Ella Leche

Cut the Sugar, You're Sweet Enough is a wonderfully written, very approachable guidebook to reducing your sugar intake. Reasons for cutting down and cutting out sugar from your diet are touched on in the book, but also included are sugar alternatives and clear, non-intimidating recipes and tips on how to reduce/remove sugar from your diet.

The recipes look delicious, and featured some ingredients that I have never used before, but which may be familiar with any home cook who is concerned about the level of sugar in their diet. The ingredients that I have never used include liquid stevia, sorghum flour and maca.

There are also simpler recipes, such as 3 ingredient Chocolate Pudding and 2 ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies.

**eARC netgalley**… (meer)

Looking to cut out sugar from your diet, or find healthier ways to make your favorite recipes? This cookbook is a great place to start! Filled with beautiful photography of scrumptious looking desserts, main meals, sides, and more, I found myself marking quite a few recipes to try. There wasn't anything in the description about it being a vegan cookbook, but it just so happened to be, which made me love it even more, as I knew I could safely try any recipe I wanted. As I don't use white sugar at home and am always looking for recipes that use natural sweeteners, this cookbook was perfect for me. But even if you're just starting out, or just want one or two recipes that make healthy swaps, this cookbook is a great resource!

Sarah M. / Marathon County Public Library
Find this book in our library catalog.

… (meer)

I was disappointed in Cut the Sugar, You're Sweet Enough by Ella Leche. While the pictures were beautiful and the recipes were presented easily and simply, I was surprised to see most of the recipes for desert containing Stevia. While I know that there are difference of opinions about whether Stevia is safe, at this point, there is not enough information for me to feel comfortable using it. Because of this, most of the deserts were off-limits for me. Considering this is a cookbook about cutting out sweets it made this book a deal breaker for me. I was also hoping for a more "traditional" cookbook and not one that had so many gluten-free, diary-free, wheat- free recipes. At least, it could have been marketed more clearly.so customers know what they are buying.

Thank you Net Galley for giving the opportunity to review this book for an honest opinion.… (meer)

Sugar is my arch-enemy. I could live on sugar... well, emotionally I could live on sugar. Physically sugar is killing me. Last summer I tried the Whole 30 diet, which was a strict elimination diet that required I avoid lots of things, and one of those was sugar. And I mean avoidance to the nth degree! You were supposed to completely eliminate all refined sugar. Not even things like mayonnaise or ketchup were allowed. And I noticed a lot of physical changes during this 30 day elimination-- positive changes. My skin cleared up, my cough disappeared, I no longer felt bloated, and I had more energy. I'm not sure how many of those changes can be attributed to the elimination of refined sugar, or how many were influenced by the other things I had eliminated like grains, but there was a marked difference.

And then the 30 days were over, and the sugar crept back into my diet. I swear I'm hopeless, but I keep trying.

So I grabbed this book when it became available on Netgalley.

The book begins with the author's story. She tells of her debilitating health issues, and how eliminating sugar from her diet resolved those issues.

Then she offers an introduction to sugar, and the easy steps to eliminating it from your diet. She teaches you how to fill your pantry with "superfoods" to help you not miss the sugar. Things like Cinnamon, Cacao Powder and Nutritional Yeast.

She educates you on how to sprout beans, lentils and seeds, and how to make your own nut and seed milk, i.e. almond milk.

The cover of this book shows waffles and fruit, and the cheerful colors of red, white and blue. And as you begin paging through it you see strawberries and lemons, and this got me expecting that this cookbook would be more desserts and breakfast. You know, healthier alternatives for sweets.

However it wound up being more about alternatives TO sweets. It categorizes recipes by Breakfast, Salad and Appetizers, Soups, Mains and Sides, Desserts, Snacks, and Drinks. It offers up the normal breakfast options like oatmeal and yogurt parfaits, and then other high protein options like Avocado Toast, or Caramelized Onion, Leek and Potato Chickpea Frittata.

My final word: This book is a good option for some, but not for me. It uses a lot of gluten-free ingredients (and I'm not looking to go gluten free, although you could probably easily use gluten options instead), and it uses sweeteners like stevia and rooibos (another thing I'm not looking to get into). Some of the recipes intrigue me (like Chocolate-Cherry-Chia Pudding), but many of the recipes (particularly those for the mains and sides) I just have no interest in. They simply don't suit my taste buds. It has beautiful photography and is informative, but it just isn't a good fit for me.… (meer)