Banana bread is a traditional favorite that leaves your mouth watering when you think about it. Unsurprisingly, your imagination takes you to eat warm banana bread with yummy nut butter while on a diet. Spoiler alert, the banana bread recipe with no sugar fills the gap. Various banana bread recipes without sugar allow you to enjoy that tingling slice of fruit-filled clouds in your mouth. Moist, added sugar-free, healthy, or vegan banana bread recipes offer benefits and none of the dietary setbacks. Let’s see which loaves work.
Belgium’s Leuven Food Science and Nutrition Center explains how sugar works in baking bread (22). The yeast ferments the sugar, creating carbon dioxide, which allows the bread to rise. The good news is that banana bread doesn’t use yeast to rise.
Honey, molasses, and brown sugar react like white or refined sugar. And maple syrup is a beautiful substitute for vegans.
Banana bread recipes typically don’t use yeast but use baking powder or soda as a leavening agent. If using baking soda, you also need an acidic ingredient to react with the baking soda (3).
Baking soda and baking powder both allow banana bread to rise with an airy texture and crisp edges. If using either baking powder or baking soda as the leavening agent, you don’t necessarily need to add sugar to the mix.
It’s time to wet your taste buds with healthy, simple, delicious banana bread recipes without sugar. Each recipe has a unique quality that makes it healthier or vegan-friendly. John Hopkins Medicine suggests that cutting added sugar from your diet may be helpful(9). Let’s do that in these recipes.
Replacing added sugar with something that sweetens banana bread slightly more than ripe bananas is a brilliantly easy way to make tasty loaves. With that in mind, what can you replace to help sweeten the deal with an easy banana bread recipe without sugar?
WebMD states that raisins have around 60% natural sugars to sweeten food further (20). Also, WebMD suggests adding coconut milk or cream to sweeten things naturally (6). WebMD further describes agave syrup as a natural but optional ultra-sweet alternative (1).
Read More: Banana Bread Overnight Oats Recipe And 6 Reasons To Eat This For Breakfast Often
Let’s look at another recipe with easy substitutes for sugar in banana bread. Honey has more calories than sugar, but since it’s sweeter, you use less. The University of Arkansas, Division of Agriculture, says honey may be slightly healthier than sugar because you need less (13).
Additionally, WebMD recommends using Ceylon cinnamon to add natural sweetness (11). Remember, the correct replacements enhance sweetness without adding refined sugar.
Lean and toned up body isn’t just a far-fetched fantasy. Check out the BetterMe app and watch it propel your weight loss journey into high gear!
John Hopkins Medicine explains how added and natural sugars differ (9). Added sugar is processed and human-made. Natural sugars are found in fruit, honey, maple syrup, and molasses.
WebMD suggests adding dried dates to make banana bread sweeter with added health benefits (7). Dates are naturally high in fructose, fiber, and polyphenols.
Read More: Banana Baked Oatmeal: The Perfect Nutritional Start To Your Day
The Philadelphia Tribune has stated that olive oil and butter have similar calories (21). Olive oil has no dietary cholesterol and much less saturated fat. The NHS says diets high in saturated fat increase the risk of heart attacks (8). Let’s see how many more ingredients are healthier.
Harvard states how added sugar should be limited in your diet (23). Furthermore, WebMD explains how cutting calories can help you lose weight (2). Finally, the Mayo Clinic confirms that low-carb diets can help some people lose weight (17). This recipe addresses all three problems.
Looking for a way to break the vicious cycle of weight loss and tone up all the jiggly parts? Watch the extra pounds fly off and your muscles firm up with the BetterMe app!
The NHS defines vegans as those who eat no animal byproducts, including eggs or dairy (24). This recipe uses maple syrup, which is vegan-friendly (16). It also uses almond milk. Medicine Net mentions almond milk as a plant-derived product (15).
WebMD confirms how flaxseeds are a source of fiber and healthy fats (10). The recipe calls for flax eggs, a vegan product from ground flaxseeds. Replace regular flour with oat flour for a nice flavor(19).
Some sweetness in banana bread comes from the ripened bananas. Harvard University suggests using bananas with golden yellow skin and some brown spots (4). This way, you use bananas in their prime flavor period to naturally enhance the bread’s sweetness.
Harvard also shares a method to ripen your bananas sooner (4). Store bananas in a brown paper bag to speed up the ripening process. It allows the ethene to release within the bag, quickly ripening your banana (14).
The ultra-healthy low-carb banana bread recipe only has 150 calories per slice. In addition, it cuts the hazards of refined sugars Harvard warns to limit (23). Additionally, it slashes the carbs, which may help with weight loss (17).
Our favorite t sugar-free banana bread replaces various ingredients. For example, it has almond milk to substitute regular milk (15). Also, it changes butter for olive oil to be more heart-healthy (21).
Bananas always pop into the kitchen, leaving a few ripe ones behind. Turning them into sugar-free bread is a tasty and healthy way to use them. Use any of these recipes to eat banana bread on a diet or count calories.
This article is intended for general informational purposes only and does not serve to address individual circumstances. It is not a substitute for professional advice or help and should not be relied on for making any kind of decision-making. Any action taken as a direct or indirect result of the information in this article is entirely at your own risk and is your sole responsibility.
BetterMe, its content staff, and its medical advisors accept no responsibility for inaccuracies, errors, misstatements, inconsistencies, or omissions and specifically disclaim any liability, loss or risk, personal, professional or otherwise, which may be incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and/or application of any content.
You should always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or your specific situation. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking it because of BetterMe content. If you suspect or think you may have a medical emergency, call your doctor.