We use honey or maple syrup at our house. Organic for the maple syrup and raw organic honey. Our little guy likes banana's a lot so we mash some banana and add cinnamon or vanilla too sometimes.

I use local honey from a local apiary, it comes in all different flavors too so its very versatile.

If you believe Lustig (which I do!) then you'll treat fructose like the devil. Agave nectar is somewhere between 70 and 90% fructose. So I never use it. Your body doesn't care if sugar is "natural" or "real". It treats it all the same.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey

Honey is fructose and glucose so a healthier option would be dextrose which is just glucose. Not to say its the best tasting option.

a alternative sweetener overview.

http://www.sacredchocolate.com/agave-blues-david-wolfe/

After dealing with the agave blues, you may want to select another sweetener. Here are some options (in alphabetical order):

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• Coconut Palm Sugar: This is now available as a sweetener. It is usually heat processed, yet unconfirmed reports indicate raw coconut palm sugar is now available from Balinese sources. It is processed using lime (chalk) or mangosteen sap to neutralize acidity. Because of the calcification problems associated with eating chalk and the magic associated with the mangosteen tree, mangosteen sap processed coconut palm sugar is preferred.

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• Erythritol: Erythritol is made by breaking down plant starch into glucose. Then the yeast Moniliella pollinis is added to the glucose. Through fermentation, the glucose breaks down into erythritol. Metabolic, toxicological, and clinical studies covering areas as diverse as cancer, nervous system health, and allergic reactions have found erythritol to be safe. Erythritol has GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status in the United States. Seek out organic erythritol or products containing it.

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• Honey (raw, organic): Honey is always the natural sweetener of choice. Look for wild honey because it is lower in free fructose and higher in trace mineral content. Also, look for richer dark honeys (e.g. NoniLand honey, etc.) Inulin: A long-chain polysaccharide that is mostly too long a sugar to absorb into the blood stream. Inulin may be isolated from Jerusalem artichoke or properly processed agave. Look for inulin powder or Jerusalem artichoke syrup. Too much inulin intake can cause digestive distress in certain people.

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• Lo Han Guo: A non-glycemic sweetener from Chinese medicinal tradition made from a type of wild cucumber.

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• Lucuma: Lucuma’s sugar content is low. The percentage amount present in the dried pulp from mature lucuma fruit is: 8.4% glucose, 4.7% fructose, 1.7% sucrose, and 0.06% inositol (http://www.buywholefoodsonline.co.uk/lucuma-powder).

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• Maple syrup: this is the only sustainably-harvested, large-scale, forest sweetener in the world. Maple is likely the richest source of minerals found in any sweetener other than dark honeys and molasses. Look for organic maple syrup and maple crystals as an ingredient.

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• Molasses: Select unsulfured, organic sugarcane molasses because it is fairly rich in vitamins and minerals and has been purported (like fresh sugar cane) to have “anti-stiffness factors” that break down detrimental calcification (see my book The LongevityNOW Program).

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• Soak water: This is a natural sweetener from dried fruits such as date water, goji water, or dried fig water. Shop for organic dried fruit products and soak them in spring water for several hours to make your own fresh soak water.

  Stevia: I recommend dried powdered leaves over extracts. This is a wonderful and easy plant to grow. It contains no real sugar, so therefore it does not feed candida or cancer. Look for organic stevia products.

• Xylitol: This could be the sweetener of the future if it could be obtained with certified organic quality. Xylitol does not feed candida or cancer, but tastes normally sweet. Originally isolated from birch syrup; it is now available as a white powder.

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• Yacon: An extraordinarily easy to obtain and abundant subtropical to tropical tuber, relative to the Jerusalem artichoke. Yacon is commonly available as dehydrated chips and as a syrup. Look for organic products. Yacon syrup is rich in iron and only mildly glycemic.

Other sweeteners to avoid, besides common agave:

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• Refined white and brown sugars made from beet, sorghum, or sugarcane of all sorts, primarily due to genetically modified crop contamination.

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• Evaporated Cane Juice: Rapadura is one of the many names of this highly processed and highly heated product. This is almost pure sucrose, like maple, but lacks in minerals. Evaporated cane juice is known to aggravate all sugar-sensitive conditions from diabetes to candida to cancer. Evaporated cane juice can be certified organic. This product often sneaks into chocolate products, pre-made smoothies, and lots of vegan treats (because it is not processed with bone char).

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• Sorbitol: This sweetener is typically made from genetically modified corn starch. It was originally isolated from stone fruits of the genus Sorbus.

I would second Matthew's answer and add that do not use sweeteners as a reward mechanism. Incorporate small amounts of sugar, brown sugar, maple syrup, honey, etc in meal planning. Society too frequently "rewards" children and adults with carbohydrates for everything - cake, cupcakes, ice cream, etc. The saying, "Eat your vegetables - or NO dessert." Never eat sweeteners when upset, depressed, or angry. This is bad programming that movies, ads, and the media promote.

I eat 70-85% dark chocolate 20-30 grams about 2-3 times a week and homemade heavy whipped cream (where you control how much sweetener you use) with berries and almonds as part of breakfast (which includes animal protein/fat) 2-3 times a week.

If the day is not going well then watch something funny, talk to a friend, play some cheerful music, get some physical activity, etc. but food, especially carbs should not be used to compensate for mood! Increase omega 3 ratio.

I support small amounts of honey, sugar, brown sugar, maple syrup, molasses - those that are truly paleo but I think the other sweeteners are sketchier. I do believe in the 30 day plan to wean off all sweeteners for everyone. After doing strict paleo for a month, I could taste the sweetness in vegetables like lettuce, tomatoes, broccoli, etc! Now I can't stand the taste of very sweet stuff. I have tried a sip of juice, soda, Vita Coco and spit it out because it was too sweet! So I no longer drink those things.

My biochem professor in my doctorate program said that sugar receptors on the tongue become more sensitive when you wean off sugar and I believe that! I think he would have supported Paleo/Primal (who knows maybe he was one himself)- he had frequent tirades and rants against sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and corn. He supported low-carb for everyone. He taught us the biochemistry of diabetes.

I gave up artificial sweeteners 3 years ago because the aftertaste bothered me (even stevia does), and because some cancer and weight loss research was against it. I also never lost weight with it - probably gained some in the past.

Statement in reference to stevia : "I also never lost weight with it - probably gained some in the past" - is truly naive. The person in question doesn't lose weight because of many bad eating/diet habits which incorporates fructose like sugars, casein and gluten. Gluten makes digestion sluggish and thus subscribes to fermentation of food. The fermented food feeds candidas; the body toxic on candidas cannot lose weight (due to toxicity the adipose fat doesn't burn)