Chattahoochee Mama

If you are trying to avoid simple sugars in your diet, there is still a range of substitutes available. Choosing wisely can become a daunting task. In the remaining posts of this series, I'll briefly highlight what's out there

Artificial Sweeteners: are chemicals that offer the sweetness of sugar without the calories. 
They include: aspartame (NutraSweet, Equal), Sacchrin (Sweet N' Low, SugarTwin), Acesulfame K (Sunett, Sweet One), Sucralose (Splenda), and Neotame.  Artificial sweeteners are often used as a part of a weight-loss plan because they are low in calories. They also do not raise blood-sugar levels. However, they are "empty-calories" offering no nutritional benefit and may actually stimulate your appetite causing you to eat more calories in the long run.

The safety of using artificial sweeteners has long been in question. Artificial sweeteners are often the subject of stories in the popular press and on the Internet, claiming that they cause a variety of health problems, including cancer. According to the National Cancer Institute, however, there's no scientific evidence that any of the artificial sweeteners approved for use in the United States cause cancer. And numerous studies confirm that artificial sweeteners are safe for the general population. However, I still would advise anyone who is health conscious to avoid artificial sweeteners as much as possible and choose a better alternative.

I invested a few bucks in some popsicle molds earlier this spring in anticipation of hot summer months and ice-cream hankerings. It's nice to have a cool treat waiting in the freezer that is tasty and nutritious and making your own fruit bars is a cinch!

You can blend any combo of your favorite summer fruits and/or fruit juices for a delicious popsicle. Just plain 100% orange juice does the trick nicely or bananas with a little chocolate syrup make a nice fudge-sicle, you can even make your favorite latte and freeze it into a yummy little bar. Cream, milk, or soy milk can be added to your fruits for a creamy bar. Some of my personal faves include bananas and coconut milk for a creamy banana pop (the banana flavor wins out over the coconut but it makes it nice and creamy) or fresh pineapple and coconut milk for a tropical flavored bar (you can purchase unsweetened canned coconut milk in the international section of the grocery store).

The best part of blending up a fruit popsicle is your tastebuds think they're getting a refreshing sweet treat, while you can rest assured that your what your body is getting is a healthy, sugar-free dose of whole fruit.  And kids love it too!

So, I made a quick stop at Sbux today for my usual decaf soy latte, but iced this time since it was so blazing hot out today.  I was met by three very peppy baristas who whipped up my beverage in precisely 3 point 2 seconds, skipping, whistling, and prattling a mile a minute the entire time. This is not the first time I've encountered such perky peeps behind the brew counter at the 'bux. I wonder what baristas do when business is slow - do they go shot for shot of ultra-concentrated espresso with a double latte chaser?  WooHOO! Shoot, I'd be skipping, too...

There are 4 simple sugars generally regarded by nutritionists as "harmful" to your optimal health: sucrose, fructose, honey, and malts. While we have already discussed sucrose (table sugar), people are often surprised to find fructose and honey on this list.

Fructose is naturally occuring in fruits and vegetables. You should not be concerned about consuming fructose by eating whole, healthful fruits and veggies which are extremely beneficial to your health and have normal amounts of fructose. Fructose has a low number on the glycemic index and therefore has been used as a substitute in low sugar diets such as needed by a diabetic. It has also been sold under the label of "all-natural." However, fructose, apart from being eaten as a part of a whole, natural food should be considered a refined, commercial sugar. Recent studies have found that consumption of fructose in large amounts may cause particular risks to your health.

Although honey is a natural sweetener, it is considered a refined sugar because 96% of it's dry matter are simple sugars: fructose, glucose, and sucrose. Honey decays teeth faster than table sugar and has the highest calorie content of all sugars with 65 cal per tbls compared to 48 cal per tbls of table sugar.  Honey is not a low-glycemic food and for all intents and purposes is no better than white sugar.

Maple Syrup and Molasses might also be added to this list. While, like honey, they might be a better choice than table sugar because they are natural, they are still composed mainly of simple sugars and are not a low-glycemic food (note: brown sugar is a mixture of white table sugar and molasses).

Let's talk about the glycemic index - a measure of how a given food affects blood-glucose levels (note: glucose is a simple sugar and the most important sugar in biology - your cells use it to make energy and your body works to tightly regulate the amount present in your bloodstream using insulin and glycogen).

For the glycemic index, each food is assigned a numbered rating. The lower the rating, the slower the absorption and digestion process, which provides a more gradual, healthier infusion of sugars into the bloodstream. Whereas a high rating means that blood-glucose levels are increased quickly, which stimulates the pancreas to secrete insulin to drop blood-sugar levels. These rapid fluctuations of blood-sugar levels are not healthy because of the stress they place on the body.

Refined white table sugar, for instance, is at the top of the list and therefore raises insulin levels leading to all kinds of other detrimental effects including depression of the immune system. When considering sugar alternatives and keeping your health in mind, you may want to consider the rating given by the glycemic index. However, even most naturally occuring sweeteners rate high on the glycemic index, and therefore even "all-natural" and more "healthy" sugar alternatives should still be used sparingly.