Whether you are interested in the raw food lifestyle or not, how and if your food is sweetened should be of interest to you. Synthetically produced or chemically altered products like Sweet ‘n Low, Equal, Splenda or refined sugar are not in the vocabulary or the mindset of the raw food-ist. In addition, artificial sweeteners have no nutritional value and may even cause harm. Depending on the school of raw food that you subscribe to, terms like stevia (a naturally growing leaf), agave (nectar from a cactus-like plant), and yacon (syrup from the yacon – a root vegetable plant) may represent some of the contents of the food on your plate.

As with most philosophies, there are disagreements within the raw and living food movement. Conservatives eat only living foods and liberals eat both living and raw foods. It is important to clarify that the issue is not whether to sweeten food, but how to sweeten the food. From time to time, we all need something sweet. The ranges of philosophies on how to sweeten your food are discussed in The Raw Food Diet Myth including popular sweeteners such as agave, raw honey and stevia.