Rania Dridi's Notizen, 04 Apr 16

I cut off bread and sugar from my meal plan for 60 days tracking my intake and keep it usually much lower than my maintenance calories and it wokrks. but i will check it and let you know  

keep up the good work! thank you Mohamed :)  

I use a little stevia in my coffee. I haven't had any problems.... 

A friend of mine in our healthy eating club did a lot of research on it and he gives it the thumbs up. I'm still too much of a sissy to try it. Anything new in the food industry creeps me out even if it's "natural" I'm just trying to lower the amount of sugar in my diet bit by bit. 

Stevia has been my choice as well. I switch between plain and flavored drops for coffee, oatmeal, yogurt, etc. Do try to get the purest you can find. Many commercial stevia products on the market are blended with a lot of fillers that can be detrimental. The uncut stevia is more expensive...but a little goes a long way.  

Thanks for the advice! from what I've researched, stevia didn't show any side effect on humans, on the other hand, no long term studies were conducted about it, that's why i'm hesitant 

In my opinion stevia sweeteners are not natural. I hear people saying ''stevia is a plant, how cannot be natural???''. Stevia brands have different sweetness between each other, how can this be natural? I also checked their ingredients and its never clean stevia, it is always an unhealthy sweetener (or more than one) and a small percentage of stevia. And of course everyone will advertise it as healthy since many companies make money from this. I remember when i was young... Aspartame... The super non-calorie sweetener, what a great discovery. Some years later it was banned in many countries because it could cause cancer. I personally use honey as sweetener on everything (desserts, yogurt, tea, salad dressing, cakes) because i believe that its the less processed, natural and healthy sweetener. Its also yummy. :) 

I use stevia bc all the other artificial sweeteners irritate my stomach something fierce !  

I use stevia. I buy the 100% extract. I haven't found it in stores only online, Amazon. Everything I've found in stores are either a mixture or have bitter aftertaste. 

I would just go low sugar all together and cut it out where you can. I am down to about 35 grams a day and I miss it but my blood sugars do not miss it at all. I have stevia and I used it from time to time.  

CatHerder - which brand do you purchase? I'm happy with what I've been using but I'm always on the lookout for whatever else is out there.  

I make these kinds of decisions by asking what kind of product is this? Is is industrially made, is it modified? Sugar is a good example, made from sugar beets or cane and processed to make it concentrated 50:1. Nature is a good guide ... I used it but I also ask: Do I need it to support health? No, there is fresh fruit, or a whole world of root and mild natural choices. And honey and Table Sugar are two that come to mind. If you nose around you find.... more starchy vegetables, grains with a little lemon and/or Lime and sugar ( if you want, in small amounts) Play it safe with your health... keep it non- industrial - Natural if it applies. What passes as food, is killing us. But billionaires want tell you. And in some cases they don't know.  

My mother in law is a doctor, she uses Stevia not Splenda. I, however use Splenda not Stevia because I can get them for free at Starbucks!! 

I use Stevia, but I wish it wasn't so bitter, and tasted better. 

Now that I think of it, I've used artificial sweeteners as a stepping stone, like a temporary way to lower calories, but then moved to no sugar eventually to play it safe and retrain my palate. Especially for things that I eat every day like yogurt. But if it's only once in a while it's probably fine.  

I agree with Bruce - better to cut down on the sugar and get used to the taste of things without adding it. Of course there's natural sugars in things (carrots for example are quite high) but it's the added sugar that can be people's downfall. Personally, I don't see the point of stevia. I eat very little in the way of sweet stuff, just the occasional square of chocolate and probably fewer than six actual puddings a year.