Sweeteners

[lovmelovmycats.livejournal.com]

My posts will probably concern diet more than exercise, since I'm on weight watchers (again), and don't have a structured exercise plan. But who knows? Maybe that'll change.

Sweeteners!
I'm into 100% juice juices, which are nice, but still rather high in calories. Ryan drinks scary amounts of diet soda. I try to buy him equal amounts of aspartamine-sweetened and sucralose-sweetened ones, on the theory that it's better to mix his poisons to avoid overdose of one. But then, in the end, he's probably getting too much of both.
I drink more diet soda (and diet energy drinks! Gah!) than I ought to, as well.

Also, I like to bake. So far, I've just thrown diet-caution to the wind, and used copious amounts of sugar- on the theory that sweet treats are for sharing, so I won't be taking in that much just on my own. (And my biscotti recpie is easy, rather naturally low-fat, and delicious!)

I had lunch recently with a friend, who described a sugar-free cake she made for friends who had given up refined sugars (basically, the solid sugars: white, brown, maple). She used maple syrup and agave, I think she said. And it turned out awesome. So I was intruigued by that.

I don't like the taste of honey very much. I just sweetened my yogurt with it, and didn't like it until I added blueberries, which covered up the taste. I find unsweetened blueberries to be delightfully sweet and not too sour. I love sour tastes, except for rhubarb, and unsweetened yogurt.

So, fit geek friends: What are your sweetness experiences? Do you have any favorite resources, recipes, websites? Anybody here tried stevia?

Edit: Inspired by this post (and the fact that it's cold and rainy here), I made a batch of biscotti, but tried to make it more healthful, with egg-beaters, a little whole wheat flour, a little oat bran, a little less sugar, and a bit of honey- I left out an egg to account for the viscosity of the honey. It smells good... we shall see. If it's edible, it's going to the Obama campaign office.

Comments

[mithriltabby]

I am a supertaster and frequently find that beverages sweetened with aspartame or sucralose don’t taste sweet to me at all— they taste more like kerosene smells to me. This is probably due to my taste buds getting overloaded, as I’ve occasionally been surprised to find things with a small concentration (some of those flavored waters) actually tasting sweet. A couple of exceptions I’ve found:

• Minute Maid Light Lemonade is only trying to be tart, not sweet, and I find it quite palatable.
• Citrus-flavored Torani syrups sweetened with sucralose work well in frozen drinks; when the shaved ice is melting on my tongue, it numbs enough of the taste buds that it tastes relatively sweet to me.

[lovmelovmycats.livejournal.com]

That is very interesting! Do you have a keen sense of smell, too?
I also like the Minute Maid Light Lemonade.

[mithriltabby]

For some things. I can smell a litterbox that needs scooping long before my wife can, but she can smell mildew much better than I can.

[grandmoffdavid.livejournal.com]

As far as soda goes, random_girl used to drink nothing but diet coke (or caffeine free diet coke). In an effort to get her off that, and off carbonated beverages in general (within reason), we tried a lot of different things. Some that worked out well: iced tea (with splenda to sweeten if you need it), propel water (vitamins, minerals, and low calories), and Vitamin Water (although they have a ton of calories). Thomas Kemper also now has a line of low calorie sodas which are sweetened with honey and splenda as well. We tried the root beer and I could only taste a slight difference between it and normal TK. Although they aren't cheap.

As for weight watchers in general, having been on it far too often, my recommendation is to check the nutritional information on everything. For example, the point cost between two different types of pickles is incredible. White meat chicken and pork tenderloin are incredibly low calorie and low fat, and grilling and most marinades add very few calories. There are even types of bread that end up being more or less free on it (orowheat's double fiber and "carb conscious" tortillas). Heck, there are some kinds of candy that are dirt cheap on WW, just look for small packages so that you can finish the whole package without spending more than 2-3 points (for example: Haribo gummi candy rolls and Good and Plenty, those Jones Soda candies are practically free, if a bit odd to some).

And finally, I can't recommend these websites enough: Dotti's Weight Loss Zone (http://www.dwlz.com/restaurants.html) and the Calorie Counter Database (http://www.calorie-count.com/).

[lovmelovmycats.livejournal.com]

Thanks for those links!!

[palecur.livejournal.com]

I like honey myself, but I could probably get along just fine on molasses and panela (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panela) in the absence of any other sweeteners. Panela alone would serve, in the absence of molasses. Do you have access to such out in Col Springs? It's pretty blanqui round them parts, I'm told.

[racerxmachina.livejournal.com]

I like trying different kinds of honey-- mesquite has a lovely tang, much better than your standard clover blossom, which is pretty much glorified grass. Best EVAH was lavender honey.

[lovmelovmycats.livejournal.com]

mmm! Sounds great.

[lovmelovmycats.livejournal.com]

Oh, that looks yummy. And it looks nice that it's solid, but has some fructose in it.
On Lizzie's Spanish & translated-to-English children's songs CD, panela is translated "cinnamon". Heh.

[deirdremoon.livejournal.com]

I'm a bad person to ask about sugar. I can taste every kind of fake stuff, so it's not hard for me to resist diet ANYthing-- and I've cut back on most kinds of refined sugars in non-dessert foods to where regular Coke and Pepsi are now too sweet for me. On the other hand, I'm a dessert junkie, and could use a way to cut down on that myself. So I'm no help-- but good luck on your own discoveries of what works. :)

[lovmelovmycats.livejournal.com]

I love your icon.

[racerxmachina.livejournal.com]

I'm OK with sucralose, but only when sweetening fruit-based treats. It's awful in coffee, or in chocolate/vanilla flavored sweets. I wish I could bake with splenda, as I do love to bake, but I've tasted it as a baked good from restaurants, and AW HELL NO.

Stevia: you can buy it as a nutritional supplement, not as a sweetener. Go to GNC, or I think Trader Joes has it. No extensive experience with using it saide from in coffee, though I understand it's a common sweetener for candy in Japan, so I'm pretty sure I eat it all the time without knowing it. I've eaten a leaf of stevia before. It's so sweet your eyes will cross!

[grandmoffdavid.livejournal.com]

I seem to recall "splenda for baking" which is half sugar half splenda. I've never used it or tasted it, though.

[lovmelovmycats.livejournal.com]

We have some "natural food" stores around here, but there are NO Trader Joeses in my whole state!