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

[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!!