Comments on: Sweetener Options?

By: Itsme

Itsme — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 07:05:09 +0000

People sometimes have difficulty putting risks into their relative proportion. I once knew someone who was a smoker who was concerned about using artifical sweetener in their coffee.

On average, smoking reduces your lifespan by about 7 years. On the other hand, there is not a single documenented death from the use of artifical sweeteners, just some lunatics raving on the internet. But even if they did shorten your life by a year, look at this guys risk. 7 year shorter life from smoking, or 1 year (which I don’t believe) from using artifical sweeteners. Yet where was his focus? Amazing!

I don’t know the documented figures for how much sugar (honey, molasses, fructose, and other natural products are just sugars) shortens your life, but it’s got to be quite a bit. Consider all the problems from obesity, and the related consequences, as well as diabetes. How can people even give any consideration to artifical sweetners causing harm, when the product they replace is deadly.

And consider the statement one poster above made: “Did you know that Britain scientists actually stumbled upon the formula for sucralose (Splenda) while seeking out a new pesticide formulation?? That little fact alone is enough to keep my far away from Splenda.”

What an illogical statement. The scientist made a compound that he thought would be a pesticide, but it wasn’t. In fact, it had no toxicity at all, but it did have a sweet taste. What’s that supposed to prove. To me it proves what they say about how dismal science education is in this country. Not the scientist — but the poster for thinking that proves something.

Please people, use your brains. Sugar kills!

By: How do you satisfy your sweet tooth? | Roni’s Weigh

How do you satisfy your sweet tooth? | Roni’s Weigh — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:12:57 +0000

[...] avoid white sugar and I recently reduced my intake of “fake” sugar as well. Awhile back I posed the sweetener question on GreenLiteBites and got some interesting answers that I think I’ll ask it [...]

By: Nicole

Nicole — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 14:26:09 +0000

I wish I could stand the taste of stevia…I’ve tried several times and I just can’t stomach the after-taste it has…I will have to look into Agave tho…I really want to get off artifical sweeteners.

By: roni

roni — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 22:27:02 +0000

This is great info! thank you all for sharing you ideas and experiences!!

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 19:21:05 +0000

I agree with you I just feel much better when I don’t eat a lot of white flour and white sugar. That is why I love you muffins they are so great. I use stevia in my steele cut oats but have never tried it in baking. I lean more towards the molasses and maple syrup or honey. I will look forward to seeing what you come up with using the stevia.
Rebecca

By: Bev Rockey

Bev Rockey — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 11:42:13 +0000

Agave nectar is a wonderful sweetener for beverages such as ice tea or lemonade as it dissolves easily. Drizzle it over yogurt or cereal. Use it to sweeten salad dressings and BBQ sauce. For baking, you can substitute agave in recipes as you would honey. Use three-fourths agave for the recommended amount of sugar and reduce the amount of liquid.

In comparison to some of the other natural sweeteners, it has a nice clean “sugar” sweetness and holds up well to heat.

1 Serving is considered to be 1 tablespoon. 1 tablespoon has 60 calories and 16 grams carbohydrate.

1 teaspoon equals a free food. Two teaspoons equals 1/2 carbohydrate exchange.

Agave is less viscous than honey, making it easy to pour and blend into cooked and raw foods.

In baking, moisture retention is similar to honey, so it’s great for cakes and breads, but won’t make a crisp cookie or hard candy.

Has a long shelf life and will not crystallize.

Store in a cool, dry, dark location.

By: jess

jess — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 00:47:30 +0000

Just to add a little. When I went to the dentist the other day I had two cavaties (big deal for me, I’ve only ever had one!) and I asked if it could be because I chew a lot of gum these days- always sugar-free though. She said that the sugarfree gums with xylitol are actually good for your teeth!-who knew?

Also, we carried stevia at my work for a while (a hippie-ish coffee shop, haha) and I Loved it! It is amazingly sweet so I could only handle about half a little packet or else I thought it tasted a little bit cottoncandyish and left my teeth feeling funky. But once you get accustomed to How little it takes to really sweeten things up I really really liked it. I continue to read up on all the reports and stuff, but until they prove it’s bad for ya…. everything in moderation, right? haha

By: Sandra

Sandra — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 23:22:08 +0000

oooh,

Almost forgot, it isn’t calorie free, but is only 60% of the calories found in white sugar

By: Sandra

Sandra — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 23:21:37 +0000

I’ve found Xylitol to be a good alternative (the sweetener in most chewing gums). It isn’t cheap but it can be baked with in exactly the same measurements and is even almost the same consistency as white sugar. I’ve done some homework on it and it comes largely from corn stalks and can be good for hormones as well as diabetics (it doesn’t spike blood sugar like white sugar can).