I won my first giveaway last week (the week before?) from the blog Pursuing Balance. So, I want to give back to my readers and do the same! I've put together a Give Back Giveaway containing some of my all-time FAVORITE "health food" products, including:
USDA Organic Zola Acai Berry Juice
VitaTops -- Triple Chocolate Chunk and Fudgy Peanut Butter Cup
In order to receive ONE entry the giveaway drawing simply post a comment below!
For a SECOND giveaway entry, post a link back to this post in your own blog and leave a second comment making me aware of your post. Plus, I probably want to follow your blog, too!
And for a THIRD entry, Tweet or Facebook post a link back to this blog post and include a comment below so that I'm sure to enter your name again!
The winner of the giveaway will be randomly selected on
Friday, November 6th at 6pm Central Time. Good luck and thanks for your support!!
I tried TWO new recipes yesterday -- chicken tortilla soup for dinner, and whole wheat chocolate chip cookies made with Southaven multigrain mix for dessert.
In an electric slow cooker, combine chicken, tomatoes, enchilada sauce, onion, green chilies and garlic. Add water, broth, cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper and bay leaf. Cover and cook on low 6 to 8 hours or on high 3 to 4 hours.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly brush both sides of tortillas with canola oil or Pam. Cut tortillas into 2 1/2-by- 1/2-inch strips. Place on a baking sheet. Bake, turning occasionally, until crisp, 5 to 10 minutes. Sprinkle tortilla strips, cilantro and avocado over soup.
And dessert: multigrain chocolate chip cookies made with Southaven Farms mix!
Multigrain Chocolate Chip Cookies
3 tablespoons softened butter (I used Smart Balance)
1/2 cup Splenda Sugar Blend
1 egg (I used Egg Beaters)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 package Southaven Farm Multigrain Baking Mix
1/4 cup miniature chocolate chips
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter (or butter and canola oil) and Splenda Sugar Blend on low speed until creamy. Add egg and vanilla and continue beating on low speed until well combined. Add 1/3 package Southaven Farm Multigrain Baking Mix and beat on low speed until everything comes together and forms a stiff dough. Stir in miniature chocolate chips.
Using about one tablespoon, make walnut-sized balls. Place on parchment-lined baking sheets. (These cookies do not spread much.) Bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes, rotating baking sheets from top to bottom/front to back after 4 minutes. Allow cookies to cool for 5 minutes and then remove to baking rack.
Both were DELICIOUS! A huge thumbs up from husband on the soup, especially. And our guests ate the cookies, so they can't be all too "healthy" tasting ; )
And last up: stevia. I found the position statement from the American Dietetic Association on the safety of stevia products. It is copy and pasted below. It's interesting stuff. Thanks, Sybil, for asking about it!
Title of Topic:
Stevia
Date of Release:
June 2009
Claim of Topic:
Are stevia-based sweeteners a healthier alternative
to other non-caloric sweeteners?
Discussion of Topic: Stevia (pronounced \'ste-ve-?\), is a bush native to Central and South America. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently released “no objection letters” to three companies that submitted Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) notifications to FDA for highly purified Rebaudioside A (Reb A or rebiana) extract from stevia. It is expected that other steviol glycosides will also submit GRAS notifications to FDA expanding the non-nutritive sweetener market even further. Here are insights into the new stevia-based sweeteners and whether they could be considered a better option than the non-nutritive sweeteners currently available.
Safety:
In recent months FDA has recognized the GRAS status of highly purified Reb A sweeteners. As part of the GRAS process, experts reviewed published and unpublished studies and concluded that, under the conditions of its intended use as a sweetener, it can be safely used as an ingredient in foods and beverages. Derived from the leaves of the Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni plant, Reb A is one of two main steviol glycosides. (The other is stevioside.) Both are 200-300 times sweeter than sugar and are calorie-free.
The safety of Rebaudioside A (and to a lesser extent, stevioside) for human consumption has been tested through peer-reviewed research, including metabolic and pharmacokinetic studies, general and multi-generational safety studies, including carcinogenicity studies; intake studies; and randomized, placebo-controlled human clinical trials. Studies with type 1 and 2 diabetics, as well as those with hypertension, have all shown no adverse effects with Reb A doses of approximately 4 to 15 mg/kg body weight per day. However, some consumer groups are calling for additional carcinogenicity and toxicology studies in a wider range of animal models other than rats and mice due to the possibility for potential DNA alterations and the metabolic and pharmokinetic differences between humans and rodents. In June 2008, the World Health Organization’s Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives, a global panel of food ingredient safety experts, completed a multi-year review of the available scientific data on high purity stevia compounds and concluded that they are safe for use as general purpose sweeteners. The Committee set a safe daily intake of 0-4 milligrams per kilogram of body weight as steviol glycosides.
Bottom Line:
Studies have demonstrated, and FDA concurs, Reb A-based sweeteners are considered safe for consumption as tabletop sweeteners or ingredients in foods and beverages. However, the studies supporting the highly purified compound Reb A should not be attributed to other stevia-derived sweeteners until approved by the FDA. At this time, no data exists that Reb A-based sweeteners offer a clinical advantage over any other non-nutritive sweeteners, although studies are ongoing to test whether there are natural plant compounds that offer some additional health benefits. While the sweeteners are marketed as “natural,” there is no official FDA definition of “natural.”
Opportunities for the Registered Dietitian(RD)/Dietetic Technician, Registered (DTR):
Stevia products are best used as replacements for calorie-containing sweeteners. RDs and DTRs can help educate consumers on the various issues related to new stevia-based sweeteners and products containing steviol glycosides so informed decisions can be made.
US Food and Drug Administration. Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. Office of Food Additive Safety. Agency Response Letter GRAS Notice No. GRN 000253. December 17, 2008.
World Health Organization. Safety evaluation of certain food additives/prepared by the sixty-ninth meeting of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA). World Health Organization, 2009. whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2009/9789241660600_eng.pdf
ONE DAY TIL COLLEGE FOOTBALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! : ) : )
Good morning! Husband is sick in bed -- I think I might've brought something home from work on Friday. Though, I am currently asymptomatic. Good thing with back-to-back hockey games this evening. On an unrelated note, let me re-visit stevia-based sweeteners: Truvia and PureVia.
If you read yesterday's blog, I deemed Truvia #1 to my taste-buds. Someone helpfully pointed out that they're made from the same plant -- the stevia plant. Stevia is native to Paraguay and Peru (depending on which source you reference). It is approximately 30 times sweeter than natural sugar, and is calorie free! Stevia-based sweeteners were approved for use by the FDA in December of 2008. Though they are 2-3x more expensive than saccharin (Sweet'n Low), aspartame (Equal) and sucralose (Splenda), they are gaining popularity quickly. "Truvia" is Coke's version of the stevia-based sweetener, while "PureVia" is Pepsi's version [1].
Both Truvia and PureVia are calorie-free, kosher products. One packet of commercially sold Truvia equates to the sweetness of 2 teaspoons of sugar. On the Truvia website there is a Q&A section and one of the questions is: What makes Truvia natural sweetener better than other stevia-based sweeteners? So, the research goes on [1].
The stevia plant has over 200 varieties. The quality of the "sweetness" depends on the extracted sweet compound that the leaves yield [2]. To me this reads "some parts of the plant are sweeter than others." We move on to PureVia's site where they give away the answer.
The sweeteners are made from Reb A (or Rebiana) -- the SWEETEST part of the plant. PureVia is ethanol-purified and the Reb A is blended with other "natural ingredients" for flavor. The bulking agents in PureVia include erythritol and isomaltulose [3]. Truvia does not purify with ethanol, according to what I've found thus far. Truvia also mentions no use of isomaltulose as a bulking agent [4]. Erythritol sounds bad, but it is a natural sweetener. It's found in fruits such as grapes and pears and is extracted naturally [4].
So in a nut shell, the stevia plant's sweetness varies a lot. Though both products are derived from the Reb A portion of the plant, the bulking agents and proportions of stevia vary...creating a different taste. There ya have it. Is there ANYTHING more anyone could ever want to know about stevia? : )
Last night I used some of my new calorie-containing sweeteners and made crock pot oatmeal. It was delicious. I threw into my crock pot:
2 cups of old fashioned oats
6 cups water
3 Tbsp cinnamon (I like a lot!)
2 Tbsp turbinado
1 Tbsp agave nectar
1/3 cup dates, diced
Cook on low 8-9 hours and enjoy! It was creamy and delicious! It needed no more sugar and has leftovers ready for 3 breakfasts this week! If you think I'm crock pot obsessed, you are correct!
On a completely unrelated note...no more football-less Saturdays! It should be a good year for the Fighting Illini (#25) and Oklahoma Sooners (#2). The two teams play back-to-back next weekend on ESPN and I couldn't be more excited! I'm saving my first hoodie reveal for Saturday. Crock pot vegetarian chili will be involved, as well. What college football team are you a #1 fan of?
Lily and I are off to the dog park...have a wonderful day!
[1]. McCay, Betsy. FDA Clears Use of Herb as Sweetener. The Wall Street Journal. December 18, 2008. [2]. Stevia-based Sweetener Truvia Gets FDA Nod. Stevia Cafe. [3]. PureVia website. [4]. Truvia website.
THANK YOU readers for all of your sugar insight! Turns out the real deal is taking a back seat to all that's out there. Between Splenda, Truvia, PureVia, turbinado, agave, etc...I do wonder how much granular sugar sales have been affected.
Anyways, while my husband (who still won't read my blog...) was napping...I went grocery shopping. While I typically avoid the grocery store like the PLAGUE on Saturday afternoons, I was interested in picking up some of your suggested sugar "substitutes" (be them calorie-free or not). So, here's what I ended up with: PureVia, Truvia, agave nectar, and turbinado -- all per your recommendations! And here's my cart:
I also picked up dates based of Gina's recommendation. I'm hoping to make some old fashioned crock pot oatmeal with the dates. Also in there was ingredients for my taste test #2 at work this week with my co-workers. I digress...
When I got home, I figured "Why not try them all and compare!?" So I did. And I took notes.
The contestants...
The set-up
The results!
Here's what I came up with...
1. Truvia: silky texture, heavier than Splenda; slightly bitter at first; granular - not powdery, if melted on tongue...tastes like room temperature vanilla ice cream : ) 2. turbinado: large, sweet granules; less bold than brown sugar; maple-y 3. agave nectar: prune/date flavored; medium viscosity syrup; no after-taste 4. PureVia: sweeter and more bitter than Truvia; similar in flavor to Sweet'n Low; bitterness subsides
I have to confess that as I was leaving the store with all my new, healthy sugar alternatives...Sonic (which SHARES the parking lot with the grocery store, in my defense!) was having Happy Hour -- half-priced fountain drinks and limeades for those of you up north. Sooooooo I might've...probably...got a diet cherry limeade. While I know I won't ever be fully aspartame-free, I do think it's important to decrease the bad and increase the good in our lives. And for me, that includes diet cherry limeade. I HAVE, however, abstained from diet soda for over 3 weeks! This is huge for me...even though my habit was never more than 12 ounces a day, on average.
Have a wonderful rest of your weekend and enjoy the last football-less Saturday of the year! WOOT!
Diet analysis performed on over 300 individuals shows sugar substitutes to be a useful strategy for those looking to lose weight and/or maintain weight loss. Those included in the study also used fat intake reduction, sugar-modified foods, reduced consumption of high-calorie beverages, and an increased use of artificial sweeteners. The results of this study, published in the International Journal of Obesity report that overall, consumption of sugar-free beverages sweetened with low-calorie sweeteners increases dietary restraint – a key aspect of successful weight maintenance [1].
This study compliments the findings of a 2002 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition which found that those consuming sugar substitutes had significantly greater weight loss compared to non-users. To be noted is the intended use of artificial sweeteners. When used as a weight-loss tool along with portion control and exercise, sugar substitutes aid in overall calorie reduction, resulting in weight-loss [1].
In the US, more than 194 million consume low and reduced-calorie foods and beverages according to the Calorie Control Council’s most recent consumer survey. This number is expected to rise as more consumers learn that a reduced calorie intake produces weight loss and weight maintenance [1].
While the survey does not specify WHICH artificial sweeteners consumers used, I pose to you: what artificial sweeteners / sugar substitutes do YOU use? Why is this product your top pick?
I am an avid Splenda-user, but feel I should branch out to using more agave, maple, and other commercially-prepared products such as Truvia and Stevia. Tell me about them! As a general rule of thumb I tell patients that you should never opt to drink your calories. I would personally recommend a diet soda over a regular sugar due to the calories and the need for most Americans to lose or maintain their current weight. Do you agree or disagree with this?
Do YOU drink diet soda? Crystal Light? Diet teas, Snapple, etc.? Why or why not?
[1]. Hubrich, Beth. Consumption of Sugar Substitutes Assists in Longterm Weight Control. Medical News Today. August 25, 2009.
It's confusing trying to be healthy! Let me be your guide to a practical, straight-forward, and maintainable approach to a healthy lifestyle. I promise, you may even come to like it!
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