photo cour­tesy of Janet Walker, osteopath (DOMP)

Before I had kids, I never gave much thought to sugar-free bak­ing. I rarely baked any­ways, and sugar-free was a tem­po­rary lifestyle change I only asso­ci­ated with my twice yearly detoxes. All that changed after kids, as I resolved to pro­vide them with a com­pletely sugar-free exis­tence until they were at least 1 year old. Dur­ing that first year, I exper­i­mented, trans­form­ing the recipes I had pre­vi­ously loved with sugar into sugar-free favourites. Nowa­days I’m more relaxed about sugar inges­tion, let­ting the kids self-moderate at events where sugar is served, pri­mar­ily at birth­day par­ties and at other people’s houses. Not that they don’t over indulge when given the chance. But they are also the first to declare, “My tummy hurts. I think I ate too much sugar.”

Some may find my no fruit juice, no sugar pol­icy at home a tad extreme. (My adage: Eat fruit, drink water.) How­ever, research sup­ports the the­ory that sugar is actu­ally a highly addic­tive toxin, con­tribut­ing not only to the devel­op­ment of obe­sity and dia­betes, but also high cho­les­terol, high blood pres­sure, and ulti­mately heart dis­ease and can­cer. For a com­pre­hen­sive briefer on the sci­ence of sugar, watch this episode of 60 min­utes “Is sugar toxic?”. Just say no to added sugar. But say yes to sugar-free baking.

This zuc­chini loaf is made with dates to pro­vide a lit­tle sweet­ness. It was always a big hit at our co-operative day care. I hope you enjoy it too.

Ingre­di­ents:
2 eggs or egg sub­sti­tute
1 cup chopped, pit­ted organic dates (no added sul­fites, thanks)
½ cup oil
1 cup buck­wheat flour
½ cup brown rice flour
½ tsp salt
1 tsp bak­ing pow­der
½ tsp bak­ing soda
1 tsp cin­na­mon
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups grated raw zuc­chini
½ cup chopped wal­nuts (optional)

Direc­tions
Pre­heat over to 350ºF. Mix eggs or sub­sti­tute with chopped dates and oil in a food proces­sor until blended. Stir dry ingre­di­ents together in a bowl. Add in blended ingre­di­ents, beat­ing until thor­oughly mixed. Stir in vanilla, zuc­chini and nuts. Turn into greased loaf pan and bake at 350ºF for 1 hour or until a tooth­pick inserted in the cen­tre comes out clean. Cool, slice, and serve. Freezes well. Can be used to make muffins too.

**Spe­cial thanks to Janet Walker, osteopath for bak­ing and pho­tograph­ing this recipe.