Tag: Artificial Sweeteners

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Weight Loss Exercise

Great Recipe For Diabetic Cookies

Diabetic cookies can be a marvelous way to raise the spirits when a person is feeling miserable about the restrictions of living with this serious but manageable condition. Having diabetes is often not much fun and we cannot cheer ourselves up with normal chocolate and sweet treats the way we may have done in the past when we needed a boost.

Most diabetic cookie recipes involve using artificial sweeteners. Just about all of the artificial sweeteners available on the market today have raised some concerns about health risks. Often this is to do with what happens to laboratory rats who are fed on very high quantities of the sweeteners.

Diabetic Cookies Sweeteners

Whether you want to let this worry you is up to you, but it may be a good idea not to indulge in huge amounts of artificial sweeteners. Instead, let your taste buds return to enjoying the natural sweetness of whole foods, as they did before sugar corrupted us to expect a very high level of sweetness.

Great Recipe For Diabetic Cookies

Diabetic Cookies

When choosing a sweetener, check that it is suitable for baking. Aspartame loses its sweetness at high temperatures so avoid any products that are based on aspartame. Others are fine. The packet will tell you. Depending on your diet plan you may be able to use a blend which may be 50% sugar.

I love this recipe for diabetic peanut butter cookies with its mix of sweet and savory tastes. You can try it with less or more sweetener according to taste.

Peanut Butter Diabetic Cookies

  • 0.5 cup sugar free peanut butter (experiment with creamy or crunchy styles)
  • 1.25 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 0.5 cup margarine
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • equivalent of 0.5 cup sugar

Margarine should be soft (not straight from the refrigerator). Mix all ingredients except for the flour into the margarine, then slowly add the flour. The dough should be crumbly but you can add a splash of water if it is too dry.

Make 1 inch balls of dough and place them on a baking sheet. Press down with the base of a glass to flatten them to about a half inch thickness. Bake in a preheated oven at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 10-15 minutes.

If you have diabetic kids, why not teach them to make these diabetic cookies for themselves? That way they will have a treat that they can prepare themselves and share with others in the family if they choose to. It is going to be important that your diabetic child understands how to prepare the right kind of food to manage his or her condition, so starting to learn to cook is important for both boys and girls. Just be sure that all food consumed, including diabetic cookies, is included in the day’s eating plan.

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Weight Loss Exercise

Do artificial sweeteners make you fat?

Artificial sweeteners are everywhere. And I used to think a calorie is a calorie but maybe I was wrong. There is a good chance that your diet soda is making you fat.

Diet Blog has just posted the results of a study done on rats that shows that eating artificial sweeteners in the form of saccharin will actually make you gain weight faster then using the sugar itself.

Artificial sweeteners Research

I know that I have seen these kinds of results before and have always been confused by how it would work but essentially the thinking by the scientific community is that your brain notices the “sweetness” of the food and think that the artificial sweeteners it is sugar. and stores food as fat because the brain thinks that the body has more than enough fuel (calories) to keep it going.

I know that some people will say in seeing this that people are not rats but still physiologically this makes sense to me. Also, if you look at all the diet pop that is sold and people in North America just seem to be gettng bigger and bigger then maybe there is some merit in the conclusions of this research.

Do artificial sweeteners make you fat?

Does this jive with any other research? Well yes I remember that the University of Texas did a Diet soda study that showed that drinking one Diet Soda caused people to get fat and drinking two definitely caused weight gain. This was not a short study either, in fact the results were based on before and after 8 years. There would be a lot of other factors involved including the fact that people try to lose weight by replacing regular soda with diet for lower calories.

The conclusion of the artificial sweeteners study actually points this out as well

A common interpretation of the direct correlation between increased use of artificial sweeteners and increased incidence of obesity is that people have turned to calorie-free sweeteners as a means of reducing energy intake and controlling body weight.

However, our findings and theoretical framework are in closer agreement with the possibility that increased intake of no-calorie sugar substitutes could promote increased intake and body weight gain, which is consistent with recent data from prospective human clinical studies that have documented increased risk for obesity and metabolic syndrome in individuals consuming beverages sweetened with high-intensity sweeteners (e.g., Dhingra et al., 2007; Liebman et al., 2006). Although much research has been directed at selecting among these alternatives, a consensus opinion about the effectiveness of consuming artificially sweetened substances as means of weight control has yet to emerge

I have always been against diet soda anyway because they are usually sweetened with the artificial sweeteners Aspartame which as we all know is poisonous according to lots of studies, even in small doses.

So what can you take from this kind of study? Maybe that you should try to cut out all sodas or at the very least cut back and just drink regular sugar sweetened soda and take the calories for it instead. By all means look at artificial sweeteners as a problem and stick to non sweetened drinks or just water.

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Categories
General Weight Loss Tips

Sugar-Free Banana Chocolate Cheesecake

Guess what? I had dessert for lunch. Guess what else? There was no sugar or artificial sweeteners involved. And it was delicious. From one sweet tooth to another, make this recipe asap.

I’ve had this idea in my head since before I started my year without sugar and I finally got around to making it happen today. Here’s how you make it:

Sugar-free and naturally sweetened: Banana Chocolate Cheesecake

Ingredients:

Crust:

1/2 C. whole pitted dates

1/2 C. pecan halves (or any other nut)

splash of vanilla

1/2 t. water

! T. cocoa powder

optional: 1 T. unsweetened coconut flakes

Filling:

8 oz. cream cheese softened

1 very ripe banana, mine was black (I would use two next time)

1/4 C cocoa powder

3/4 C full-fat plain yogurt

1/2 C. Dates

1/2. C water

Optional topping: unsweetened coconut

What you will need: food processor, 9 inch pie plate, small saucepan, mixer, spoons

Directions:

Starting with your crust, dump all ingredients (dates, pecans, vanilla, water) into a food processor. Turn machine on for at least two minutes. Your crust is done when you can form a ball with your ingredients.

Press crust into a pie plate with your hands. Your crust will cover the bottom of the plate and a little on the sides. You can make it as thin or thick as you like. Set crust aside.

Use a stand-mixer or hand-mixer for the filling. Beat the cream cheese and banana together on low until smooth. Add the cocoa powder and vanilla and mix again until the ingredients are incorporated and smooth. Set mixture aside.

Put dates in your food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add chopped dates to a small saucepan with 1/2 C. water. Turn heat to medium high and stir until the water begins to boil. Turn heat down and let simmer for five minutes. Take off heat and let cool to touch. Add dates to food processor, turn machine on for two minutes.

Add date puree to cream cheese mixture and beat until smooth. Pour filling over crust and refrigerate for at least one hour.

Makes 8 servings.

PS: I’ve been using the hamilton beach food processor for four years now and love it!