Healthy Eating / Healthy Living

[BarTopDancer]

C - try to get yourself to like coffee and tea without any sweetner at all. The fake stuff is starting to be shown to cause weight gain and not promote weight loss.

[Morrigoon]

Yeah, you don't wanna end up like me, and have to wave goodbye to "bacon fest".

I learned at this last NYE that no matter how much I want to, my grease tolerance simply won't allow for stuffing my face on bacony goodness. A few slices, maybe, but in moderation.

[Disneyphile]

SF - I've never heard of agave sweetener. That sounds really interesting!

[Snowflake]

Originally Posted by Disneyphile

SF - I've never heard of agave sweetener. That sounds really interesting!

Trader Joe's is now carrying an organic agave (currently until they discontinue it) $2.25 for an 11oz squeeze bottle.

It's a 100% natural product and is super sweet. I use it in my tea, on fruit & yogurt, just about any place I'd use sugar. I do not know if it can be or is proceesed to a form like crystals. It tastes great and I do not know all the benefits, all I know is that I like it and it has replaced white death in my household. I do use turbanado sugar for baking and stuff like that.

[Morrigoon]

Originally Posted by Snowflake

Trader Joe's is now carrying an organic agave (currently until they discontinue it) $2.25 for an 11oz squeeze bottle.

It's a 100% natural product and is super sweet. I use it in my tea, on fruit & yogurt, just about any place I'd use sugar. I do not know if it can be or is proceesed to a form like crystals. It tastes great and I do not know all the benefits, all I know is that I like it and it has replaced white death in my household. I do use turbanado sugar for baking and stuff like that.

I may have to give this stuff a try

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Snowflake

Trader Joe's is now carrying an organic agave (currently until they discontinue it) $2.25 for an 11oz squeeze bottle.

It's a 100% natural product and is super sweet. I use it in my tea, on fruit & yogurt, just about any place I'd use sugar. I do not know if it can be or is proceesed to a form like crystals. It tastes great and I do not know all the benefits, all I know is that I like it and it has replaced white death in my household. I do use turbanado sugar for baking and stuff like that.

Just because I like being a skeptic thorn in people's sides - most agave syrups have in the neighborhood of 90% fructose. High fructose corn syrup, the thing we're all supposed to be afraid of, is about 55% fructose.

Now, there is admittedly a slight chemical difference between the processed form fructose in HFCS vs. the naturally occurring form in agave. However, there is a similar slight difference between the type of fructose in HFCS vs. the type of fructose that's been tentatively linked in studies to the supposed ill efffects of HFCS.

My point is, I would strongly warn against getting lost in the particulars of what any one chemical is supposed to do or not do. The data on all of that is sketchy at best.

[Snowflake]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

Just because I like being a skeptic thorn in people's sides - most agave syrups have in the neighborhood of 90% fructose. High fructose corn syrup, the thing we're all supposed to be afraid of, is about 55% fructose.

You skeptic, you!

Anyway, for more reading, and yes, this is an agave supplier, look here for details.

All I'm saying is, I use it, and I do not use a lot of it. It is a very sweet item, a small spoonful in a cup of tea is more then sucificient to sweeten tea/coffee/whatever.

For the record, I drink mostly water, usually 1 cup of tea in the evening and maybe some iced tea. If I am using this on plain yogurt & fruit, a drizzle is more than enough.

I figure that this is better for me than Equal/Splenda or honey and white sugar. ymmv and I'm all for anyone being informed. Just sayin I use it and I like it.

[Morrigoon]

I'll be honest, I can't take my coffee or tea without scads of milk and sugar. With tea, one can use honey, it's true, but not so much with coffee. I've found that vanilla lattes and getting my lattes medium with only one espresso shot make it so I can use less sugar (actually, with vanilla ones, all the sweetener is in the flavoring, I add nothing else).

I believe someone here said that Peet's Vanilla syrup is sugar based, not HFCS, so that's helpful. I'm not *as* concerned about the sugar thing as everything else, because in cutting down on the amount of soda I drink, I'm automatically cutting huge amounts of sugar out.

Oh, has anyone else discovered Fresca? I've had that the last few nights instead of Coke with my dinner.

[Mousey Girl]

Originally Posted by Morrigoon

Oh, has anyone else discovered Fresca? I've had that the last few nights instead of Coke with my dinner.

When I was a kid, we would drive from L.A. to our house/cabin in Coulterville every summer. The only soda I was ever allowed to drink was during this vacation. I had 2 options, Tab and Fresca. I have not been able to drink either since. This was more than 30 years ago, when the sugar substitute was saccharine.

[blueerica]

Yes, Peet's uses Monin, which I know is made with pure cane sugar. You can also reduce the amount of syrup in the drinks. Ex. A medium vanilla latte is made with three pumps of vanilla, you could reduce it to any amount. The least I've seen someone ask for is 1/2 a pump, and it's not an issue for the barista, nor is it an issue for the person taking the order. You could incrementally reduce how much syrup you use.

As far as my health routine, I've been trying to eat one salad a day for a meal. I take it easy on any condiments and try to have a variety of veggies and include fresh fruit if possible. Makes dressing less necessary. I also like to put a little lowfat cottage cheese on top, which pretty much makes dressing unnecessary.

I also am trying to drink more water. I find that I am less tired with plenty o' H2O and tend to eat less. Even if I get an iced tea or other drink at dinner, downing a glass of water for every other beverage I have prevents me from drinking too much if the other drink has sugar.

Also, I think I have mentioned it elsewhere, but not having a gym any longer has really dampered my desire to go work out. I have the dinky thing here, but I really don't enjoy it like I did before. I would love to have some workout equipment around here, and really think finding a Wii would be great. I think we will try to order one somehow, even if delayed, since shipments in Utah seem to clear out within an hour or so, and we're never there on the right days. Bleh.