Return of the Sweetener Smackdown!

Laaaadies and gentlemennnnnn! It's time for the eagerly-anticipated return of...Sweetener Smackdown!

Ok, well, whether you've been eagerly anticipating it or not, here it is again! You can check out previous episodes here, here and here.

The contender in this latest edition:
NuNaturals NuStevia powder. My pal Janetha B. was almost as sweet as this stevia, and brought some over for me to sample a couple of weeks ago. THANK YOU babe!

I wanted to wait until I'd used up the sweeteners I had before I tried this out, so it's taken me just a bit longer to get to it than I wanted.

The first hing I noticed about his was the difference in texture. The NuStevia had a very fine grain to it, quite unlike the SunCrystals I have taken to of late.
And the next thing I noticed was how SWEET this stuff is. I have been using just half a packet per cup of tea, CCC, yogurt or whatever else I'm sweetening for the most part, and that has been perfect. Half a packet of this stuff, though, is like licking the bottom of a Frosted Flakes bag. Wow. Anyway, so I've been trying just a third of a packet (jeez louise, is THAT ever difficult to portion out!).

I also find this product to have the slight aftertaste that turns so many people off to the use of stevia on a regular basis. It doesn't taste bad necessarily, but it does kind of give a lingering licorice-y effect.

One thing that I really like about the SunCrystals is that there are only two ingredients, very clearly defined as raw cane sugar and stevia. the NuNaturals stevia is a little more vague:
I mean, yes, I'm glad it has stevia in it, but why the maltodextrin? And what other "natural" flavors are they talking about? Isn't it just supposed to be flavored like stevia?

For the most part, it's not bad, and I will probably continue to use of my stash before returning to the SunCrystals. I am such a creature of habit! Luckily, it's no longer "THE habit" of sucking down dangerous and chemically altered blue devil packets.

Especially grateful to have a teensey bit of sweetener available for this gem:
You know, I don't even care that they start putting our the Christmas stuff before Halloween if it means that this gets to make an appearance,too. Delicious. Well, I guess I still care a little bit... What are your thoughts on that whole thing? Does it just bug ya to death to see all the glittery ornaments and plastic Santas before the pumpkins are even out of the way?

I totally believe that each season and holiday should be enjoyed to the fullest. thankfully I have selective tunnel vision and can enjoy browsing the aisles of ghostly Halloween goodies with turkey feathers tickling my nose and red-nosed reindeer breathing down my back ;)

By the way, thanks for encouraging my pathetic poetry on Friday, and I was glad to see that many of you got a laugh at the his and hers plates--I knew you would be able to relate!

Hope your week is off to a glorious start (or at least a start, right? I take what I can get. lol) xoxo

Sweetener Smackdown Part 3

I'm down to the final contender in my Sweetener Smackdown! If anyone has any other suggestions regarding a natural/artificial (i.e., NOT sugar, and lower calorie), I would love to put up my dukes for another round. But in the meantime, I have been sampling this little lovely:

The verdict: It was love at first slurp! In fact, this stuff is so sweet, that I really only need a half a packet in my tea or whatever else it is I'm adding to. I really dig that this only has two ingredients: Stevia and Cane Sugar. I think it's really helpful that there is a mix of the two, so the tongue and body doesn't get such mixed signals. The crystals in this are HUGE, but dissolve easily in everything I've mixed them into. (Sorry gross finger pic)

There is only the very very slightest hint of the licorice-y aftertaste that some people find so unappealing about Stevia, so I definitely recommend it.

The downside? First of all, this sweet stuff is expensive. It definitely helps that I only need to use half a packet per, but only 50 come in a box, priced at about $3.00. Yikes! My ex-lovah Natra Taste was only $1.77 for twice that many.

Besides that cheap-ass factor, I had been avoiding stevia because it had been the only sweetener not green-lighted by the FDA, and particularly cautioned against use by pregnant women. Surprise babe! KIDDING,KIDDING. Jeeze. But in all seriousness, babies are not that far in the future for hubz and I, and I get really nervous about that type of thing--it's one of the main reasons I decided to put the kibosh on artificial sweeteners to begin with. I know that stevia has now been approved, but still no conclusive evidence on safety of use during pregnancy. Any thoughts on this guys?

At any rate, this stuff is good, and most likely the all-categories winner in my Smackdown (unless I find any other products to test-drive!). Look for an inclusive comparison next week, when Sweetener Smackdown returns for it's final episode. (To be continued....????)

Sweetener Smackdown Part 2

I got a little crazy ants in my pants this morning and decided to run from my apartment to our new house. Um, it was far. Not so much that it was far (5.75), but it was all UPHILL. I don't mean like rolling hills, either. This shiz was hard core. Dang. I almost had to stop and walk a couple times, but I persevered and surprised my husband at the house where he was already hard at work. And then I made him give me a ride home. :)

When I got home it was time for a little snackie, and also---another addition of Sweetener Smackdown! Last week, I experimented with agave, and this week my new find is this: It's crystalized honey! Such a wierd little product, I HAD to try it! Ok. I have the same problem with this sweetener as I did with the last. Ugh! You are dead to me tastebuds, dead! A serving size is two teaspoons, only equaling 16 calories, which is twice the size and half the calories of regular sugar or honey. Of course, I'd like to minimize the amount of sugar in my diet whatever the form, so I hated to use the suggested amount in my tea, but I gave it a shot anyway.

Nothing. Maybe a little sweet, but not exactly NatraTaste territory. The crystals don't dissolve all that quickly, even in boiling hot water, so despite my best stirrings, I often end up with nasty honey gloop at the bottom of my cup instead of an evenly sweetened beverage. It tastes like honey (obviously), but I think honey is a very distinct sweetener, and I'm not always super in the mood for it. One thing this does work rather well for though, is a coaxing some sweeteness out of my beloved cottage cheese and cin. It mixes in pretty well and doesn't taste like poo, or like aspartame, so that might be a good solution for this dietary aspect of mine in the future.

Oh yeah, when that sweet hubby of mine drove me home, we made a little pit stop at Einstien Bagels--check out my hot new mug!!! (It was actually cold, cuz it had water in it, but whatevs) Also, in case you missed it on Friday, don't forget to check out my interview over at the Runner's Lounge. Have a great day off everyone, and try to relax and take it easy (unlike me and my cockamamie power runs up the ever-living hills). xoxo

Sweetener Smackdown

I have a confession to make…for all my healthy and clean eating, I still have one rather large challenge (ok several, but this is the one I happen to be working on righthisminute). Hello everyone, my name is Emily and I’m addicted to artificial sweeteners. Aak! Particularly to aspartame in the form of cheap date NatraTaste, but I also occasionally dabble in Splenda (the devil!), and once or twice in my life I’ve even delved into some Sweet n Low. Hideous.

I try to avoid Splenda as much as possible because it gives me serious tummy troubles, and we all know that the chemical compound in Sweet n Low is the only one actually proven to give ya cancer….but it’s that dang aspartame that keeps me tied down. I like to use it in a lot of stuff, namely this this and this (Hello, I'm also addicted to TEA!). But also this (cottage cheese with SINnnnnamon)and sometimes this and basically whatever else needs some suga (on my tongue, ya gotta give me, give me some, put it right there on my tongue). Sorry. I just love to sing to you.

Sigh. Anyway, I’ve been turning over this thought in my head for a while now, and I HATE how I work so hard to make my body the best it can be, in the goal of complete health, and yet I still put this sort of garbage in there. I believe it might go a long way in helping me to become a true intuitive eater and master my hunger/fullness cues a little better if I would quit ingesting chemicals that tell my body I’m receiving a sort of food that I’m actually not.

So without further adieu, I present to you my latest experimental challenge: The Sweetener Smackdown! Each week, I will be trying a new kind of all natural sugar substitute in hopes of prying the cold white hand of the NatraTaste goblin off of my tea mug.

The first contender: Well, here's the verdict so far. I can't really taste it! I'm exercising a great show of self restraint not to squeeze the whole bottle in. After all, the point of a sugar substitute for me is to sweeten with less than would be required of sugar. I also tried it in some cottage cheese, but it was very difficult to detect in that as well. Interestingly enough, after a few frustrating days of sampling the agave in my tea, I gave in and dumped a packet of the blue stuff in. Holy cow was that SWEET! Soooo...I think I possibly could be retraining my taste buds, but only time will tell.

That's all for now until the next installment of Sweetener Smackdown. Hope your Monday is going well and turns out sweeter than any chemically formulated non-nutritive sweetener. xoxo