While many conventional food companies in North America continue to create synthetic sweeteners made in a laboratory, Navitas Naturals is instead taking a healthy whole-food approach to sweeteners that benefits from the ancient wisdom of cultures around the world.  The company’s new Coconut Power, an organic evaporated palm sugar, is a healthy new alternative sweetener that is rich in nutrients and low-glycemic.  This new palm sugar joins Navitas Naturals’ line of healthy organic sweeteners that also includes Lucuma and Yacon. 

Navitas Naturals (www.navitasnaturals.com) searches around the world for the healthiest superfoods and alternative sweeteners, and this innovative new organic product is sustainably sourced from the tropical region of Indonesia.  Navitas Naturals Coconut Power is made from the sweet juices of coconut palm sugar blossoms. Traditional sugar farmers climb high into the canopy of coconut trees and harvest the sweet nectar by gently slicing the flower. Once collected, the nectar is kettle­-boiled into a thick caramel and then ground into a fine brown crystal.

Coconut Power is a pure and simple cane sugar alternative that provides the energy and nutrition that the body needs to lead a healthy lifestyle. Coconut Power evaporated palm sugar is 100% organic, unprocessed, unfiltered, unbleached and contains no preservatives.  Coconut Power is naturally low on the Glycemic Index (GI), which offers benefits for weight control and improving glucose and lipid levels in people with diabetes (type 1 and type 2). With a GI rating of 35, Coconut Power compares favorably to other sweeteners including agave (GI 42), honey (GI 55) and cane sugar (GI 68). Coconut Power offers a nutrition profile that is superior to all other commercially available sweeteners.  It is especially high in amino acids, Potassium, Magnesium, Zinc and Iron and is a good natural source of the vitamins B1, B2, B3, B6 and C.

While palm sugar has long been a culinary staple in Southeast Asian culture and used in traditional herbal medicine, the evolution of this delicious sweetener into a practical and easy to use cane sugar alternative is a breakthrough for foodies in North America. Coconut Power has a unique caramel sweetness, and it can be used in recipes as a 1-to-1 substitute for cane sugar.  Because it is in the form of a fine granule, Coconut Power rapidly dissolves in liquids and wet doughs.  Below is an original recipe by Navitas Naturals for Chocolate Haystacks.  Offered in an 8-ounce resealable pouch for $5.99, Coconut Power is available at Whole Foods Markets and other stores around North America, as well as many leading web retailers including www.amazon.com.  

A Healthy Sweetener that is Good for Farming Communities and the Ecosystems that Support Them

Coconut Power is a socially responsible product that is good for the community and ecosystem where it is sustainably harvested.  The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the World Bank has reported that palm sweeteners are the most sustainable sweetener in the world!  Coconut Palms produce an average of 50­75% more sugar per acre than Sugar Cane and use less than 20% of  the nutrient inputs to achieve that production. Tropical palms are an ecologically beneficial tree crop that grows in diverse wild­life-supportive agro­ecosystems, and they require very little water and help to restore damaged soils.  Coconut Palms are considered the “Tree of Life” by many traditional communities throughout the world as they provide over 100 useful products from which to make a livelihood.   This healthy sweetener is produced by small-scale sugar tappers that receive fair trade prices, production training, market access assistance and other social support.  The money from raising and processing this product stays in the local community. 

Since 2003, Navitas Naturals’ mission has been to provide premium organic power foods that increase energy and enhance health.  Through direct purchasing agreements, Navitas Naturals provides and expands fair trade economic opportunities in developing regions around the world.  “We look to the past for inspiration,” says company founder and President Zach Adelman.  “Our products come from the wisdom of ancient cultures and their traditional use of plants for both culinary and medicinal purposes,” says Adelman.  In addition to their own brand of superfoods and alternative sweeteners, Navitas Naturals supplies organic ingredients to other food companies.  For more information, please visit www.navitasnaturals.com.

An Original Recipe by Navitas Naturals

Chocolate Haystacks

Makes: 1 Dozen Haystacks

8 oz.        Navitas Naturals Cacao Butter

½ Cup    Navitas Naturals Cacao Powder

8 oz.        Navitas Naturals Trail Mix

3 Tbsp.   Navitas Naturals Yacon Syrup

3 Tbsp.   Navitas Naturals Coconut Palm Sugar

In a saucepan, melt the cacao butter over very low heat, quickly stirring in the yacon, palm sugar and cacao powder until smooth.  Toss in the trail mix until coated, and then drop spoon-size haystacks onto a plate and place in the freezer to harden.  Haystacks are ready to eat in about one hour.