult to find the ingredients that I needed (added to my online supermarket shop) although you may have to purchase some of the ingredients from specialist provision (health shop) for some of the recipes in the book.

One thing I will say is that for the bread and cookies, I needed to adjust the cooking time due to my fan assisted oven (and could have adjusted again).


All the recipes are adaptable so for instance with herbs and spices you can adjust to suit your taste (as with all cooking).


I would definitely recommend The Low-Sugar Cookbook. So far it's been a hit in my family!

See more at: http://jerasjamboree.weebly.com/blog/...

[Cas H. · Rating 2 out of 5]

The low-sugar cookbook by Nicola Graimes is an interesting assortment of a variety of different recipes. Seeing the dessert on the cover, you would almost think it is a low sugar dessert cookbook, it is not. She takes a whole bunch of different recipes and gives you ideas on how to make the recipes healthier and lower in sugar and fat then the original recipe. I personally felt that this was a health food cookbook. I felt that she was trying to get you to eat healthier by changing your diet around to suit the needs of the cookbook. I did not feel that most of these recipes could be made and kept up without a drastic lifestyle change from the normal stuff you buy in grocery stores. I felt that I would have to start shopping at the health food stores like Jimbos for more than just vegetables in order to make recipes from this book.

I received a free copy of this book in return for my honest opinion.

[Shelley · Rating 3 out of 5]

ARC generously provided by publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book has lots of recipes that I cannot wait to try as well as some that my family really enjoyed. Some of our favorites were
Warm Greek Salad of Beans, Basil, and Feta
Red Quinoa Tabbouleh
Ricotta Cakes with Berry Sauce
Almond and Raw Chocolate Drops

The book is easy to follow, the only problem I had with the cookbook is the same thing that many "low sugar" or "healthier" cookbooks fall victim to, difficult items to find. This may not be an issue if you live in certain cities but I live in a rather large city and still had a hard time tracking down a few of the ingredients. I will admit this causes me to be discouraged and give up on some recipes. However, there were plenty I could try and we enjoyed and they all have creative ways to cut down on sugar.

[Connie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The newest trend, at least new to me, is to watch how much sugar you are consuming. With the epidemic of diabetes, this is probably a good idea.

I liked that this cookbook had information about why we should consume less sugar and eating a healthy diet. Some of the recipes were foods that I would have not thought of making although they are worth a try. These include: almond milk, three nut butter, omelette pizzas,tzatziki, and pancakes made with cottage cheese that also have tomatoes and basil in them.

There is also a nice assortment of soups, salads, desserts, main dishes, breakfast ideas and a section called Cakes, Bakes and bread.

If you are trying to control your sugar intake, this is a good cookbook to add to your collection.

[Short Sorceress · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was sent a copy of the book for review through Net Galley, as always, all opinions are my own.

During my efforts to eat healthier I became aware of how much added sugar I had been consuming. It was so shocking that I made it my #1 priority this year to make some dramatic changes to my diet. I thought this cookbook might give me some new ideas for recipes, but unfortunately many of the ingredients are very difficult to find when you live in a small town. There are a number of recipes that I enjoyed trying, but not enough that I would make them again. Because of this and the fact that the needed ingredients can be hard to come by I don’t feel I can recommend this book to someone else.

[Ina M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many thanks to Watkins Publishing Limited for approving my request for this book on NetGalley. I found it useful, even if most of the ingredients aren't the easiest to find. I'm using it as more of a reference and basis for my own low-sugar diet (which is nowhere as strict as the recipes in the book). I would definitely recommend it to anyone who thinks they might be consuming too much sugar (yes, you probably are, and so am I, and pretty much everyone).

[ReadingWench · Rating 3 out of 5]

I first thing noticed with this book was the lack of photos. So far I have only leafed thru the pages, but a lot of recipes I would have to go to the store to get ingredients I normally wouldn't have. There are simple recipes and them more complicated.

I like the idea of this book. Everyone need to reduce sugar in their diet, however, the ingredients and lack of photos lower my rating.

[Olivia E · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love to read cookbooks, and this one is great. Not only did it include super, and many kid-friendly, recipes, but it also gave health and nutritional facts for the ingredients in the recipes. I look forward to cooking up some great, low sugar food! I read this book compliments of NetGalley.