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#11
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[OT] Experiences with Xylitol (sugar substitute)?
Have you looked into stevia? It is a sweet herb that you get from health
food store. It is much sweeter than sugar and you only need a little bit. I read a book on stevia once and if I recall coreectly, stevia can be used for baking. I've only used it in my tea as I hardly ever do any baking. Winnie "Monique Y. Mudama" wrote in message ... Someone pointed me to Xylitol as a sugar substitute, particularly for baking. It apparently has dental benefits and fewer calories than sugar. This person said that she has even made a creme brule that turned out beautifully. I think she said that, in a recipe calling for sugar, she uses half that amount of Xylitol instead. Has anyone else used this, either as a sweetener or in baking? What are your experiences? I read that it can have a laxative effect in large doses ... that doesn't sound wonderful, but I wonder if the average person using it in normal situations notices the effect. -- monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca |
#12
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[OT] Experiences with Xylitol (sugar substitute)?
Have you looked into stevia? It is a sweet herb that you get from health
food store. It is much sweeter than sugar and you only need a little bit. I read a book on stevia once and if I recall coreectly, stevia can be used for baking. I've only used it in my tea as I hardly ever do any baking. Winnie DIL works in executive offices of WildOats....she got me using stevia instead of Equal.....that lasted about 2 months; stevia now has same awful effect as Splenda on me. Welcome to the club, Yowie; you seem to be somewhat worse off w/Splenda than I am.....from my experience w/stevia, it took lots more drops (it's a liquid) than Equal to get the same sweetness in hot drinks. |
#13
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[OT] Experiences with Xylitol (sugar substitute)?
"Monique Y. Mudama" wrote:
I read that it can have a laxative effect in large doses ... that doesn't sound wonderful, but I wonder if the average person using it in normal situations notices the effect. So many "diabetic" foods are made with sugar alcohols (xylitol, manitol, sorbitol, etc.), and so many people are strongly affected by their laxative properties, that it has become a joke among informed diabetics, who mostly won't go near the "diabetic" section of the supermarket. -- Wayne M. |
#14
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[OT] Experiences with Xylitol (sugar substitute)?
On 2006-04-03, W. Leong penned:
Have you looked into stevia? It is a sweet herb that you get from health food store. It is much sweeter than sugar and you only need a little bit. I read a book on stevia once and if I recall coreectly, stevia can be used for baking. I've only used it in my tea as I hardly ever do any baking. I haven't tried it yet. If it's much sweeter than sugar, I wonder about the baking, because I think baking has very specific requirements to turn out right. It's hard to imagine that baking something with, say, 1/8 the amount of sugar (or sugar-like substance) would turn out right. I'm no baking expert, though. I just like the occasional corn bread or muffin. I found a great recipe for banana muffins (advertised as mountain biking muffins, but I haven't tested them on the trail yet!) -- monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca |
#15
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[OT] Experiences with Xylitol (sugar substitute)?
On 2006-04-04, Wayne Mitchell penned:
So many "diabetic" foods are made with sugar alcohols (xylitol, manitol, sorbitol, etc.), and so many people are strongly affected by their laxative properties, that it has become a joke among informed diabetics, who mostly won't go near the "diabetic" section of the supermarket. Interesting. Somewhat scary. Well, I bought a bag of little single-serving Xylitol packs. DH surprised me by actually trying some. He said, "Wow, if this isn't actually sugar, it's pretty damn good!" I also couldn't find anything objectionable in the taste. I guess we'll see about the other issue. -- monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca |
#16
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[OT] Experiences with Xylitol (sugar substitute)?
Monique Y. Mudama wrote:
Well, the reason I'm looking at it is because it's not artificial -- it's sugar made from other plants, like corn and raspberries. It's called sugar alcohol, I think. It also supposedly reduces cavities quite a bit. I could use all the help I can get in that dept. Xylitol is a Finnish discovery, and is manufactured from birch syrup (at least it was originally). Many studies have shown that it is good for your teeth. Here in Finland, kindergarten kids are given a xylitol gum after lunch for their teeth. I don't know how to use it for baking, but I do eat Xylitol daily (in mints) and I haven't had a laxative effect from them. I can't eat sweeteners like sorbitol, mannitol and maltitol because they give me terrible tummy cramps, so if xylitol had that effect, I would probably have those problems with it. -- Marina, Miranda and Caliban. In loving memory of Frank and Nikki. marina (dot) kurten (at) iki (dot) fi Stories and pics at http://koti.welho.com/mkurten/ Pics at http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/frankiennikki/ and http://community.webshots.com/user/frankiennikki |
#17
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[OT] Experiences with Xylitol (sugar substitute)?
Monique Y. Mudama wrote:
Well, I bought a bag of little single-serving Xylitol packs. DH surprised me by actually trying some. He said, "Wow, if this isn't actually sugar, it's pretty damn good!" I bought some brown sugar that was half splenda (ie, real sugar and splenda combined). It was for baking, but I tried it in my tea. UGH, it tasted vile. I'm not sure why, though, since I don't mind splenda in my tea - when I visited my mother a couple of months ago, I was using that because my sister had packed the sugar! It wasn't bad. So I don't know why the splenda/brown sugar combo tasted so bad. Maybe the bad taste would be hidden in baked goods. Joyce |
#18
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[OT] Experiences with Xylitol (sugar substitute)?
Yowie wrote:
If you are looking for something to substitute for sugar, I'd go fructose, the fruit sugar. Its twice as sweet, weight for weight, as normal table sugar (and therefore effectively half the calories), but is in no way "artificial", and you should be able to cook with it. Fructose is alright for baking, but you have to use a little more raising agent (baking powder, yeast) or it won't rise. It still doesn't rise as well as with sugar. And as Vicky said, it's much sweeter than sugar. -- Marina, Miranda and Caliban. In loving memory of Frank and Nikki. marina (dot) kurten (at) iki (dot) fi Stories and pics at http://koti.welho.com/mkurten/ Pics at http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/frankiennikki/ and http://community.webshots.com/user/frankiennikki |
#19
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[OT] Experiences with Xylitol (sugar substitute)?
"Monique Y. Mudama" wrote in message ... On 2006-04-03, Karen penned: I absolutely can't due sugar substitutes. Never have been able to. Splenda maaaaybe in tiny amounts. And if what we were emailing about is a problem for you, I've read and read that sugar substitutes are WAY up on the list of offenders. I wouldn't do it. Well, the reason I'm looking at it is because it's not artificial -- it's sugar made from other plants, like corn and raspberries. It's called sugar alcohol, I think. It also supposedly reduces cavities quite a bit. I could use all the help I can get in that dept. I also can't stand artificial sweeteners. Splenda grosses me out. Nutrasweet? Forget it. I don't know anything about Xylitol except that it's in gum and mints you can get over here in Asia. I've never had a problem with it in that respect. But have you tried Stevia? It's also a natural sweetener made from a herb. It is much sweeter than any of the other sweeteners and you only need to use a tiny bit. Not sure if you can bake with it though. -- Britta |
#20
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[OT] Experiences with Xylitol (sugar substitute)?
You can also buy stevia leaves. They look like tea leaves. Some said the
leaves are better since they have not been processed. Winnie "badwilson" wrote in message ... "dnr" wrote in message ... Have you looked into stevia? It is a sweet herb that you get from health food store. It is much sweeter than sugar and you only need a little bit. I read a book on stevia once and if I recall coreectly, stevia can be used for baking. I've only used it in my tea as I hardly ever do any baking. Winnie DIL works in executive offices of WildOats....she got me using stevia instead of Equal.....that lasted about 2 months; stevia now has same awful effect as Splenda on me. Welcome to the club, Yowie; you seem to be somewhat worse off w/Splenda than I am.....from my experience w/stevia, it took lots more drops (it's a liquid) than Equal to get the same sweetness in hot drinks. It's not always drops, I've only ever used the little packets of Stevia powder. 1 packet (same size as Equal packet) will sweeten 2 litres of tea, I'd have to use 3 or 4 packets of Splenda or Equal for that amount of sweetening. -- Britta |
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