ArcaMax

I promised I would lead a discussion about sweeteners. Sweet Success or Sweet Terror. That would be the question.

I am not a chemist and don’t profess to be a sweetener expert but I have been trying to pay a lot of attention.

As leader of Plan Z, I get bombarded with questions about sweeteners. Seems a new one hits the shelves just about every week and everyone wants to ask me if the new one is okay to consume. I have to admit I just can’t keep up. This is a booming industry fraught with potholes, secret tunnels and minefields galore.

Let’s start with the big NO NO’s. In my opinion those definitely include: aspartame (Nutra-sweet and Equal) and sucralose (Splenda). Problem is aspartame is in over 6000 products in your local grocery store and I don’t even have a count on those including Splenda. Both were approved by the FDA so it doesn’t seem as though we can count on them for keeping us safe.

If you are going to have an allergic reaction to either of the items listed above, the list of reactions is basically the same: skin rashes/flushing, panic-like agitation, dizziness and numbness, diarrhea, swelling, muscle aches, headaches, intestinal cramping, bladder issues, and stomach pain. Not everyone has the problem and for some it doesn’t rear its ugly head until the quantity builds up. No long term studies were ever done on either of these sweeteners so the jury is still out and might be out forever. I am not taking my chances with either of them anymore. When I was 34 years old I had an issue where I got so dizzy I lost my equilibrium. I had to be put on special medication to keep me upright while the doctors did all kinds of testing to figure out what was wrong with me. They put me on a med that they said would cause me to gain weight but it could not be helped. I gained 29 pounds in a month.

They never did figure out what was wrong. Now that I’ve been studying aspartame more, I think I have glued together enough information to realize it was the aspartame in my diet soda. You see, during those days I’d live on a half of a peanut butter sandwich and at least six diet sodas a day. That was not a good strategy for trying to control my weight.

You want to get the daylights scared out of you, watch this Fox News expose on aspartame.

Under the category of big "No No's" I should probably include sugar and sugar offshoots like HFCS (high fructose corn syrup). Not that sugar in a tiny amount is not okay, but at this point the US Department of Agriculture estimates that we each eat about 140 pounds of sweetener per year, on average. That comes out to 10 teaspoons per person, per day. Since I’m not eating 10 teaspoons per day and the thousands of people on Plan Z, the diet by Zola, are not eating 10 teaspoons per day, that means there are plenty of people getting even more! Try to find a processed food product in the grocery store that does not contain some kind of sugar. It’s mind-numbing.

So in order to avoid sugar and those horrible artificial sweeteners we are all on the hunt for something as a substitute. Something as close to natural as we can get.

So now I’m going to list what seem to currently be the best of the not so great. None of these is perfect.

Brand name followed by ingredients and comments:

SweetLeaf: inulin, vegetable fiber. Most people like this one. It tastes the most natural. Sometimes hard to find at stores.

Pure Via: Dextrose, Reb A (stevia extract). Dextrose is the villain in this one. Dextrose is the extender used in here so that it measures like sugar.

Stevia in the Raw: Reb A (rebiana). This one has less than two calories per packet and if it’s less than 5 calories per packet, technically they can say it has ‘zero’ calories. Go figure.

Truvia: Erythritol. This is processed stevia. Same deal. To make it white so it looks like sugar this stuff is processed. I use this for many recipes because they have huge distribution. You can find this in almost ALL grocery stores. This works in some baking recipes but it doesn’t always do well when you heat it. It can get a tinny aftertaste.

Stevita: Reb A, erythritol.

Nu Naturals: Stevia, maltodextrin. Maltodextrin is another extender so it can look like what we are used to. If you get straight stevia powder, the amount needed to sweeten your coffee would fit on the head of pin. So they mix it with other stuff to extend it.

I am going to investigate this one more because it seems to work well in baking. I don’t bake much so this takes me time.

Now let’s move onto some other sugar categories.

When you do bake and want a sweetener there is a new proliferation of choices there too, but it’s still a minefield. You’ll have to read labels and be careful. For example: People try to say that organic coconut sugar is lower in carbohydrates. That’s not necessarily true.

Madhava is a brand of organic coconut sugar. It has 4 grams of carbohydrates per teaspoon and 15 calories. Funny thing is regular white cane sugar is exactly the same. So it’s not really good option if your goal is to cut sugar.

Coconut Secret is a brand of raw coconut crystals. That one has 10 calories per teaspoon and 2.3 grams of carbohydrate per teaspoon. It’s much lower in sugar but this is no license to run wild with it.

What I tell people is if the holiday/celebration rolls around and you insist on making a dessert that contains sugar, try this stuff. It cuts your glycemic uptake by half and cuts the calories by one third.

So if you are going to make cookies four times a year this is a suitable option. If you start making cookies once a week or even once a month, this probably just means you’ll get fat slower. You’ll still likely gain weight. It’s not cheap either. It’s almost $10 for 12 ounces. This is another reason to realize that sugar desserts are a treat and not a regular habit.

Soon we will discuss other carbohydrate loaded ingredients in baked goods. Namely, flour. The flour in the mix is just as bad as the sugar. You need to find alternatives to baking with regular white or wheat flour, but the good news? I have options.

The Easiest Chocolate Mousse On The Planet

Servings: Serves 3. Can be doubled

Ingredients:

1 tub of mascarpone cheese (8 oz). Find mascarpone in the chilled cheese section or near the sour cream. It’s yummy Italian; sort of like cream cheese only smoother. If you cannot find mascarpone, cream cheese will work.
1 – 2 Tbl of Unsweetened cocoa
1 – 2 packets of Truvia
1 tsp of organic vanilla
1/3 cup of whipping cream

Instructions:

Remove the mascarpone from the carton and put it in a medium bowl. Add the other ingredients and stir thoroughly. The first look will be slightly soupy but you will put it into your serving dishes and back into the refrigerator to firm up. Even 30 minutes will be enough time back in the refrigerator. The reason I have a variable amount of cocoa and Truvia is because you get to decide how sweet you want it as well as how intense you like your chocolate flavor. Start with one of each and then taste. You can always add the second before you put them in your serving dishes.

Serving Suggestions:

This makes a third cup portion per person. It’s not large but it goes a long way. This recipe would be great with berries or a bit of whipped cream on top too.

Enjoy!
Cheers,
Zola