For those of you who are trying to cut down artificial sweetener consumption, there are a couple of natural alternatives you might like to try.
My preference is Xylitol, which is a sugar alcohol extracted from plant fibre. It comes in powder form. There's also Stevia, a herbal sweetener made from the Stevia plant. It can be bought in liquid or powder form. I find it has a slightly bitter after taste. I don't use a lot of these products, maybe once a day if I make a protein pudding, as the protein powders I buy don't contain any artificial sweetener (aspartame, sucralose etc give me wind).
I often use other methods to sweeten my foods. For example, if I make oats, I add half a ripe banana, thinly sliced, when the oats come to the boil. The banana disolves into the oats as they cook, making them quite sweet. And by not adding sweetener to your food all the time, your taste buds will adjust and you will find that foods actually start to taste quite sweet anyway, especially fruit.
5 comments:
Thanks for that Charlotte. This is going to help me in the coming weeks during my next transition. :o)
Lia xxx
Charlotte, I think the use of fruit like bananas to sweeten things is an excellent one, especially when they're cooked and the sugars are condensed. I don't do any artificial sweeteners these days any more and I'm happier for it.
Cheers
liz N
Thanks Charlotte,
you must have read my mind :-)
Magda
I remember the first strawberry I had a few weeks after comp prep, it blew my mind. I never realised how sweet fruit was!
I've just started using Xylotol and really like it. Also just bought some dymatize natural whey which is sweetened with Stevia. Don't forget liquorice root, it's an awesome sweetner, Ladybird use it in their rice proteins.
I've been using splenda on my oats every morning, so I will try the banana instead tomorrow.
I also have tried the stevia, but like you, don't like the after taste...
Olvia xx
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