Category Archives: Family

Family, food, Health, Lifestyle, Recipes

Comparison of Diabetic Sweeteners

8 Comments

Like 21 million other Americans, my mother has type 2 diabetes. Despite multiple trips to the doctor, she is still confused about which sweeteners are okay for diabetics. She also likes to bake (a multiple blue-ribbon winner in the area State Fair for pies and cakes), and is even hazier on which diabetic sweeteners work best as substitutes for sugar in cooking. So she sent me an email asking for my help.

Her timing was great. At the moment, I am writing a series of articles on type 2 diabetes. A few hours before her note popped in, I was asking all of those same questions. Here’s what I found.

By the way, I am not a licensed physician and this does not constitute medical advice. Check with your doctor before making any health decisions.

Comparison of diabetic sweeteners

Dr. Murray compares all the natural and artificial sweeteners on his webpage. Pretty thorough and no fancy language.

However, he doesn’t cover which diabetic sweeteners to use in cooking. There is a difference for everyday use and baking/cooking. Here’s a quick run-down:

  • For all-purpose use, stevia is the hands-down winner. It’s derived from a leaf, and in it’s pure form it contains no synthetic chemicals. It comes in powdered and liquid forms. You can bake with it. You’ll have to experiment some to find the right amounts of liquid to add. Animal studies show that it also lowers blood pressure, which could be a big bonus for diabetics.
  • Doctors also like “–ol” sweeteners, like xylitol (derived from a tree and a common ingredient in German chewing gum that prevents cavities) and mannitol, especially for baking. Splenda also gets high marks for baking because it can take the heat, but it’s dervied from sugar, and therefore, very processed. You can buy any of these at health food stores or online.
  • Two other compound sweeteners are also safe for most diabetics. Phenylalanine (marketed as Equal or Nutrasweet) is derived from two amino acids. These are naturally occurring in food so nothing weird here. However, people with PKU (a rare genetic disorder) cannot use this sweetener. Unfortunately, phenylalanine doesn’t bake well. Saacharin been around since the ’70s, tastes slightly odd, may cause cancer, and doesn’t bake well either.
  • Honey, real maple syrup and other fructose-based sweeteners (like rice and barley syrup) are okay in small amounts — like a teaspoonful in your tea, but in larger amounts (like for baking and cooking) they spike blood sugar and should be used in limited amounts. However, these sweeteners produce baked goods that are most similar to those made with sugar and require less experimentation to get the recipe right.

Unfortunately, brown and raw sugars impact blood sugar about the same as white sugar. So using “sugar in the raw” or brown cane sugar does not help control diabetes. These sugars are about the same as potatoes, white rice, white bread and drinks with high fructose corn syrup in terms of spiking blood sugar.

In fact, doctors recommend that people with diabetes cut out all white items and carbonated sodas from their diets. This presents a huge challenge because these are staples in our American diet. Guess that goes a long way toward explaining why 20.8 million of us have type 2 diabetes with millions more still to be diagnosed.

Whichever diabetic sweetener you decide one, good luck with your new eating plan! Here’s to your health.

Family, Holidays, Lifestyle, Random, Science

The Real Valentine’s Day

3 Comments

Today, Friday, February 1, 2008, is the real Valentine’s Day. This is according to a dear friend and professional astrologer, Kelly Davidson, who specializes in universal timing. At 3AM PST, Venus and Jupiter met for their annual make-out session–a romantic conjunction that obscured both of them from earthly view. The afterglow of their rendez-vous makes the rest of today all about love.

Love is a mystery that some would say is neatly solved by the phrase “yes, dear” and a box of chocolates. I am not such a cynic, and quite frankly, entertain other possibilities. Serious attempts at explaining what love is have been made throughout human history by scientists, philosophers, politicians, monks, sages, prophets, poets and especially marketers. Understanding the mysteries of the universe–why things happen and when–seems fair game to all, including astrologers.

So while I don’t advocate that astrology has all the answers or is anything more than another possible explanation, I do appreciate the value of good timing and it’s positive impact on creating love. Take, for example, Susan Miller, who is a very successful astrologer and author the website astrologyzone.com. She writes monthly forecasts and offers a wealth of advice on how to use astrology to improve your love life. You can use her “Matchmaker By Sign” to figure out which signs are most and least compatible with yours. Once you have found a potential mate, you can then use her “Gift Guide by Sign” to figure out what would be the best present to give your beloved on Valentine’s Day. Apparently, not everyone loves chocolate–yet another mystery of the universe–but Susan guides us through it.

So if Valentine’s Day seems more like an annual romantic curse, celebrating on the true Valentine’s Day may change the outcome. At least for today, love is in the air. And if you find a compatible partner, shower them with gifts they’ll appreciate (for some signs, that means nothing material at all). However it works out, happy true Valentine’s Day.

An astute reader of this entry pointed out that the author of badastronomy.com, Phil Plait — scientist, writer, skeptic and friend — published about the Venus/Jupiter conjunction today on his blog . Thanks for mentioning it!

Family, food, Recipes, Travel

Kauai Vacation Rental Cooking

1 Comment

My partner and I went to Kauai and opted to avoid large hotels and instead stayed in a vacation rental. We arrived pretty late in the afternoon and didn’t know the secluded area very well. Our hosts were happy to point out a few of the local attractions and resources. But by the time we finished our fabulous romantic dinner out, we realized that the local grocery stores were already closed. At a loss for what to eat in the morning for breakfast (it was not included with the rental, but a kitchen was), we decided to play random cupboard cooking.

We stopped at the only open convenience mart. With a nervous eyes on several teenage boys on the verge of mischief, the clerk rang up our 12-pack of eggs and bottled water without a smile. We figured we could do make just about anything work with eggs, and since we hadn’t eaten them in a while they actually sounded good. Everything else in the store was loaded with sugar or high fructose corn syrup so we didn’t have so many choices. Sensing trouble from the teens who had begun to eye us, we grabbed our eggs and hopped into our rental car.

The next morning we woke up to the delightful sounds of tropical birds chirping and looking forward to a long day of hiking through Waimea Canyon. Breakfast is all the stood between us and the trail. So we pulled the eggs from the fridge and surveyed the cupboards. Hoping to find some edible and compatible ingredients, we scored big on a half-eaten bag of long-grain brown rice. Soy sauce in the fridge pointed to a very solid start.

We brewed a pot of tea and imagined bacon crisping in the pan alongside the eggs. Without any on hand, I went in search of something to round out the the meal and found a couple of canned items in the top cupboard above the fridge. I wondered about the vacationers who left them: How long ago were they here? Were they on their honeymoon or retirees finding a second wind? Where were they from? Did they usually eat canned food?

While my partner sauteed the eggs and kept a watchful eye on the rice, I stared at the canned food selection and finally chose the green beans and beets. Flashbacks of church socials during childhood, when all vegetables came from cans (an experience I hadn’t had in the years since I discovered farmer’s markets), reassured me that these combined well. I opened, drained, tossed them together with some dried Italian seasoning, and voila an appealing side dish.

We gobbled down the eggs, rice and canned veggie salad. Fueled and ready to hike, we drove to the top of Waimea Canyon and found our trailhead. We spent the rest of the day carelessly taking in the island’s stunning beauty, not worrying at all about what was for dinner.