sweetness w/o artificial sweetner?

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-14-2004
sweetness w/o artificial sweetner?
7
Fri, 06-09-2006 - 4:29pm
Since I'm nursing a baby who eats nothing else yet (she's only 8 weeks old), I'm trying to avoid artificial sweetners. But, every dinner on Phase 2 has a dessert, and there's a list of sweet treats, and it seems like ALL of them rely on fake sugars. Even the non-fat yogurts do too. I don't tend to gorge myself on sweets (I can eat just a couple of squares of a really good bar of chocolate and feel satisfied generally), but I don't think I can give them up completely in order to be on this diet. Can anyone suggest the most diet-friendly real sugar products to have, so that I don't have to give my little one aspartame and splenda and such? It is honey? Raw brown sugar? Fruit juice? If I used 1/2 tsp. of either of those first two or a few tablespoons of fruit juice, instead of a sweetner packet, to make the ricotta dessert, would that be okay, or would it just make my insulin haywire? Should I stick to dark chocolate in small amounts? Can I eat the lowfat (rather than fat-free) fruit flavored yogurt, since I can buy organics that are sweetened only with fruit rather than with aspartame? Any help would be sooo appreciated!
Andrea
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-01-2004
Fri, 06-09-2006 - 5:31pm
There really aren't any guidelines for real sugar use on South Beach.
Photobucket
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sun, 06-11-2006 - 8:59am

When I was breastfeeding I felt the same way. Personally I avoided chocolate cause I didn't want baby to react. In your situation I'd probably make a batch of cookies and just eat 1 at a time, or you could try something like applesauce cake. See if you can find something on the Cooking Light website?

Mags

South Beach siggy
iVillage Member
Registered: 05-11-2006
Sun, 06-11-2006 - 9:39am

You may also want to try stevia - it is an herb that when ground up is very sweet. Your local health food store will probably have some in different forms. I bought some and haven't tried it yet, but plan to wean myself from Splenda when I start TTC. I feel a little strange about consuming anything artificial when pregnant...

Nicole

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-08-2005
Sun, 06-11-2006 - 11:49am
I'm personally not into the whole artificial sweetener thing in general. There are some natural sugar alternatives that have lower glycemic indexes so they aren't as bad for your blood sugar as regular sugar or juice would be. One that I use is pure floral honey. I use sage honey and tupelo honey. They both have about a third of the glycemic index number as regular clover honey. Also I use granulated cane juice called Sucanat. It is basically the purest form of sugar that still has some minerals in it and isn't processed. It has a lower GI than regular sugar. Anyways, neither of these are SBD approved, but at least they are natural and don't mess up your blood sugar as much as plain old sugar. Good luck,
Jen
iVillage Member
Registered: 12-19-2002
Sun, 06-11-2006 - 12:31pm

Hi Andrea,


Fructose and WheyLow-D are all-natural and better choices for the SBD (low-glycemic)

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-14-2004
Sun, 06-11-2006 - 9:01pm
Thanks so much for all the great suggestions. I will try to find fructose, I think. Though I don't need dessert all the time, I'm not an "eat just one cookie" person, so it's better if I don't bake them. :-) I don't know why, since I can eat a small piece of choclate cake and be satisfied for days, but with homemeade cookies, I just snack and snack. So we only have them for special occasions. I do generally have the plain yogurt for myself, but I keep the fruit ones for my son, which is why I wondered. I always buy the organic since it's the only one I can find without corn syrup in it (ingredients are just milk, yogurt cultures, and fruit) and I try to avoid the corn syrup for him, since I figure 2 year olds have enough energy as it is without pumping them full of pointless sugar. LOL! Thanks for helping me figure this out, and I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who's uncomfortable with the artificial stuff.
Andrea
iVillage Member
Registered: 12-19-2002
Mon, 06-12-2006 - 11:28am

Andrea, glad to be of help!