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The Lazy Gourmet Way to Reduce Sugar
in Your Diet
by Pamela Rice Hahn
Sugar, like salt, is a flavor enhancer.
In fact, a pinch of sugar in a recipe
helps boost the salty flavor. While it's
sometimes given a worse rap than it
deserves, sugar is still an empty
calorie. In other words, the only
benefit you get by adding it to a recipe
is that oh-so-sweet boost in flavor;
unfortunately, however, sugar adds a big
zip, nada, nothing in the way of
nutritional value. (Despite studies that
show that for the diabetic, sugar has
about the same adverse affect [read:
increase] in blood sugar levels as does
other refined starches like white bread
and rice, the choice as to how a
diabetic should use sugar in his or her
diet is between the diabetic and his or
her dietician. The rest of us are on the
honor system.)
Some painless, lazy about ways you can
go about decreasing the amount of sugar
in your diet include:
- If you can tolerate them, use artificial
sweeteners. Just keep in mind that you
won't be adding any nutritional value to
your diet when you do so. Also diabetics
need to consult with a dietician because
some artificial sweeteners can still
adversely affect blood glucose levels.
- Eat more fruit! This satisfies your
sweet tooth, has that needed extra
nutritional value of vitamins and
minerals, and increases the amount of
fiber in your diet. Fresh or unsweetened
frozen is best. When you must use
canned, select the unsweetened kind
packed in water or its own juices.
- Eat whole grain snacks. For most people,
baked goods made with whole grains need
less sugar to taste sweet enough to
enjoy, plus there's the added benefit
that whole grains seem to reduce that
sugar rush followed by another craving
for sugar caused by eating pastries and
candy. (The reduced metabolism time for
sweets combined with whole grains is
based on studies done determining the
glycemic index for foods, which is a
still somewhat controversial method of
analyzing how a food converts to sugar
in the blood stream. You can read more
about the glycemic index at
www.mendosa.com/gi.htm.)
- Replace the soda that you drink with one
of the healthier drink suggestions in
Chapter 16 in
Lazy About Grilling: the
feet up, hands down easiest ways to
barbecue.
I've been testing recipes using a new,
all natural, low-glycemic, reduced
calorie one-to-one sugar replacement
product that I'm crazy about! Depending
on the "formula" -- regular Whey Low™
Granular or Whey Low™ Powder
(confectioner's sugar variety), or Whey
Low™ Granular, Type D (diabetic version)
-- and depending on whether or not
you're diabetic, the glycemic index for
this sweetener ranges from 12 to 20;
granulated cane sugar is 100. While none
of the Whey Low™ products are free of
calories, they do only have 25% of the
calories in cane sugar, or 4 calories a
teaspoon versus the 16 in sugar. A very
important consideration if you want a
substitute for sugar in a grilling marinade
is that, unlike artificial sweeteners,
Whey Low™ can withstand high
temperatures.
Unfortunately, this product isn't
expected to be available in stores
nationwide until sometime in 2003. For
now, however, you can order it from the
company Web site at
www.wheylow.com.
Additional information is available at
www.cookingwithpam.com by clicking on
the “sugar-free” link.
Excerpt from:
Lazy About Grilling: the feet up, hands
down easiest ways to barbecue Laurel
Glen, ISBN: 1571457992
Copyright © 2002
Pamela Rice Hahn
All Rights Reserved
Used by Permission
Pamela Rice Hahn (Celina, OH) is the
author of
Lazy About Grilling: the feet up, hands
down easiest ways to barbecue and
The Everything Diabetes Cookbook.
Pam’s Lazy Gourmet philosophy evolved by
necessity: Disabled because of chronic
illness, she began researching and
learning new ways to conquer everyday
activities using minimum effort. In
addition to writing “The Lazy Gourmet”
column -- soon to be appearing in
several Ohio newspapers, Pam maintains two
cooking-related Web sites: CookingWithPam.com and LazyAbout.com.
Her personal Web site is at RiceHahn.com.
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