Let’s talk sugar substitutes, shall we?
I know all you ladies are interested in this stuff. You may not, however, be especially happy to hear what I think about Splenda.
No bueno.
I just can’t get used to the idea of ingesting something that my body doesn’t know how to process. I am very much a person of common sense, and my brain tells me that a fake sugar with no calories doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.
Who really knows what the long-term effects might be?
Another reason why I’m not a fan of artificial sweeteners is that they may cause your body to crave more real sugar and carbs – meaning you’ll end up ingesting more calories than you had if you’d just used the regular packet of sugar.
Much of the time, I use regular sugar or honey. Sugar for baking, and honey for things like sweetening my daily dose of plain Greek yogurt. I don’t sweeten my coffee at all, but lately I’ve been drinking more and more tea. I love using honey in my tea, but if I’m drinking it more than once a day, this means I’m probably using a little too much honey – and I could probably stand to use a lower-calorie substitute.
With that said, I’m kinda feelin’ products made from the stevia plant. That’s right – plant. As in, it comes from nature. This, I can deal with.
You may be more familiar with the sweetener Truvia. I’ve used Truvia, and I liked it. But the product shown above, SteviaPlus by SweetLeaf, is what I’m currently obsessing over. It’s a natural supplement that combines the extract from the stevia leaf (about 300 times sweeter than sugar) with a hit of fiber. You can get it just about anywhere – I found it at my local grocery store.
SteviaPlus is about ten times sweeter than sugar with a glycemic index of zero, and does not affect blood sugar. If you read my review on the Perricone Prescription, you know that this is a big plus in my book. The addition of fiber means it also does all those great things fiber does for you, like improving regularity and cleansing the colon, all while nourishing the good bacteria in the intestines. I like.
Do YOU use Splenda or any other sugar substitutes? Or are you just an old-school sugar kinda gal?
tried the avave nectar, sticking to sugar for now. my boyf dad is obsessed with stevia, and honestly i want to try it. when i was trying to do the raw foods thing for awhile, that was among the list of acceptable foods.
i like Truvia or PureVia. I want to try this one you recommend though for sure Sarah.
I do though end up using Splenda if I’m traveling so this was a nice reminder of how gross/bad it is.
I honestly don’t use a lot of sugar, except in baking. I don’t sweeten my coffee or tea or anything like that. I’ve tried using Blue Agave Syrup in baking but I usually just go for regular sugar when making treats!