Thank you, again! Seven months ago, I was diagnosed diabetic and started down a road towards a changed lifestyle, particularly in food and exercise. I have lost 30 lbs, am no longer labeled "obese", though I am at the top of an ideal weight for my body. Most importantly, I am considered "controlled". I would like to have a treat or two, periodically -- thus, looking into the Stevia - Xylitol - Splenda choices and deciding what is right for me.

Hubby controls his health problem, heart, with medication. But when I switched our dinners to something lower in carbs, his lab results improved greatly. If only I could get him to cut the soda and other sweets down. I can't do much about his "need" for soda, but perhaps if I can learn to bake with these other products, it would help his bad cholesterol and his blood glucose!

Donna

You're very welcome, Donna. Congratulations on your successes!! Another thing you can do as you're making changes (do it slowly!) is cut down on the expectations of sweetness. There are differing claims about sweetness and biochemistry, and I don't know what's true. Some say that alternative sweeteners still trigger an insulin response. I'm not sure that, if true, it lasts if it's a learned response (e.g., Pavlov's dog drool); it would unlearn pretty quickly if the expected sugars were diminished or absent. But you'll find as you consume less sweet tasting things, your opinion of what is sweet grows, so it's worth finding some alternatives to the baked treats that aren't sweetened at all, or not much, and mix them in as alternative treats. I find the whole grain bread I bake sweet, though there is no sweetening in it, and a pretzel or dinner roll tastes like sugar to me.

I don't know if this would apply in your case, but I've heard others saying it's better for a treat to just have the treat, and then control what you have around it. Like if you really just want a piece of the birthday cake, eat the burger without the bun, the celery but not the carrots, and have a modest piece of the cake, rather than trying to be satisfied with the "for those who can't have any" option. Similarly, at home, make the real brownies, but cut them small-ish, put them away so that you have to take very deliberate actions to get them from platter to mouth, and make sure you only get to eat the treat when you've eaten your protein. I actually like black bean/date/cocoa powder alterna-brownies, but they're no substitute for the real thing, if what you wanted was a brownie rather than a vaguely sweet, vaguely chocolate-y, PITA to make, bite. (But my own druthers aren't to the point since, while I do bake, I'm not a big sweets eater.)

BTW, re the soda, again, a slow change is easier. Is there caffeine involved? Perhaps substitute some iced tea or coffee, if so. There are teas, like oolong, that have a fairly sweet flavor without sugar. If you live in Sweet Tea land, however, don't even try it. If you can separate out the caffeine, however, try going with your husband (or creating a party at home around it) for water tastings. I get the most wonderful local spring water delivered. There's nothing wrong with our tap water (they've improved it vastly since the days I wouldn't even cook pasta in it), but the spring water tastes good. Similarly, I learned to drink soda water while living abroad. I love bubbles! And another local water company has bottled carbonated spring water which is absolutely delicious--noticeably better than my delivered spring water with carbonation added by SodaStream. Another alternative you could try is mixing some soda water (bottled or SodaStream) with just a little fruit juice. There'd be a little flavor, a little sweetness and lovely bubbles, but significantly less sugar than in the soda. If you can get your husband to substitute for the soda sometimes, eventually, he may be able to give it up.

Good luck with all of it.

Another possibility is the flavored seltzers that aren't sweetened. Canada Dry used to make a lot of different flavors; I don't know if they're still the same or not, but they are very fizzy if that's what he wants. Or maybe try a sprig of mint and/or a stevia leaf added to one of those.

Congratulations on your successes. That's impressive.

If you haven't bought SPINDRIFT sodas they're a great alternative when you want something carbonated with a little flavor. I buy them at Trader Joe's. I'm partial to boysenberry and raspberry lime, although Grapefruit isn't bad either. The cucumber is vile, stay away from that one!

Spindrift

I second the recommendation for Spindrift. I started out with the grapefruit from TJ's which I really like, tried the rasp/lime, which is okay but a bit "off" to my taste. they had watermelon for a while which was vile and I wasn't even tempted to try the cucumber. But I discovered they also make a blackberry that is heavenly, as is the lemon. Tj's doesn't carry them, but I found them at Target. Used to be Spindrift Seltzers but now they have rebranded them to Spindrift Flavored Water, I think (probably a taxation issue). They are carbonated with NO sweetener, but the flavoring is real fruit juice and pulp. So they have from 0 calories to 15 calories per can. I LOVE them!

I completely forgot to mention the watermelon, probably because it was disgusting too!

I had a really small piece of cake last night -- my sugar was up this morning. It was regular cake from a Krispy Kreme cake mix, though I made sure that part of the cake had NO glaze on it. That's the reason why I'm looking to replace rather than just enjoy the regular stuff.

We have great water at our home. We filter it, make coffee from the filtered water (and then the coffeemaker has another filter), so we get really good coffee, too. I am *not* a Starbucks fan by any means! Unless we are traveling and eating breakfast out, we have coffee made at home. Heck, we even travel with our own coffeemaker and makings, using those instead of a hotel-provided maker and makings. (you never know who made what in those things the day before, and that's probably not on the cleaning person's list of things to worry about).

I bought a bottle of Liquid Stevia yesterday -- I was near Trader Joe's (a store I rarely go into) and they had it. Probably will have to pick up Xylitol at Sprout's or online. I already have some Splenda -- it's old, though -- does it expire?

Donna

From the Splenda website:

All SPLENDA® Sweetener Products are shelf stable so they don't have an expiration date. Keep in mind, just like regular white and brown sugar, SPLENDA® Sweetener Products should always be stored in a cool, dry place.

I get it, Donna, about the cake. Cake has a lot of sugar in it, and it's hard to reduce much because the chemistry changes. The white flour is probably an issue, too, with your blood sugar, since it's basically sugar dressed up as starch.

If you do some online searching, you'll find blogs from people who have been doing the experimenting already, with recipes using sweetening alternatives that are probably better tested than commercial ones. Some include whole grain flour. That might help as well. Look for "white whole wheat" (King Arthur makes it as well as others), or mill your own. The important thing about indulgences if you have an issue, is substitution. Usually you want your carbs to come from sources with many other nutrients, so that means giving up a lot of healthy foods to be able to eat cake.

Thanks for the bit about Splenda as shelf-stable. I bought a bag about 2 or 3 years ago, used a little of it, and then didn't use any more. I think we had a visitor that used it for coffee or something.

One of the blogs was one that suggested fructose. But in my Diabetes "intake-class" (where newbies get educated on the disease), our nurse/RD was adamant: fructose will do the same thing as sucrose (sugar), don't use it. Another blog recommended stevia and xylitol. Thus, my original question.

This morning we went to the military commissary (our usual grocery store for stock-ups). They had Stevia -- good to know for restock if necessary -- but no Xylitol. As I said earlier, I guess that may be either a Sprouts or an online item.

I am becoming expert at counting carbs. :-) And saving carbs for an occasional treat. Almonds are my "go-to" snack -- just a handful, no more -- with Dove dark chocolate bar when I really, really want chocolate.

Donna