Why we sweeten with dates & jaggery, never refined sugar

Sweetness is fine in the right form and the right amount. That idea shaped every Flyttle recipe.

 

Refined white sugar is stripped down to just sugar, with the fibre and minerals taken out. It hits fast and is hard on small teeth, and it adds sweetness and nothing else. We chose not to use it at all.

 

Instead we sweeten with whole foods. A date is a whole fruit, so its sweetness comes with fibre that slows down how fast the sugar is absorbed, plus a little potassium and iron. This is the whole idea behind our Date & Nut Bites. Almost all their sweetness comes from real dates, which is why the added sugar stays under 1g per 100g.

 

For our Chocolate Nut Spread we use jaggery. Jaggery is cane sugar that skips the heavy refining, so it keeps some of its natural minerals like iron and has a deeper, warmer taste. It let us make a chocolate spread kids love without reaching for white sugar.

 

We will also be straight with you. Dates and jaggery are still sugar. They still have calories, and "unrefined" does not mean unlimited. What changes is the quality and the amount. That is why we treat the spread as a treat, lovely now and then, not an everyday free pass.

 

"Sugar is not something to hide from kids, it is something to teach them about. We would rather give them real sweetness from dates and jaggery, in sensible amounts, than pretend a snack is sugar free when it is not."

Dr. Subhima, co-founder and paediatric dentist

 

Our rule stays simple. If we would not give it to our own kids, it does not go in the pack.