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Post by Joxcee on Jan 1, 2009 18:40:47 GMT -5
What are the best (healthiest) sugar substitutes out there? Are they really better (healthier) for you than sugar?
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Post by Quettalee on Jan 1, 2009 19:27:04 GMT -5
Well, Mary used Stevia (liquid) in all of her teas--hot and cold--along with honey. I personally don't like Stevia, but I can drink my tea (and prefer my coffee) with no sweetener of any kind. I used raw sugar in my baking and Mary used raw sugar in her homemade hot cocoa. Refined sugar is bad. There's so much info out there about it... Dangers of SugarWe never used refined sugar at the shop, but kept a leftover box from the ice creamery just for those who were adamant about it. Mary actually started out not offering it, but some people were just rude about it, so she pulled it out from hiding if someone asked. The same with artificial sweeteners.
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Post by Joxcee on Jan 1, 2009 20:12:36 GMT -5
Well, I've got a lot of Sweet-n-Low because of a friend who used it, and now I'm stuck with it, so I've started using it up. Plus it's 0 calories, so that was a plus. I was just wondering how healthy it was. Something I would have never considered before you two. Although there are a lot of things I'm not giving up just yet ... I do take pause when using it from time to time.
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Post by Joxcee on Jan 1, 2009 20:38:58 GMT -5
She used both at the same time? Or she switched back and forth between them? (I don't like honey, so I doubt I'll use it versus sugar.)
Is both raw & refined sugar measured the same way? Like if something called for 2 cups of sugar, would that be the same for both? Or is raw stronger/weaker, and needs to be decreased/increased? Cause, I just might go that route later on.
Although I like that Sweet-n-Low has 0 calories. I can add it to drinks I drink after 6pm. [See my comments on this blog to understand why. (8th & 10th comments down)]
Hence my query on sugar substitutes.
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Post by Joxcee on Jan 3, 2009 20:10:07 GMT -5
Oooh! There was a commercial last night for Truvia ... made from the Stevia plant. They pointed out it was 0 calories too. So I might check that out. I'll get a really small package though, just in case I don't like it.
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Post by Joxcee on Jan 3, 2009 20:24:54 GMT -5
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Post by Quettalee on Jan 3, 2009 20:33:45 GMT -5
Yep. I've got all of those in every cabinet in the kitchen. Mare got on a peanut butter kick not too long ago...well, over three months...and she would just take her jar (organic, of course, because that's one of those "important-that-it's-organic" foods) and pour molasses or honey in it and eat it with a spoon.
I don't like real sweet anything and tend to lean the other way, so I like agave. It's not so sweet. I like brown sugar in my oatmeal...which I haven't had a bowl in over three months. Not much of anything healthy for me lately. Not so much bad, just not enough good.
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Post by gams on Jan 4, 2009 0:13:16 GMT -5
I never really thought how weird this sentence is until just now reading this thread.....I never use sweeteners of any kind, although I have a sweet tooth.
Baked goods are my weakness, and because I make it a rule not to bake I've got no need to actually use sugar....except on those rare occasions when I break down and decide those baking pans have got to be used at least once a year. I don't like artificial sweetners, so I sacrifice no calories or taste to satisfy my sweet cravings when I buy baked stuff.
Coffee has to be black...unless there is Bailey's in it, and I suppose that could be considered a sweetner of sorts. I don't drink tea - especially sweet; it makes me gag. Hhmmm...what else would someone sweeten? Oh, cereal. I like cold cereal out of the box, without sugar or milk added. I honestly can't think of anything I add sugar, or would add a sugar substitute to.
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Post by Quettalee on Jan 4, 2009 0:24:27 GMT -5
I have all but lost my taste for sweets. We used to have something sweet every single night...it was a trip out if we couldn't find something in the house.
I went through the ice cream thing when we were at the shop--just about every night--but I bought a pint of Ben & Jerry's over a week ago and there's still over half a pint left. I was thinking earlier that I wanted something sweet, but then I had a half a peanut sandwich instead--and some baby carrots.
I put honey in my hot tea and that's the only sweetner I ever use.
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Post by Joxcee on Jan 4, 2009 0:29:56 GMT -5
I don't use sugar all that often myself. It takes me forever to use up what I have. And for the most part, I've been drinking sodas, but Mom harps on me about the cost. I'd save money if I drank tea instead. I usually add water to Mom's tea, because she gets it too strong and sweet for my tastes. I prefer my own tea. I make it weak, like sun tea, and add far less sugar. So, I finally started making my own tea, to drink with food, thus saving the sodas for special occasions. Like with pizza, or popcorn, etc.
Then I made a comment (link above) about not drinking water after 6pm anymore because I wanted a taste of something in my mouth, and a comment back suggested I add flavoring to the water ... such as tea, etc. And that got me to thinking about adding a 0 calorie sugar substitute to my tea instead of sugar ... and that led to this thread.
For the most part, I use sugar for my cereal, tea, coffee (very, very rarely do I drink coffee), and sometimes for chocolate pudding, or 'boiling' cookies. Which I don't make very often. Although I do eat candy, and sweets at Sunday dinner at Moms, so I guess I do eat more sugar than I thought. I just don't personally use all that much of the sugar I've bought.
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Post by gams on Jan 4, 2009 0:31:39 GMT -5
I am one of those "have to have a sweet thing every night" people. I need to cut back - the cholesterol thing, ya know. I was doing pretty good there for awhile, limiting the sweets to just a couple of nights a week. I fell off the wagon though, sometime between LX's and Hub's and my birthdays, (there always seemed cake in the house for three week's span), and am back to every night again.
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Post by Quettalee on Jan 4, 2009 0:35:39 GMT -5
Come to think of it, even the paper plates full of the holiday pies and cakes that were left on my doorstep mostly got thrown out. I did eat the german chocolate icing off the two pieces of cake that I got.
And the homemade buckeyes.
They were the shit.
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Post by gams on Jan 4, 2009 0:38:23 GMT -5
Lentils and buckeyes are the shit? WTF are buckeyes? I thought chestnuts thingies or big-headed college football team mascots that are suppose to look like chestnuts. And WTF kind of mascot is a nut?
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Post by Quettalee on Jan 4, 2009 0:56:25 GMT -5
You lived in KY and don't know what buckeyes are at holiday time?
I bet Joxcee knows.
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Post by Joxcee on Jan 4, 2009 1:06:22 GMT -5
Okay ... I had to Google. I've never had the candy kind, but I've seen the 'nut' kind before.
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Post by Quettalee on Jan 4, 2009 1:12:03 GMT -5
You can never go wrong with homemade chocolate and peanut butter that melts in your mouth. And they're made to look like the nut...peanut butter with a chocolate layer...but leaving a little peanut butter showing on the ends...so it looks like the nut. OK, I'm done too. 'night.
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Post by Joxcee on Jan 4, 2009 1:15:22 GMT -5
Night, Q. I hope you sleep 8 hours or more tonight.
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Post by gams on Jan 4, 2009 9:20:42 GMT -5
No, not the kind you described. We lived in N. KY right across the river from Cincinnati, and both of us worked in Cincinnati. Big Ohio State football fans in that town, and being a Wolverine fan for as long as I can remember, Buckeyes were a thing to be hated, rather than a melt-in-your-mouth treat.
Across from my office building, in the square at Christmas, warm and roasted chestnuts, not buckeyes, were sold in paper cones; man, they were good. Actually, I don't think buckeyes, (the nuts), are very tasty; I think I read once they were very bitter and used as pig fodder.
We sell buckeyes at work...in shrubby tree-form; there is no chocolate involved. I think I'd like to try the chocolate ones - peanut butter and chocolate; a combo that is better quarterback/receiver combination that Ohio State ever had.
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