That's Fit

Hot chocolate season is in full swing up north. Like me, maybe you're tired of tearing open little white envelopes of processed hot chocolate, stirring away those clumps of refined sugar in hot water. If a stove is handy, preparing the concoction with milk is healthier, but it's still not the homemade kind made with unsweetened cocoa.

Here's a Healthier Hot Chocolate recipe created by Whole Foods Market chefs for FITNESS magazine. I especially like the fact it's sweetened with agave nectar, a non-chemical, natural sweetener, which also happens to be low-glycemic. One serving of this cocoa has 3 grams of fiber (nearly three times as much as the refined sugar stuff), only 1 gram of fat and 215 calories. One drawback is the carbohydrate count -- 44 grams -- but they are low-glycemic and won't spike your blood sugar like refined sugar.

Whip up this hot cocoa next time you reach for the little white envelope. If the words 'agave nectar' have you freaked out, here's some light reading on this natural sweetener.

Healthier Hot Chocolate (serves 2)

• 3 T unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3-4 T agave nectar
• 2 1/2 cups skim milk
• 1/2 vanilla bean, split (this is your chance to work with fresh vanilla!)
• 1/2 t ground cinnamon, 1/4 t ground nutmeg

Mix cocoa powder and agave nectar. Heat milk in medium saucepan over very low heat with vanilla bean, cinnamon and nutmeg. Whisk in cocoa-agave mixture thoroughly, until mixture is warm but not boiling.

In many cases -- heck, all of them -- I search out for natural sweetening alternatives like cane sugar, stevia and agave nectar when I need to add a bit of nutritious sweetness to my foods and drinks. I never use artificial sweeteners like aspartame, NutraSweet or Splenda. Why?

Well, I won't go into specifics, but aspartame and NutraSweet (just a brand name) are chemicals, that -- when I used to use them years ago -- gave me headaches. Once I researched what those items were, not only was I shocked, but I stopped using both products permanently.

On the trail of a never-ending quest to find sugarless and calorie-less sweeteners for products, sucralose was invented and given the name Splenda for marketing purposes I still prefer not to ever use fake sweeteners, including this one. Do you?

Ever wonder what would be better than can sugar, refined sugar or artificial sweeteners like Splenda, NutraSweet or Aspartame? Many really negative studies have come about recently regarding the efficacy and potential harm artificial sweeteners can have on the human body over time -- which is a main reason I stay away from all of them completely.

But , natural cane sugar can be harmful too if taken in abundance. Refined sugar, used in candies and pastries among other things, is really, really bad for people in large amounts as well. What other choices are there? How about the nectar of the Agave plant, which can be found in many organic varieties and is quite possibly the best all-around multi-purpose sweetener out there.

In addition to the excellent natural sweetener stevia, Agave Nectar is a very low-glycemic but incredibly tasty sweetener made from the Agave plant -- the same plant that Tequila is refined from. In addition, Agave Nectar is about 125% sweeter than sugar by some estimates, making it a perfect replacement for standard tabletop sugar. My preferred brand? Organic Raw Blue Agave by Wholesome Sweeteners.