Sugar Substitute Help

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rageena_falangee
rageena_falangee Posts: 7
in Health and Weight Loss
I just can't bring myself to use artificial sweetner. There are so many bad things out there about the toxins it puts out into your body and I hate the after taste! BUT sugar in my coffee makes for unnecessary calories. Any ideas out there? I've tried splenda and its nasty when it heats up in the coffee. I'm a big fan of trying to be as natural in my diet as possible. I dont like any chemically enhanced products. I would love the help!!

Replies

  • rainbowbow
    rainbowbow Posts: 7,490 Member
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    I drink my coffee with 1.) French vanilla coffee creamer (30 cals) and 1.) tablespoon truvia.

    It is delicious and 30 cals. But hey, it's up to you if you want to deal with the weirdness. It becomes normal tasting after time!
  • imafatloser
    imafatloser Posts: 31
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    I use a natural product called "Sweet Leaf Stevia" in my coffee every morning. It's a liquid...you can use as many drops as you like with ZERO calories. I went from using two teaspoons of sugar and 2% milk (78 calories per cup) to using skim milk & stevia (11 calories per cup!) It takes a little getting used to, but it's SO worth it!

    Just Google "Sweet Leaf Stevia" to buy it online. I bought it on Amazon. I use it in everything these days and have been using the same bottle since June (and still have 1/3 bottle left). I just got some in my stocking from Santa. :)
  • KeepGoingRhonda
    KeepGoingRhonda Posts: 527 Member
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    I use Truvia(made from the Stevia plant)
  • CyberEd312
    CyberEd312 Posts: 3,536 Member
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    I use Domino Pure Cane Sugar in my morning coffee, I don't like artificial sweeteners..................... I believe there is like 15 calories in a tbsp. so I am not worried about 45 calories in my coffee when I burn over 1000 calories a day in exercise.....
  • LowCarbsHighHopes
    LowCarbsHighHopes Posts: 15 Member
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    I use a packet of truvia, along with my tbsp of creamer.. the taste actually never bothered me.
  • sandimack
    sandimack Posts: 158 Member
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    I also use a packet of stevia, it's a natural sweetener that doesn't spike your insulin levels like the artificial sugar and sugar does. No side effects either. You can get a box of packets at walmart.
  • 2Bgoddess
    2Bgoddess Posts: 1,096 Member
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    I use splenda...only thing I am allowed to use...it is artificial I guess, but I can't taste the difference. I sometimes worry about the chemicals, if there are any, but then, everything is bad for you, depending who you talk to.
  • clocklady
    clocklady Posts: 111 Member
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    I like stevia too! Sweetleaf is the best brand that I've tried. I use both the powder and the liquid. The trick with stevia is to make sure you don't use too much or it tastes bitter.
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
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    Truvia (brand name for stevia) is just another artificial sweetener, don't let the marketing fool you into believing it's something it's not.

    That said, there's nothing wrong with artificial sweeteners. All the scare mongering claims are just that, scare mongering. Scientific studies have already debunked 99% of them. Aspartame is not toxic, it's aspartic acid and phenylalanine, 2 amino acids that your body needs anyway. When your body breaks aspartame down into aspartic acid and phenylalanine, it uses them just like it would if you ate a steak and got aspartic acid and phenylalanine. As part of the waste product from breaking them down, you do get small amounts of formaldehyde (broken down into formic acid and eliminated) and methanol. That sounds kind of scary, but you get a much larger dose of both formaldehyde and methanol just from eating an apple, so like I said, most of the things you read are just scare tactics.
  • rainbowbow
    rainbowbow Posts: 7,490 Member
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    Trivia's ingredients are rebiana, erythritol.

    Rebiana is the stevia, and erythritol is "At the industrial level, it is produced from glucose by fermentation with a yeast, Moniliella pollinis.[1] It is 60–70% as sweet as table sugar yet it is almost non-caloric, does not affect blood sugar, does not cause tooth decay, and is partially absorbed by the body, excreted in urine and feces. It is less likely to cause gastric side-effects than other sugar alcohols."

    Figure if I'm going to use an artificial sweetener it should be one that doesnt cause the noted above issues.
    Truvia (brand name for stevia) is just another artificial sweetener, don't let the marketing fool you into believing it's something it's not.

    That said, there's nothing wrong with artificial sweeteners. All the scare mongering claims are just that, scare mongering. Scientific studies have already debunked 99% of them. Aspartame is not toxic, it's aspartic acid and phenylalanine, 2 amino acids that your body needs anyway. When your body breaks aspartame down into aspartic acid and phenylalanine, it uses them just like it would if you ate a steak and got aspartic acid and phenylalanine. As part of the waste product from breaking them down, you do get small amounts of formaldehyde (broken down into formic acid and eliminated) and methanol. That sounds kind of scary, but you get a much larger dose of both formaldehyde and methanol just from eating an apple, so like I said, most of the things you read are just scare tactics.
  • LabRat529
    LabRat529 Posts: 1,323 Member
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    Define "natural" or 'not artificial'. I'm not sure I'd count Splenda as 'natural'... although it probably occurs naturally to some degree or other. Splenda has the wrong 'handedness' (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chirality_(chemistry)) and our bodies can't use it even though it apparently activates out taste-buds and says "sweet".

    Anyhow... There's a lot of pseudo-science floating around and a lot of scare-tactics in popular culture to convince people that artificial anything is bad... I'm not entirely sure I understand the need to demonize certain things because they are chemical, but to each their own, I guess.

    I'm not convinced any of the artificial sweeteners, including splenda, are "bad". I've done my homework. I spent hours on pub-med reading what the latest and greatest had to say. For every article that says artificial sweeteners spike insulin levels, there are others that say artificial sweeteners don't do a damned thing to insulin levels. Ditto for claims that artificial sweeteners increase appetite. Plenty of articles say that they don't increase appetite and even suppress it.

    So for me... it's about taste. I prefer Splenda to other non-caloric sweeteners. I've never tried Stevia. I've looked at it in the grocery store, but it just doesn't seem worth the price.

    I also use sugar sparingly and don't worry about it. I just count it in my daily calories. 30 calories isn't enough to make a difference unless you're drinking a lot of 30-calorie coffees.

    Please note, you do not have to believe everything printed in the media or online about 'health'. If you want to know what the scientific and medical community believes, go to http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed and do your own searches.

    However, you mentioned you don't like the taste of the artificial stuff... so... my suggestion would be to try an alternative taste instead of sweet. Maybe add mint to your coffee. Something like that.
  • rageena_falangee
    rageena_falangee Posts: 7
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    Thanks for all the help, I will for sure try stevia that you have all recommened. I still cannot bring my self to drink or eat anything with aspartame in it. As much as you can read denouncing the issues with it, there are too many causes for concerns in my mind. I understand peoples opinion thought and if all else fails I will continue to use actual sugar and like mentioned above, work it off.
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
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    Thanks for all the help, I will for sure try stevia that you have all recommened. I still cannot bring my self to drink or eat anything with aspartame in it. As much as you can read denouncing the issues with it, there are too many causes for concerns in my mind. I understand peoples opinion thought and if all else fails I will continue to use actual sugar and like mentioned above, work it off.
    All the "causes for concern" that you've read about have been made up. Seriously, they can all be traced back to one woman who invented all these horrible things because she was peddling a certain kind of diet, so she wrote a pamphlet making up all theses horrible things to terrify people into not eating aspartame and into buying into her plan.

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