29 November 2011

more fun with fake sugar




So many of these products - like anything else -
Are great and wonderful... or horrible and awful.
Depends on who you ax. Er, uh, I mean "ask!"


So at the risk of whipping a dead horse...
Or a Rare, Vermillion, Ukrainian Unicorn (link)
Here we go - again!


Erythritol is a Sugar Alcohol.
Note the suffix "-ol"

It was discovered in 1848.
So it's been around awhile. (link)
Erythritol has .2 calories per gram.
In the US, they say the sugar alcohols are zero carbs.
In every other country, the sugar alcohols have 2.4 calories per gram.
So it can add up. Just sayin'!

Erythritol can be made from corn... 
Or sugar beets, or wheat/ starch. (link)
Probably depends on the company that makes it.
And what commodity is in season, or cheaper at the time.
When you think about it, it could be made from
anything sweet, because it is a sweetener.

Would it then be GMO? 
Genetically Modified Corn?
Companies are not required to tell us - yet!
We are really in the dark  - the Dark Ages - 
when it comes to GMO and labeling!

But Jack Daniels is made from GMO corn.
By now, almost all the corn is genetically modified.
So the "real" stuff is harder to find. (link)
So most of the GMO Stuff [built-in pesticides, etc]
comes out when it is distilled.....
...or does it!? Same with the sweeteners!

Erythritol is often a delivery agent, or mixing/ bulking 
substance for some of the sweeteners, like Truvia. 
When  a sweetener is 600 times sweeter than sugar, 
it needs a carrier - or we could not use it!


Sugars like Erythritol and Xylitol 
have a cooling effect. They also have a drying effect.
So when they are used for cooking,
they need something to counteract the taste and 
texture of that. So often Erythritol is used with Inulin.

 

Inulin (link) [NOT Insulin, by the way]
Is a plant fiber [I said fiber] that can have a warming effect....
So it is often used to mask the cooling effects of 
some of the sugar alcohols!

Inulin is a fiber - because it is made from a plant that has plant fibers.
That's all "fiber" really is. A fiber. Of something.


Dietary fibers are either soluble or insoluble. (link)
They are edible - but not digestible!
Fiber is not digested.... that is why it works so well 
[For you-know-what] But, I digress.
Inulin is a oligo-saccharide... a sweetener (link)
of the FOS family... FRUCTO-oligo-saccharide.

And as such, a probiotic! (link)
But again - there are debates on both sides
about if it is healthy, needed -- or even safe! (link)


So what the H-E-double hockey-sticks does all this mean?
It means (imho) that we should eat as much
Whole, Real, Organic, Wholesome, Good FOOD
as we can.

Eating REAL FOOD might be the only real way to handle 
the  great food debates. And for the rest - 
Choose wisely -  or choose a-GAIN! 

Hope this helps - still learning together!

11 comments:

  1. One of the things that frustrates me about the lower carb diets is their assertive promotionof artificial sweeteners. Thankfully, I am not much of a sugar user at all because I don't think it can possibly be good to keep putting that stuff in your body. I'm with you: whole, organic foods!

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  2. Oh, you have noticed by tendency to ride a dead horse. Cheering and whipping thru a 'lifetime'. What great info on sweeteners. I will be studying, since a read thru just points out all the stuff to learn about. Sounds like purevia is straight into the glocose frying pan.

    Thanks for being a light lighting the path a couple feet in front of me.

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  3. Thanks for the sweet talk, Anne.:) Good info.

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  4. I watched Alton brown make avocado butter the other day and haven't been able to stop thinking that you might like it.

    http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/avocado-compound-butter-recipe/index.html

    Did you know that he went on a low carb diet and even did an episode of Good Eats about it?

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  5. SheZug - he needed to, bless his little cheeks!

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  6. Okay. So I won't feel bad I've not used the nine unopened boxes of Splenda Essentials I got free with coupons! LOL. Out to the trash it goes! :-)

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  7. DD - I do use Splenda... for those occasions
    when I need a sweetener! Like.... um.... most every day!
    I like the taste of it. But that's just me!

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  8. Yo' trippa...gots to keep the eatin' real homegirl!

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  9. You forgot to mention the lesser known sweetener Lakanto (http://www.sarayahealth.com/?gclid=CJrR_r3vm6wCFYEDQAodqRc__w) & Swerve, which measures just like sugar would. (http://www6.netrition.com/phytoceutical_formulations_swerve.html)

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