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Latest News on Sugar Substitutes?

14 years ago

It seems like this market is constantly changing...... due to health issues, we are trying to cut down on sugar, but also due to other health issues, artificial sweeteners are out of the question. Have you used anything new to you recently that you had success with? TIA

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Comments (15)

sushipup1
14 years ago
I think there's an argument to be made for training your taste to not expect sugar in everything. Tea or coffee without sweeteners, for example.

For me, sweets equal desserts, so I avoid desserts as much as possible, saving it for a special treat. A teaspoon of real sugar in my salad dressing recipe doesn't add up to much, so I don't obsess about amounts like that.

But for sweetening drinks, one can become accustomed to the unsweetened flavors.

(Am I the wrong person to ask this of? I'm not claiming great willpower, and admit to sneaking a real pastry or candy every now and then, but for the most part avoiding sugar isn't the hardest thing in the world.)
judithn
14 years ago
Well, until last week I thought Agave was the latest best thing, but I went to a cooking class with Christina Pirello, the vegan chef from the PBS show Christina Cooks, and she said the sugar content in that is higher than the high fructose corn syrup that everyone's avoiding.

She recommends brown rice syrup which apparently doesn't cause spikes in blood sugar. I bought some brown rice syrup, it's got a nice flavor and is thick like molasses but it has about 120 calories for 2 tbs serving and doesn't seem as sweet as sugar to me.

I think the sugar you put in coffee is only part of the problem. There are sugars in other foods. Not just fruit juices, which you expect, but even yoghurts and breads. Once you start looking at the sugar content of various non-sugary foods you'll be amazed.

I have ended up back where we all began, with sugar. I buy organic unprocessed sugar and use that instead of white refined sugar. Sometimes I alternate with a little Truvia.

You might also want to thing about how you can use sweet fruits and vegetables to sweeten food. A whole apple diced very finely in oatmeal with some cinammon gives you a little sweetness in each bite. Beets and sweet potatoes can be used to make baked goods. If you can use roasted yams in place of sugar, you get the sweetness and other nutrients besides. Dried raisins and cranberries add sweetness too.
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At least to me, it's more about science than just randomly making a change or two out of curiosity. When I develop an original recipe or "improve" an existing recipe (mine or others), I keep a record of each change. I used the same method to develop a "base" cookie recipe using sorghum flour from a local mill using a set ratio of ingredients, then adapted the base recipe into different kinds of cookies. This method has a lot of practical uses. I have a form sheet I've pre-printed with the original recipe on the left half of the page and places on the right half for: -DATE -INGREDIENT CHANGES - with reasons why I chose them. -RESULTS -NEXT TIME - changes to make yet again and why or what results they will make or expect. Changes can include the pan type or size as well as ingredients or mixing methods. -NOTES Some recipes take many iterations. I remember reading how Sara Phillips, author of "Baking 9-1-1" and web site formerly baking911.com now http://www.craftybaking.com/?baking911=true made 100 changes before she got her recipe for low-fat white cake the way she liked, so if I make 4 or 5 alterations I figure "good enough"..... I'll live to bake another day with or without this recipe. ;-) This isn't America's Test Kitchen after all, but I do keep notes from things they have tested and how they worked so I don't have to make the same mistakes. Chris Kimball's books are also full of this information. I even send foods out to work with hubby with the ingredient list (not amounts) and critique sheets his office staff can use to judge or compare a recipe (believe me - these wonderful folks will eat ANYTHING and criticize EVERYTHING - so I'm not afraid of their honesty). You can always tell who was in 4-H because they are familiar with the judging process and do a good job - and I'll dismiss the critique "I don't like coconut." in a recipe with coconut in the title and on the ingredient list. After all those years as a Foods Judge, I also use my "Fair Judging Standards" (you can find lists of these on-line) as a guideline and I use terms used in judging for things like general appearance, shape, condition of top/crust, exterior color, volume/size, lightness (in weight for size), crumb (interior portion), texture, color (appropriate for the product, pleasing to the eye), moistness, tenderness, flavor (which is really a combination of taste and smell). Most recipes will follow the tried and true baking standards and ratio of ingredients, others are an anomaly - a "one off" - so to speak, that doesn't follow traditional baking or is a complete fluke. "Flukes" also have reasons they work. An example of that is a Molten Lava Cake, which was supposed to have been an accident when a sponge cake was under-baked, and now it has a number of different base cakes including flourless cake or brownie types. And who the heck decided adding a 4-oz. bottle of red food coloring to a Red Velvet Cake (which can be deadly to anyone who is allergic to that particular dye color) was a brilliant idea? Or, add a drained and chopped canned sauerkraut to a chocolate cake recipe - both are examples of taking "creative" license. --When developing gluten-free baked goods I have an entirely different set of guidelines because there are different ingredients used. --You can successfully make changes in recipes but it helps to be aware of some guidelines, such as established ratio of one ingredient to another for each type of baking. This is also how we judge recipes when we read them in books. Will this list of ingredients in a Brownie recipe make cake-like brownies, chewy brownies, or something in between? If you know the attributes of certain ingredients, the ratio between ingredients, you can make that determination by reading the recipe. When I was a member on another message board, a member who was a competent baker, complained about a Banana Bread recipe they made unsuccessfully several times and wondered if there was a mistake in the recipe. The recipe was from Peter Reinhart's "Crust and Crumb" (on the book jacket it says "MASTER FORMULAS FOR SERIOUS BREAD BAKERS) -- that is until he got to the ratio of dry ingredients to wet ingredients in his Banana Bread recipe wrong, which were completely off (and even with the correct ratio was at best an insipid banana bread recipe). --There are some things that are just standards in baking, so if you fiddle with them too much you may need to adjust in another area. It's also where you may want to make sure you have a scale for weighing ingredients. The crystals of granulated sugar are large and there is a lot of space between the crystals when you measure it in a cup. There is very little space in powdered sugar. Therefore, you would find weighing the amount of granulated sugar and substituting it with the equal amount - BY WEIGHT - of powdered sugar would mean you have the same amount by weight, but it won't be the same amount of "sugar" if you substitute cup-for-cup. The same goes for salt. If you normally use a fine crystal salt product (like a fine sea salt), there will be more salt per teaspoon (by weight) of the fine crystals than if you use a teaspoon (by measure) of a chunky crystal salt product (Kosher salt) because it's off-set by voids of air between the larger crystals. Therefore you really should weigh the salt for accuracy rather than by the teaspoonful otherwise you may find a finished product is too salty or not salty enough just by changing the type of salt crystal you used. In other words, it pays to measure accurately, and accurately means using a scale rather than a dry measure (cups, spoons). --Know ahead of time when you reduce fat and sugar without adjusting other ingredients, you will be sacrificing some tenderness, and it may dry out much quicker. It helps to make low-fat items in much smaller amounts - an 8x8-inch pan instead of a large 9x13 - so leftovers don't dry out quickly and are unappetizing. --If you increase the sugar and fat you may find it's TOO tender and falls apart when sliced. If this is something like a quick bread you are altering ingredients in, you may find it will work best baked in a small loaf, or a long narrow Danish Loaf Pan, instead of the traditional 9x5-inch quick bread loaf pan. Smaller slices will hold together better if the crumb is a little too tender. --You won't always get the same results by using 100% whole grain flour in a recipe that was made with bleached or unbleached flour. Bran in wholegrain flour will require an increase of hydration because it soaks up more liquid, which makes for a heavier finished product. --Don't make too many different changes at once, change one or two things each time you work on the recipe. --Other things that can change a recipe is using the muffin method of mixing ingredients instead of the cake method. Using liquid fat instead of solid fat, or vise versa. Separating eggs and beating the whites and adding the yolks (or even an extra egg yolk) when beating the sugar and fat until pale and thickened, then fold in the whites. --If you've increased the sugar content it could delay how the baked good "sets" and the original baking time could be off. There is logical established baking temperatures for baked goods high in sugar, so you may want to switch to a lower temperature and a longer baking time if you increase the sugar by a large percent. -Powdered sugar right from the bag will work differently than powdered sugar that has been finely sifted. Powdered sugar once came in 10X, 6X and 4X, and those numbers indicate the size of the mesh used to sift it, with 10X being the smallest and is sifted much finer. You can make some of these small changes to recipes yourself. --It also helps to know the internal temperature of different baked goods to test accurately for "doneness". AHHHHHHHHHHHH, the science of food. -Grainlady
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teresa_nc7
14 years ago
I agree with sushipup! It seems that I have lost some of my taste/desire for sweets as I have gotten older, which is not a bad thing. I agree about the sweet drinks and if I make some Crystal Light, I dilute it a lot as it just tastes tooooo sweet full strength. I save my "sweet allotment" for really good desserts or a small serving of ice cream when it calls to me for days on end.

Teresa
eandhl
14 years ago
Not sure if my response belongs here or "dinner quest and dietary restrictions thread" -- I will not touch anything with artificial sugar. Even if someone opens a package of one them near me I immediately feel in my throat. Good thing my beverage choices are coffee, tea, water & wine.
caliloo
14 years ago
"Well, until last week I thought Agave was the latest best thing, but I went to a cooking class with Christina Pirello, the vegan chef from the PBS show Christina Cooks, and she said the sugar content in that is higher than the high fructose corn syrup that everyone's avoiding."

I find it amazing that his news hasn't spread faster. I have eschewed agave syrup for a couple of years because I had heard from several nutritionists (and read in various nutritional websites) that this stuff is absolute poison. I'll take my agave the way it was meant to be consumed... in tequila!

Alexa
John Liu
14 years ago
Why is sugar a bad thing?

Is it just the calories? A tsp of sugar has 16 calories, big deal. I can't think of an application in which I use more than a few tsp.

Is there some other problem with sugar? I'm curious.
cookie8
14 years ago
Try some honey. It is easier to digest for the body and makes a great substitute for sugar. You won't get as much as a spike in blood sugar from it and it's an antioxidant. I use it for my dressings, drinks, cereals, baking, etc.
hawk307
14 years ago
Johnliu:

You are right John. There are so many things to look at in Sweetners.

People hear the Basics and do not bother to look at something in Depth.
I am not from MO. or a Doubting Thomas but I like to check things out.

If you were around as long as me, you would learn to check everything out, before making a decisions.

Even People !!! They are not always what they seem.
****************************************************

Many times the facts get reversed, thru the years and the Government says " Sorry about that "

Two years ago there was a big thing about using Splenda in Schools.

Splenda and Equal were having a duel.
I do not know who won out but I think Splenda is still being used EVERYWHERE.

It is according to who has the most money and power.

The Sugar industry claims Sugar has benefits for your blood. ( Not if you have Diabetes )
I think they are talking in Moderation.

That is the key word " Moderation ".

I try that always but still gained weight.

If you find all the right answers, let me know.
Then I will check it out in 2 years.

LOU
Bumblebeez SC Zone 7
14 years ago
I like very sweet desserts but limit them to when they have the greatest impact. For example, I might have a sweet cookie for breakfast with my coffee and piece of chocolate after dinner. Strong, sweet tea after a meal is often enough to satisfy my sweet tooth most of the time. I have given up all heavy carb sweets like cake, and try to go for intense satisfaction in one or two bites.

I use saccharin as a sweetener in tea and coffee. It's been around awhile and outside of lab rats, doesn't seem to have great side effects- not with me anyway. Aspartame does bad things to me.
The key to using it properly is to only use a little bit at a time. For a long time, dh and I used the packages for our morning coffee but only used 2/3 of a package in an eight ounce coffee cup. Eventually I switched to saccharin in a bowl - Sweet in Low btw- and that works better. The generic brands of saccharin, Sweet Thing, do not taste good.

In baking, I always use cane sugars.
blueiris24
Original Author
14 years ago
Like Judith mentioned, it's not just desserts, it's different types of sugar and artificial sweeteners in so many different things. I am not a big dessert person either, I'm not talking will power here, I'm concerned about health - we have a family with various health issues that I need to keep in check whether it's buying "on the run" food for the kids or dinners. I just wondered if anyone had anything along those lines to add -- Grainlady could you weigh in on what you are using currently?
Bumblebeez SC Zone 7
14 years ago
But the same principals apply. Try to find foods that use cane sugars first as the sweeteners. I'm not trying to be a know-it-all , but if you are buying processed foods, there are a ton of other things to be concerned about rather than sugars and if you can avoid artificial sweeteners and high fructose corn syrup in processed food, you are making a big step.
dancinglemons
14 years ago
Hello all,

I started using a product called "Whey Low" in 2010. I read an article about the product in some magazine while waiting for my car to be serviced. I have a sweet tooth and Splenda gives me a headache and I can't stand the taste of Stevia. This Whey Low stuff is expensive but I splurged and purchased a bag. I have been using it almost exclusively since them. I only use it for myself in hot tea and iced coffee which I like sweet. I was putting 4-5 teaspoons of cane sugar in a 12oz cup of hot tea and 2-3 tsp sugar in iced coffee 16oz. Using measure for measure WheyLow vs. Cane Sugar - I get the sweet I desire and it only has 4 calories per teaspoon. In the past year I have lost 25+ pounds - I did increase my activity level but no aerobics of heavy duty exercise. I do not attribute all weight lost to the Whey Low but I think it was a factor.

I do not work for this company and I have no financial interest in this company. I only give this information because this is the latest on my quest for sugar substitutes that do NOT NOT NOT taste like chemicals. Website link below if anyone is interested.

Cheers,
DL

Here is a link that might be useful: Whey Low website
shaun
14 years ago
I just checked out that site; noticed if you order, use the word FALL at checkout for 15% off.

I'v never heard of this stuff before.
shaun
14 years ago
Been reading up on this Wheylow.

Notice the reviews of it on Amazon...

Here is a link that might be useful: reviews of WheyLow sugar substitute
grainlady_ks
14 years ago
We've been out of town for awhile (October Thanksgiving in Tennessee while our son-in-law is home on leave) and just got back last night, so I'm playing catch-up....

After using agave nectar since 1998, I've now seen enough evidence to make me eliminate it as our primary sweetener and I've switched to low-glycemic palm sugar for more than a year.

If I need a liquid syrup-type sweetener, I mix palm sugar with water (2 c. palm sugar to 1 cup water - heat until the sugar has melted) to make "palm syrup" (rather than buy the expensive palm syrup available).

I've experimented with Sun Crystals (blend of pure cane sugar and stevia), and calorie-free Truvia as well, but like palm sugar better for taste and use in baking. I was never happy with stevia the first time I did a lot of experimenting with it, but like it better when mixed with sugar in Sun Crystals.

"Raw Agave is refined hydrolyzed 70-90% high fructose inulin syrup metabolized directly to fat and triglycerides in your body, triggers obesity, cardio vascular disease and insulin resistance, not GRAS. More unhealthy than HFCS or sugar."

But to be fair, we never encountered any of these problems from use of agave nectar ourselves. Probably because ALL sweeteners are used in moderation because we choose low-glycemic foods to begin with. We also consume a large percentage of raw/whole foods, not a lot of refined foods, and maintain a daily fitness program.

-Grainlady

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