As a recently diagnosed diabetic I was stunned to learn that a packet of zero calorie sugar free Sweet and Low actually has 3 to 4 calories and is 4% saccharin and 96% dextrose which is a sugar. Most people use multiple packets and such use will raise the user's blood sugar. I find it very bad that the government allows such dishonest food labeling. Equal and Splenda are just as bad! I now use only Stevia liquid as a sweetner.
Originally posted by 667joe As a recently diagnosed diabetic I was stunned to learn that a packet of zero calorie sugar free Sweet and Low actually has 3 to 4 calories and is 4% saccharin and 96% dextrose which is a sugar. Most people use multiple packets and such use will raise the user's blood sugar. I find it very bad that the government allows such dishonest food labeling. Equal and Splenda are just as bad! I now use only Stevia liquid as a sweetner.
It might even help your diabetes itself, from what I read.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevia
http://www.steviacafe.net/dangers-of-stevia
Read both of those articles, they are informative. One alternative I like is pure maple sugar. Of course, on the other hand I am anything but diabetic, I am the opposite. I get dingy when I run low of fuel and often don't realize it. My wife sees it in me, we go so a cafe and the first few bites of food and I come back to life. I seem to have low blood sugar.
As a diabetes sufferer I've done a lot of research, and the only acceptable sweetener is Stevia. In Australia we're lucky in that Stevia is freely available in many forms. The one I use is a sugar-like crystalline powder containing only Stevia RebA and erythritol. It tastes and behaves almost exactly like normal white cane sugar.
erythritol is a sugar alcohol, used as a bulking agent. Stevia, Splenda, Equal, and Sweet 'n' Lo powder all use some kind of calorie-containing sugar for bulk, since the "main" sweetener is hundreds of times sweeter than regular sugar and so would not "fill out" a packet perceptibly when used by themselves. The actual sugar that is used to bulk up saccharin is hardly significant, though. You probably get more sugar from eating a single M&M.
Done that, but what do you suggest I use on my morning oatmeal? Tried honey and juice and they're both horrible. I don't eat salt so that's not an option.
Originally posted by twhitehead The best solution of course is to get used to drinking tea or coffee without a sweetener. Once you get used to it, you won't want it any other way.
Nonsense. Stevia is the winner, clearly. It comes from a leaf -- just like tea.
Originally posted by Kewpie Done that, but what do you suggest I use on my morning oatmeal? Tried honey and juice and they're both horrible. I don't eat salt so that's not an option.
I have raw oats with water, raisins and sometimes nuts. Quick and delicious!
Originally posted by Soothfast Nonsense. Stevia is the winner, clearly. It comes from a leaf -- just like tea.
Where it comes from is irrelevant (sugar comes from plants too).
What happens if you are out one day and you forgot to bring your Stevia? You can't have tea or coffee because it will taste funny. However if you get used to it without a sweetener, then you won't have any problems - until someone makes the mistake of serving you a cup filled with sugar which will then taste horrible.
Originally posted by Kewpie Done that, but what do you suggest I use on my morning oatmeal? Tried honey and juice and they're both horrible. I don't eat salt so that's not an option.
Surely honey is full of sugar? I like oats and honey, or syrup or sugar, but then I am not diabetic (its in the family, but I have been lucky so far). The raisins that Green Paladin suggests sounds good, but they are sweet too and I don't know what the sugar content is.
Originally posted by twhitehead Where it comes from is irrelevant (sugar comes from plants too).
What happens if you are out one day and you forgot to bring your Stevia? You can't have tea or coffee because it will taste funny. However if you get used to it without a sweetener, then you won't have any problems - until someone makes the mistake of serving you a cup filled with sugar which will then taste horrible.
I don't mind sugar, either. The amount necessary to sweeten a cup of tea is hardly significant in terms of calories.
Also Splenda tastes fine to me, but it's not as time-tested as stevia so it's something of a grand experiment that we won't know the results of for a couple more decades. Aspartame also tastes okay to me, but I'm especially leery of its possible health consequences. Saccharin is crap.
I scarcely see the point of "getting used to" unsweetened tea just for the sake of avoiding sugar, or to "steel oneself" against the dire contingency of getting tea at an establishment that doesn't provide a sweetener. If one likes tea better when it's sweetened, then drink it with sugar or the nearest equivalent.
I find it a laugh that some two-dimensional dumbshiit is voting up and down comments about tea and sweetener. Get out of mom's basement and breathe in the open air, dude!
22 Apr '12 18:391 edit
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