Refined sugar has a lot of side effects on kids, most of these effects are negative effects that can cause a lot of health problem for them. You need to reduce the intake of refined sugar in you and your kids’ diet. As a child nutritionist and recipe developer, I  look at smart substitutions because I know that kids pay attention to what they’re eating when eating with their peers.

So, instead of refined sugar in snacks, ice creams, cakes or cereals, I swap sugar for a natural sweetener like DATES, APPLESAUCE, and others.

One of the major effects of sugar intake is a weakened immune system. The guts consist trillions of good bacteria that help digest food, produce vitamin and protect it from germs and diseases. When kids consume too much sugar it affects the balance between good and bad bacteria, therefore, it weakens the immune system. A weakened immune system can cause various infections and diseases like a sinus infection. Some children even get allergies.

Dates are one of the natural sweeteners I love using. Apart from been a sweet fruit, it has a lot of health benefit. Dates are rich in fiber, reduce constipation, help in brain health, bone health and boost energy all these are few out of it’s benefits.

You can make date paste in two ways, the dry and wet paste. This recipe is for wet paste, the wet is made by adding water to blend while the dry is made without water. The wet can stay in the fridge for 2/3 days while the dry stay on the counter for 1/2 weeks.

INGREDIENTS 

This recipe should make more than one cup of wet date paste

• 20 date
• 1/3 warm water (use more or reduce water depending on the size of date)

METHOD

1. Remove seed and soak date for 30 minutes depends on the type of dates you are using. if you are using hard dates soak for long
2. Pour the date into the blender and blitz till soft and lump free
3.  Store in airtight container and refrigerate.

For dry date after soaking drain the water and let it dry a bit before blending in a food processor or any dry blender.

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