Indian festivals welcome the unavoidable temptations for sweets. Holi is one such festival that makes one go weak over the dietary health promises. It’s then hard to choose what to consume? Guilt or Sweets.
What if there are sweets without sugar?
What if you get to consume only sweets and no guilt?
Anything But Sugar is one such sweet shop where one can relish the luscious range of sweets, cookies, cakes, and pastries that is made of natural sweeteners like maple syrup, jaggery, honey, dates, palms, and everything but sugar.
This sweet shop is located in the Capital’s Defence Colony. It was founded by Ved Pahoja, KB Sharma & Pramod Singla. Sharma’s son Shaurya, who now runs the sweet haven, said that it’s all about getting back to the roots.
“Indians have been foodies. It has been a tradition to celebrate festivals with sweets even before processed sugar was introduced. So, when we have the bliss of natural sweeteners then why experience guilt trip on calories,” he said.
The store has a variety of lip-smacking guilt – free gujiyas to offer, including traditional fried kesar gujiya which is made with dhaga mishri and not sugar. Apart from this, one can relish naturally sweetened, finger sized, portion controlled gujiyas at Anything But Sugar. The varieties vary from, oats gujiya, roasted gujiya, bajra gujiya, gulab gujiya, atta gujiya and whole wheat gujiya.
The later variants of gujiya are baked and not fried, so don’t miss the holi sweets this year. Just grab some bites without worrying much about your diet promises. One can also find chocolate gujiyas at the store. People who love sweets & chocolates both would adore this experiment to the core.
Sugar tastes sweet but has bitter effects on the body. Processed sugar is full of harmful chemicals. It has dreadful effects on teeth, eyes, and even the heart.
However, at Anything But Sugar, the sugary sinful sweets have been turned to guilt-free savoury sweets by bringing back the culture of using natural sweeteners to prepare the sweets.
The store has rediscovered the pre-existing natural substitutes to sugar. These are the natural sweeteners which prevailed since the times of our forefathers much before the British introduced the white processed sugar.
These natural sweeteners include, honey, khand, cane jaggery, date jaggery (nolen gur), dates, palm and dhaga-mishri.
Jaggery is healthy, full of minerals, and is used to cure iron deficiency as well.
Sharma said that the sweeteners used in the kitchen are not only natural but 100% organic. The nolen gur or the date jaggery is exported from Siliguri, West Bengal, whereas palm sugar is exported from Karnataka, cane sugar is exported from the UP belt, and likewise coconut sugar and other sweeteners are exported from organic farms that don’t compromise on quality.
As per researches sugar has adverse health effects. It supresses the immune system of the body and accelerates the process of ageing. In children it can affect cognitive ability and can cause behavioural changes. Still no serious step has been taken to find a permanent solution to replace processed sugar.
The store owners have been through a detailed research on natural sweeteners followed by various experiments on the same. This resulted in the invention of 60-odd products.
The store has some specialties which one must try like Nolen Gur Ras Malai, Nolen Gur Roshogolla, Chocolate – Gur Barfi, Kaju Katli topped with nutritious bee pollen grains, Eggless Gur- Chocolate Mud Cake, Honey Walnut Tart. Cakes made with jaggery, honey & khand are some of the healthy mouth watering desserts one wouldn’t like to desert.
With Anything But Sugar, it’s time to say good bye to sugar and get some guilt – free healthy bites.
