— Mark Rappaport

So, uh, it depends on the recipe mark. Um, like if you're just doing a saute, you can definitely do like a vegetable stock or a water to be able to use, um, instead of the oil. Um, if you're trying to get it to do non-stick, you know, uh, water deglaze will actually work for that as well too. Um, for sugar, you know, there are, um, because sugar is so processed, that's one of the reasons we try to kind of stay away from it a little bit more. Um, so try to think of less processed sugars that'll actually work for you. Now this is kind of a slippery slope though, right? So if you can do things like where you're adding, um, like a fruit into your dish to be able to get the sugar quality, that's the best option because you're getting your whole fruit, it's not been processed down at all. And then you're getting your sugar, your sweet from something like that. So if you are, you know, looking for something to be able to kind of mix into that, that could be great. So if you're making something like pancakes, you can add actual blueberries to the pancakes, um, to be able to make that sweeter, the sweetness to that, um, that's not, you know, uh, altered that much. Now there is an argument that maple syrup is actually probably, you know, not as processed as so like a cane sugar would be, um, which I can agree with as well too, if you're, uh, you know, not vegan honey, um, is something that a lot of people like to be able to use. Um, and agave. But agave is also pretty processed as well too. So, um, when I, when people are trying to avoid sugar, I always try to tell them, go towards the whole ingredient. Um, dried fruit is probably the one place that I go to most often. So something like a date is something that I use or a dried apricots. Um, both of those things dried. I'll soak them a little bit and then blend them up into a blender and you have a fruit paste that you can use as a sugar alternative that works really, really well.