FitSugar

Label Able: Sorbitol

FitSugar — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 10:03:14 -0700

I'm a very picky label reader, and I won't buy anything at the grocery store unless I scan the label first. If you're the same way, you may have come across the ingredient sorbitol. It's a sugar substitute you'll often find in diet or "light" foods, in sugar-free gum, candy, and mints, and in diet drinks. You'll also find it in mouthwashes, toothpaste, and cough syrups. Sorbitol is made from glucose, and is 60 percent as sweet as sucrose but has one-third of the calories. This sweetener has been safely used for over 50 years, and the only requirement of the FDA is that companies write on the label, "Excess consumption may have a laxative effect." Yes, it's true. If you eat too much of this sweetener, you can end up with extreme abdominal cramping and regular trips to the ladies room. Proving once again that moderation is key - even with low-cal sweeteners. Sorbitol is OK for diabetics and has been found to be non-carcinogenic. I'm not big into diet foods, but at least I know this ingredient is safe.

Are Sweeteners PureVia and Truvia Safe?

FitSugar — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 08:00:00 -0800

There's been a lot of talk lately about the natural sweetener stevia. Being calorie-free, it seems like a great alternative to sugar for people trying to lose weight. A few months ago, Coca-Cola announced it would begin using its stevia-derived sweetener Truvia in a few products, prior to being approved by the FDA. Not to be left in the cold, PepsiCo has also created a no-calorie stevia sweetener, PureVia. However, PepsiCo announced that it would be waiting for FDA approval before using its new sweetener. Recently, I saw both Truvia and PureVia on the shelf at my grocery store. Does that mean they're both approved by the FDA now? To find out read more.

Both PureVia and Truvia are made by extracting rebaudioside A (Reb A) from the leaves of the stevia plant. While the FDA has not yet approved the use of whole-leaf stevia or stevia extracts as sweeteners, they have issued a "No Objection Letter" to the use of Reb A, saying that it's "generally safe." If you want to give PureVia or Truvia products a try, it's recommended to do so in moderation. Have you used either of these sweeteners? Tell me what you think of them in the comments section below.

Is Stevia Safe?

FitSugar — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 04:30:00 -0700

If you're trying to eat healthier, you may be trying to ditch foods made with white sugar and artificial sweeteners. What about the sweetener stevia? Have you ever heard of it? People are adding it to their coffee, flavoring their iced tea, and baking with it. Stevia is an herb from South America, and since the leaves from this plant have a sweet flavor that is 30 times sweeter than sugar, it's being used as an all natural sugar substitute. People watching their weight like the idea of stevia because it's calorie free. Is it safe though? To find out read more

It's a plant, so it must be safe, right? Well, the only problem is that although it's been approved in other countries such as China and Japan, the FDA considers it an unapproved food additive. At this time, the FDA feels that no one has provided them with adequate evidence proving that it's safe. It was however approved in 1994 to be sold as a dietary supplement, so that's why you can find it at some health and vitamin stores. What's more is that the Center for Science in the Public Interest thinks stevia should be avoided because studies show that sperm production was affected in rats, and there was an increase in cell production in their testicles. Hamsters fed a derivative of stevia gave birth to smaller and fewer babies. Studies also show that it may cause cancer.

I'm not sure I will be using it anytime soon and will just work it out to eat my sweets in moderation. How about you, do you use stevia? Tell me why you like it in the comments section below.

Source

Cookbook Review: Baking with Agave Nectar

FitSugar — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 07:30:00 -0700

I have tried many sugar substitutes in my day. Mostly out of curiosity and in a vain attempt to quell my sweet tooth. In my search I must say that agave nectar works the best for me. It is sweet, without being overly sweet and it is great in tea and salad dressing. I was curious to bake with it and found Baking with Agave Nectar ($15.95) and thought I would give it a whirl.

The cookbook contains over 100 recipes from cookies to ice cream – some vegan recipes and some that include milk, eggs and butter. Many of the recipes sound tasty and I appreciate the fact that the author, Ania Catalano, includes easy to find whole wheat pastry flour as a substitute for the not so easy to find sprouted spelt four. The directions are easy to follow and the photographs are lovely; I just wish there were more of them. If you are new to cooking with ingredients typically considered health food, Catalano includes a detailed glossary of terms with in depth explanations of things like carob and guar gum. The introduction is equally inspiring.

Since I had a vegan houseguest this weekend I whipped up a batch of vegan Linzer torte cookies. The recipe took well under an hour to make (super quick) and my daughters thoroughly enjoyed helping me make the cookies as well as eating the final product. These Linzer cookies (made with almonds and raspberry jam) are truly healthy cookies. I found myself eating them after running like I would an energy bar. Next on my list to make from this book is Skinny Vanilla Bean frozen yogurt, banana cream pie and the agave Margarita.

I liked the recipe so much I wanted to share it with you. To check out the Linzer cookie recipe just read more.

Vegan Raspbery Linzer Torte Cookies
Baking with Agave Nectar by Ania Catalano

This is as healthy as any cookie can get!

Ingredients

2 cups raw almonds
2 cups regular rolled oats (not quick cooking)
2 cups sprouted spelt four or whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup light agave nectar
1 cup canola oil
1 cup juice-sweetened raspberry preserves

Directions

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
Place almonds in a food processor and grind to a fine meal, about one minute. Remove and set aside.
Place the oats in the food processor and grind to a fine meal.
Return the almonds to the food processor along with the flour, cinnamon, agave nectar, and canola oil. Pulse to combine all the ingredients.
Roll the dough into walnut-size ball and place on the prepared baking sheets. Using your thumb, press an indentation into the center of each ball.
Fill the indentations with preserves.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer to cooling racks to cool completely.

Reprinted with permission from Baking With Agave Nectar: Over 100 Recipes Using Nature's Ultimate Sweetener by Ania Catalano. Copyright (c) 2008 Celestial Arts Press, Berkeley, CA. www.tenspeed.com. Publisher retains all copyrights and the right to require immediate removal of this excerpt for copyright or other business reasons.

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You can buy the book here.

Zsweet Is Sweet Enough for Me

FitSugar — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 07:30:00 -0800

Many people out there are looking for a way to satisfy their sweet tooth without compromising the size of their waist. Zsweet ($15 / 1.5 pounds), a natural sweetener, may just be a solution for this dilemma. The "Z" stands for "zero" since it contains zero calories and has zero glycemic affect, making it a viable option for diabetics.

The main ingredient in Zsweet is erythritol, fermented glucose (simple sugar), that occurs naturally in fermented foods like soy sauce and wine. Unlike other sugar alcohols based sweeteners, Zsweet has a high digestive tolerance, so it won't leave your belly aching.

The best thing about Zsweet is you can bake with it and it is easy since you measure it just like sugar. I used it for cookies and received many compliments on the cookies; no one had any idea that I used a sugar substitute. However, I made pudding with Zsweet without much success. While the children loved it, the adults at the dinner party all found it too sweet, almost harshly so. I should have checked out the suggested recipes on the Zsweet site. My hubbie and I decided that the baking with this sugar substitute must have altered it more than just simmering on the stove for the pudding.

You can try it for yourself. To find it just check this store locator for a grocer near you that carries it. Or you can buy it online directly from the Zsweet store.

SweetPerfection: Sugar's Healthy Twin

FitSugar — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 12:30:00 -0700

I recently was sent a sample of Sweet Perfection, an all-natural sweetener that is supposed to be used in the place of sugar. Typically I am skeptical of things like this, but I am willing to give everything a try once.

SweetPerfection is made from oligofructose, which is actually chicory root ground to a very fine soluble fiber. For all you glycemic dieters, SweetPerfection has a super low glycemic index of zero.

The claim is that you can use SweetPerfection anywhere you'd use sugar -- In fact it is 100% guaranteed to taste and perform exactly like sugar. SweetPerfection's high fiber content (122 g per cup) rivals the zero grams in regular sugar. Not to mention the fact that it has 280 calories in a cup, whereas sugar has about 770!

I put it to the test in my tried and true blueberry muffin recipe. Want to know what I thought? Then read more

So I split the batch up and made half of the muffins with regular sugar, and the other half using SweetPerfection. While mixing, the consistencies seemed similar even though SweetPerfection is much more powdery than granulated sugar. Overall, the taste was comparable -- I tried a SweetPerfection muffin first and was pleased with the taste. Then I had a regular sugar muffin, definitely a bit more sweet, but not that much more. My husband, the ultimate judge, did the taste test with me and while I was expecting to have him say he did not like the sugar substitute muffin (because according to him, "Real men only like real sugar"), he actually liked it a lot. If we didn't have the regular muffins to compare, we probably wouldn't have been able to notice the difference. My only issue is the price: $21.95 a pound (yikes, I know) for SweetPerfection, whereas a pound of regular sugar runs around $1.50, after all it is expensive to eat healthy. If you don't care about the price, then buy it directly from LowCarbSpecialties.com.

Agave Nectar: Sugar Substitute From South of the Rio Grande

FitSugar — Fri, 04 May 2007 14:49:30 -0700

Since Cinco de Mayo is tomorrow, I wanted to tell you that the agave plant produces more than just tequila. It kind of seems like it is a super plant and practically every part of the plant can be eaten - the blossoms and even the stalks. The part that interests me, though, is the nectar that is sweeter than honey, but less viscous. In fact it is so sweet that when baking with it you use 1/3 cup agave to one cup sugar. If you are going to bake with agave nectar reduce the amount of liquids in the recipe by the amount of agave added since it is a liquid. It does seem pretty straight forward, and I am going to try baking with it. The caloric load of agave is similar to sugar, about 25 calories per teaspoon, but since it is sweeter you use less and thereby decrease your overall calories.

I have tried it in a drink, you can use it in place of simple syrup when making a margarita - like this one from PartySugar. You can also use it to sweeten tea.

I am curious if any of you have baked with agave? If you have any tips, please share them in the comments below.

Looking to buy some? DVO Enterprises sells 24 oz. bottles for $10.95.

What's the Deal With: Sugar Substitutes

FitSugar — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 02:00:00 -0700

I went out for breakfast the other day and on the table sat the cute little container of sugar packets. I'm into the real stuff, so I always choose Sugar in the Raw (it has more nutrients than white sugar), but when I took a closer look, I saw at least 4 other colored packets in there.

Are these sugar substitutes really better for you? Is there some benefit to stirring them into your coffee instead of real sugar?

Basically, Equal, Splenda, and Sweet 'n Low all contain zero calories, fat, sodium, cholesterol, and protein. They contain less than 1g of carbs, so people trying to omit calories and carbs from their diet love these little packets.

OK, sounds like it's too good to be true, so here comes the million dollar question: Are these sugar substitutes safe? The truth is, we just don't know yet. There are no long-term studies of the side effects of artificial sweeteners in humans. The makers of these products did their own short-term studies on rodents and the results showed shrunken thymus glands as well as enlarged livers and kidneys. Since these tests weren't conducted on humans, the FDA decided that the results they were not conclusive. Hmmm.

Want to know about the side effects in humans? Then read more

Some people already experience headaches, dizziness, diarrhea, numbness, intestinal cramping, bladder issues, and skin rashes. I'll take calories over stomach pains any day. It's totally your personal preference though. Some people may use artificial sweeteners and not feel any side effects.

Just for fun, now a lawsuit has been thrown at the situation. Equal is suing the makers of Splenda for misleading consumers with the advertising motto "Made from sugar, so it tastes like sugar." Splenda assures us that the process does in fact start with actual sugar, but at th end of the day, Equal is claiming that Splenda is a chemical just like Equal.

Fit's Tips: Just so you know, 1 heaping teaspoon of sugar, or 1 sugar cube, contains only 25 calories. 1 packet of sugar contains 15 calories and 1 packet of Sugar in the Raw contains about 20 calories. We're not talking about a tremendous amount of calories here, and since I don't like eating artificial foods, I'd go for the Sugar in the Raw.

Your Healthy Food Swaps

FitSugar — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:00:27 -0800

Since decadent foods like ice cream, baked treats, and fried foods tend to be high in the calorie department, it's good to have a few healthy food swap ideas up your sleeve. Here are some shared by fellow FitSugar readers.

"Avocado instead of mayo . . . sure it may have fat in it but it's healthy fat and tastes delicious. Hummus instead of cream in sauces and soups . . . adds a ton of flavor and protein." - mamasitamalita
"I use balsamic vinegar (not vinaigrette) on my salads without any oil. It gives the same powerful flavor kick but for a lot less calories." - laellavita
"Replace ranch dressing on my salad with cottage cheese." - genipher85

For more great ideas, keep reading

Healthy Recipe: Apple Pear Oatmeal Crisp

FitSugar — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:50:44 -0800

It's harvest time for apples and pears, and nothing says Autumn like warm crisp featuring both Fall fruits. Here is a variation of a recipe from RecipeZaar. I substituted a few things like Sucanat for brown sugar, whole wheat flour for all-purpose flour, and Earth Balance margarine in place of butter. The soft, cinnamony fruit and crunchy oat topping are a perfect combination, and it was so delicious that my family polished off the entire crisp within a day.

This would make a great dessert for Thanksgiving, because it's a cinch to whip up. To see the recipe read more.

Healthy Recipe: Apple Pear Oatmeal Crisp
Adapted from RecipeZaar

Ingredients

2 apples, sliced
3 firm pears, sliced
2 tablespoons Sucanat
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 to 2 tablespoons lemon juice
2/3 cup water

Topping

1 cup oats
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup Sucanat
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons of Earth Balance, melted

Directions

Preheat oven to 375°F.
Remove the cores and slice the unpeeled fruit. Place slices in the bottom of a greased nine-inch dish. Drizzle with lemon juice.
Sprinkle two tablespoons of Sucanat, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, and water on the fruit.

In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Add melted Earth Balance and mix until crumbly.
Spread the crumb mixture evenly on top of the fruit.
Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, so the top is lightly brown and the fruit is bubbly.
Serve warm or cold with vanilla ice cream, vanilla yogurt, or enjoy by itself.

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Here's the nutritional info for this Apple Pear Oatmeal Crisp. RecipeZaar suggests that a serving size is one-sixth of the crisp, but I found one-eighth of the crisp to be a more appropriate portion.

Serving Size	1/8 of the crisp
Calories	330
Total Fat	5.3 g
Saturated Fat	1.5 g
Cholesterol	0 mg
Sodium	165 mg
Carbs	51.7 g
Fiber	4.5 g
Sugar	30.6 g
Protein	4.2 g

If you have a healthy recipe to share, please post it in the Healthy Recipe group.