musings of a gluten free runner

Posts Tagged ‘sugar’

I was alarmed to find this article about Stevia on the Vegnews website. I eat a fair amount of stevia… ever since the non-bitter types came out a number of years ago. My favorite brand is NuNaturals out of Eugene, Oregon. It really has the cleanest flavor of any that I’ve tried over the years. The maltodextrin doesn’t seem to have any adverse affects on my stomach at all. The new Truvia, however, doesn’t sit as well. I appreciate them trying to cut stevia with Erythritol to give it that granular sugar-like quality, but my system doesn’t do well with sugar alcohol even though Erythritol is much more gentle on my system than Xylitol.

An aside: Erythritol & xylitol, are natural sugar alcohols so they are digested differently than regular sugar and don’t produce the pronounced blood-sugar spike and insulin response… too much of which is linked with diabetes and weight gain. Erythritol is known for having less gastric side effects than other sugar alcohols because it is absorbed in the small intestine while xylitol is absorbed in the large intestine and larger quanities often lead to gas, bloating and a laxative effect. Erythritol, has 5% of the calories of table sugar (.2calories per gram vs. 4 calories per gram) and 70% of the sweetness. So it is almost calorie-free

But back to the sweet stevia leaf…. after reading this article I want to figure out how it affect fertility in women, not just men. ugh. I really don’t want to give up my little white packets. They make cocoa & tea so much more delightful.

READ THE FULL STORY ON VEG NEWS.COM
Does this sugar stand-in stymie hopes for fertility in the future? VN’s resident nutritionist studies the sweet substitute.
By Ilyse Simon

Confused about whether or not switching from sugar to stevia might hurt your chances at parenthood? Your nutritional debate is understandable. Though the Food and Drug Administration approved stevia in December, there’s still some question about how much is really safe, especially if you’re trying to conceive. The short answer is that adding stevia to a cup of tea or coffee each day won’t compromise your health. However, stevia is worth scrutinizing if you plan to use it often or in large quantities.

Stevia is a shrub native to South America with leaves sweeter than white sugar. It’s calorie-free and one of just a few alternative sweeteners for people with diabetes, and the FDA has designated stevia Generally Recognized as Safe. (This is controversial because there are many products deemed “safe” by the FDA that I would never consider consuming, and the FDA has a history of protecting big agribusiness over human health—but there’s an element of truth to this one.) Stevia has been used in other countries for centuries without ill effects. Used to sweeten yerba mate in Paraguay and in Japan to sweeten pickles since the 1970s, stevia—in small quantities—has not been proven harmful. The main concern is that if we mass-market this plant extract as we have with soy, stevia could become a ubiquitous ingredient in everyday packaged foods. If your energy bar, smoothie, tea, and dairy-free ice cream are all sweetened with stevia, that might be more than is considered healthy.

North Americans, in general, still think more equals better, and tend to go to extremes when we find something we like. Again, it’s similar to the soy story: Asian cultures eat moderate amounts of soy daily in whole-food forms without negative consequences; Western cultures have processed and refined soy into isolated protein components, added it to highly processed energy bars, and continue scarfing them down like health foods. This is where the problems lie. The specifics on stevia show that high amounts affect male reproductive health with reduced sperm counts and possible infertility. In some laboratory studies, stevia acts on a cell’s DNA to cause unwanted mutations and may promote cancer. In other studies, large amounts of stevia interfere with normal carbohydrate metabolism. Recently, the Center for Science in the Public Interest lists stevia as an additive that people should “try to avoid,” but maintains that small amounts are probably safe.

The bottom line is that a little is probably fine, but a lot is not. That’s advice for almost any situation. One or two cups of coffee with stevia is not raising concern amongst researchers. It’s the scenario where stevia sweetens diet soda, fruited waters, and every piece of chewing gum stuck to your shoe that is of concern. Keep your diet clean, eat lots of fruits and veggies, go ahead and ditch the tighty-whiteys, and your fertility will likely be fine.

OK- so I’ve had a terrible stomach all week. It’s been debilitating. I’ve been rushing to the bathroom 4-5 X’s per day and I swear more is coming out then going in. ugh, too much information, I know (but not if you’re a runner, or if you’ve ever spent much time around me). I’ve been in limbo alternating between feeling completely bloated and totally depleted. Sitting here on my big blue ball, I just want to go and lie down. The worst is that today I’m really light-headed. At least I already did most of mileage this morning- (with only 1 emergency bathroom break en route)…

So what does this have to do with candy corn? It’s pretty much the only thing that I can pinpoint that I’ve eaten differently. (Well, I did have a glass of port and three little chocolates at Pix for Ian’s birthday on Tuesday…)

There is an EVIL bowel of candy corn that appeared out of no where this week right outside my office. Candy corn, plus those adorable little pumpkins, were my sweet-fix in college. The whole candy addiction thing was a new thing for me upon starting college cross country. I didn’t realize that people post-elementary school still had such strong connections with non-chocolate candy. Candy corn was the only thing I could get behind… I loved that honey-flavored sugar spike immediately after races. Their borderline obscurity plus the fact that I only see them for three weeks out of the year has continued to up their allure.

My parents didn’t make regular appearances at races in college (though they flew to Illinois last minute for Cross nationals my senior year), but someone else’s parents always brought me a bag of candy corn.

So- to get back to the subject- I’ve been researching whether candy corn could somehow contain gluten… and yes, I know about the cross-contamination issues (I just don’t know what exactly would be contaminating it? twizzlers? those fake-yogurt-covered pretzels? mystery to me)…

In my internet search I came across a blog post that I thought I would link to. The author discusses candy corn’s ingredients (basically different kinds of sugar & wax), as well as the harmful effects of High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS).

Check it out:
http://www.glutenfreeforgood.com/blog/?p=468

I think my gut needs a candy corn detox.

I was so excited to find this stuff last week… all I kept thinking was: it’s about time! Zevia is a “natural” soda made very simply: water, stevia and flavoring ingredient. I haven’t bought any kind of soda in ages, but I just had to try this stuff because it had stevia in it. Hopefully this is a good sign that more foods will start using the delicious calorie-free herbal sweetener instead of all the chemical sh*t that’s been out there since the days of women drinking Diet Rite. (For some reason those cans always conjure pictures of feather-haired women donning leg warmers, sweatbands, and full body leotards.)

More to the point, stevia is still considered a supplement. The sugar industry, and especially the established big boys of the artificial sweetener realm have been pressuring the FDA for years to keep this thing under-wraps.

What a shame. And if, like me, you tried using stevia 10 years ago and shied away because of the aftertaste… you will be pleasantly surprised by all the new “non-bitter” formulas out there. Basically a little of this “sweet leaf” goes a long way. Many of the new stevia powders (especially the packets) are cut with small amounts of other sweeteners (like sugar alcohols) and this mellows the flavor and makes it less potent. The straight stuff is SUPER easy to overdo!

It’s just a matter of time before this one hits huge… and we start seeing it appearing in more processed foods and drinks. Even with all the recent fan-fare stores like Whole Foods still can’t keep stevia next to the other sweeteners, because technically the FDA still classifies it as a “supplement.” So sometimes you have to go hunting for the herbal nectar. Most Whole Foods keep the packets by their tea selection. Trader Joes and Whole Foods both have really reasonably priced boxes of 100 packets under their own labels… both are around $5.00.

Sweetness.

For more information on Stevia and articles on artificial supplements check out the Zevia website links page. (Obviously they are going to be a little biased, but it has some good links).
http://www.zevia.com/products_stevia.html

The media, scientists, and health experts are always telling us that things are getting sweeter… Food that is. There is no way to get around it: sweetness is seductive. We love it. We crave it. And then we seemingly become addicted to it. Why?

One explanation for the palatability phenomenon is biological: Our foraging ancestors were attracted to sweet food because it was a sign that it was edible and good source of much-needed calories in a world where food was scarce and the next meal uncertain.

One thing metabolically certain is that when we ingest sugar (or starches) our bodies immediately respond by flooding our bloodstream with insulin. Insulin is the magical hormone that is responsible for storing that immediate energy in our fat cells (as long as it isn’t needed for immediate muscle repair or fuel for exercise). Increase the insulin, and you increase amount of fat stored. It is a brilliant system, as long as your goal is not to eat large amounts of simple carbohydrates and lose weight. I actually recently read an article about the eating disorder associated with Type 1 Diabetics, where they purge calories by skipping or under-dosing their insulin shots. This obviously is not a good thing- and these girls are suffering serious medical complications and premature death as a result.

Then there is the conspiracy-theorist’s explanation of why the world is getting sweeter…and more obese. Sugar sells. And it is addictive. Food manufacturers want to create ever more palatable offerings to lure and keep customers coming. So hence, we have an entire industry based on snack foods and soft drinks. And this cycle continues to fuel our need to satisfy those sweet and salty taste buds. Have you tried to find even jarred pasta sauce without sweetener? What is sugar doing in marinara? Producers even sweeten deli meat…It gets quite ridiculous when you stop and actually look at the labels.