Sweetners - How / when to use what kind?

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    • Sweetners - How / when to use what kind?

      Hi all,

      Splenda (granulated), Splenda or sucralose (liquid), erythritol, xylitol, stevia ("Pure Via Stevia" ... Yikes!
      I'm confused about sweeteners - how you decide which one (or two or three) to use in a particular type of recipe, equivalents, etc.

      When I was on Atkins years ago, we had granulated Splenda - that was a big improvement over other products available in 2003-2004. When I read recipes now, they often list two sweeteners and sometimes three!

      For example: In this recipe for Pumpkin Pound cake [ Carbquik Recipes [Archive] - Page 2 - Low Carb Friends ]
      the cook uses 1 cup Splenda powder, 1 cup erythritol, 2 tsp stevia powder.

      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

      In other recipes, people use combinations of granulated Splenda, powdered Splenda, liquid sucralose, stevia, and/or erythritol. Why do you use two or more different sweeteners? How do you decide which ones to use? How do you figure out how much of each to use? Any handy rules of thumb?

      Thanks!!
      Pam

      The post was edited 1 time, last by Sherrie: removed some spammy looking links ().

    • Could you make sure they don't mind you cut and pasting their recipe? If they do could you edit it please, maybe just give an example of the sweeteners amounts in the recipe. I'm going to remove the netrition links now though because its just looks spamy (not implying that your spamming just that the links from the cut and paste look spammy).

      Combining sweeteners are meant to give a more rounded taste but personally I think we just need to cut back on our need for sweet and start reducing it in our recipes. I would never make that cake, that would be ridiculously sweet and would make me feel sick and maybe even binge. To me that looks like it would taste sweeter then the high carb equivalent. You have 2 cups of sweetener, plus whatever the equivalent is of the stevia and you also have the sweetness of the pumpkin.

      So firstly I would decide whether you wish to use artificial sweeteners or not, if you don't then go on to the sugar alcohols and stevia and if you do, then I would probably just stick with the splenda, so you don't have to experience the cooling effect.

      Xylitol isn't too bad tasting but it does have a cooling effect and can have a laxative effect, you can pretty much just replace that cup for cup with sugar but it does kill bacteria. People use this as a positive (ie tooth decay) but it does mean it will also kill good bacteria, I am trying to improve my gut health atm so I avoid it.

      Erythritol is another sugar alcohol with the cooling effect, this one has a neutral effect on bacteria and is also less likely to have a laxative effect but its only around 70 or 75% as sweet as sugar and this is why stevia is often added with it. You can buy pre mixed erythritol and stevia products so that you don't have to do the guess work yourself.

      Stevia can be up to 300 times as sweet as sugar if you use the pure powder so a little goes along way but it can be hard to work with and leave a bitter taste. With recipes that depend on the volume of sugar stevia wont work unless its combined with another sweetener that provides volume.

      My favourite sugar alcohol is tagatose, its tastes awesome and is a prebiotic but its hard to bake with because it browns really easily and its not being made in the US anymore so you cant get it unless you have access to it in some European countries.
      Low Carb in a Nutshell ~ Carb Counts ~ Research ~ Measurements/Conversions ~ Glossary


      Let me know if you think of anything else handy from the site to put here.

    • Hi Sherrie,

      I tried to edit the post to remove specific info in the recipe. I wasn't able to edit the post tho I have been able to edit earlier posts. After searching the forum, found info about an upgrade and info that people can edit a post for 24 hrs, that this is a protection against spammers. I was outside the 24 hr window.

      I agree with you re reducing sweeteners in foods. I am lucky - I was raised in the country, no grocery stores nearby and long before convenience foods came onto the market. We grew almost everything we consumed - chickens and eggs, produce from a huge garden that we canned and froze to get us through winter. Jams and jellies from our fruit trees. Sweet things were limited to special occasions - so I don't have a sweet tooth. Like ice cream, especially in summer, but small portions are fine.
      tooth.

      Thanks for the detailed info re: sweeteners. Feels like we are making Frankenfood! I'm not familiar with tagatose. My dentist encourages her patients to use xylitol - says it "remineralizes" teeth. I think it can be fatal to dogs, perhaps to other animals. DK. I'll probably experiment a bit with Splenda and erythritol.

      The recipes I've tried from this forum have been excellent. Have made a couple varieties of Oopsie Rolls, the Swedish cheese bread, a no-bake cheesecake and your low carb cream cheese muffins - super good. I may make a fresh batch tonight.

    • That's ok I can fix it up, if there's anything specific that you would like me to replace the recipe with let me know :)

      I'm very interested in my gut health at the moment, these days everything is so processed and "safe" there's no bacteria or enzymes in the food we buy anymore, pasteurised milk is a good example. This is the main thing that I take from the good paleo diets (not all are good imo). I'm hoping top start making mine at home soon once I can afford all the bits and bobs I need and have a plentiful supply of home grown cabbage etc but every day I try to eat some form of non pasteurised fermented vegetables like sauerkraut or kimchi. They say our gut is our second brain and perhaps even more important so I'm trying to look after it and hoping by improving it I improve my own health issues.

      Sounds like you had a great upbringing, I wish my grandmother was still around because there's so much I could learn from her in regards to canning and preserving as well as gardening and my chooks etc

      I am thinking bone broth would be the best way to remineralise teeth rather then xylitol.
      Low Carb in a Nutshell ~ Carb Counts ~ Research ~ Measurements/Conversions ~ Glossary


      Let me know if you think of anything else handy from the site to put here.

    • Hi Sherrie, Re: gut health. Do you make yogurt? It's so easy. Just milk and starter. In Greece, where refrigeration is limited, yogurt is a mainstay of their diets. You heat milk to 170-180F (near boiling), turn off the heat. When the milk temperature drops to about 105F, add your starter, put the milk into a container or several small containers. I have a yogurt maker that keeps the milk at around 100 but it isn't necessary. You can just wrap up the container in a couple of towels, put in a warmish place for several hours until it gets thick. This article includes a good description of how to make a batch of yogurt in a quart Mason jar: Why you should make your own yogurt

      I stopped eating yogurt a few weeks ago when I was starting LC, didn't get into ketosis, so cut out anything that I thought could block ketosis. I'll add yogurt back in a week or so, see if I can do so and stay in ketosis.

      Re: good upbringing. I'm grateful for my upbringing. One reason it was good is that I was born at the end of WWII when most people - including my family - were not well off by today's standards. I wouldn't trade that upbringing for all the modern conveniences we have today.

      Most years, my Dad bought 100 baby chicks that arrived in early spring. From about age 6-7, one of my jobs was to care for the chickens - feeding, watering, collecting eggs, shooing them inside when a storm threatened. Every Saturday, my Dad executed a chicken for Sunday dinner. By the time I was an adolescent, I loathed eating chicken! Although I have room for chickens and they would prob help with insects in my garden, I don't love them, probably because I found them so frustrating as a child. I love reading your stories about your chooks.

      I have a good sized garden - probably too big for Pete and me. I have a job so if I have a heavy harvest of perishable veggies, it's hard (and exhausting) to can and freeze the produce. I'm experimenting with the veg garden to see what we really like that I can grow, how much I need to plant for us, what I can process. (Peppers!!) After reading studies about the substantial loss of nutrients in vegetables since the 1950s scientificamerican.com/article…etion-and-nutrition-loss/ I want to know how my produce is grown and that the quality is higher than I would get at most grocery stores. Sorry, didn't intend to write a book!

      Not familiar with bone broth. I'll google it.

      The post was edited 1 time, last by pamchesbay ().

    • Yeah I had a problem with too many pumpkins and spaghetti squash this year. I'm not sure whether to sow less this season or sell/trade my excess. Funny how I can go to the market or even set up a stall with an honesty box out the front and sell my excess fruit and veg but I can't do it with eggs
      Low Carb in a Nutshell ~ Carb Counts ~ Research ~ Measurements/Conversions ~ Glossary


      Let me know if you think of anything else handy from the site to put here.