At my favorite local coffee shop there is a sign in front of the banana muffins saying “Sugar-Free”. I asked the girl, who was waiting for my order, if they were sweetened with anything besides bananas. ”Oh ya, agave”. ”So they’re not sugar-free, they’re just cane-sugar free.” I reasoned, to an unreceptive audience…. Sugar is sugar my friends! Whether it’s cane sugar, agave, coconut sugar – they all contain roughly the same number of calories and have a similar effect on your blood sugar. I don’t even think foods sweetened with honey should be allowed to call themselves “sugar-free” - which they often do. And forget the fake stuff; if it’s sweetened with artificial sugar it should be legally required to prominently state on the front of the package, “Sweetened with Chemicals”. (The one exception is stevia, which has no calories but is not artificial, though I do have some flavor reservations, so don’t recommend it for baking.)
I’m having a bit of a “thing” with mustard lately … ever since I wrote that 
Every few years a new sweetener comes along claiming to be the “healthy” sugar. It tastes just like “real sugar” (usually meaning cane sugar) but with a long list of benefits that rapidly turn it into the must-have sweetener of the day. The timeline goes something like this:
