SUGAR FREE TIPS
Source of Recipe
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List of Ingredients
Here are a few baking tips suggested by the makers of
Splenda that
may help you convert some of your favorite recipes for
baking:
* For recipes that call for creaming together butter and
sugar, beat
the mixture a little longer when using a substitute to
incorporate
lots of air, which results in a fluffier texture.
* Store the baked products in a refrigerator. When well
wrapped,
they'll last longer.
* Baked goods with little or no sugar will not brown in the
same way.
A tablespoon of molasses or cocoa powder per cup of
substitute will
help achieve a golden finish.
* Recipes using a substitute will often cook more quickly.
For cakes,
check about 5 to 7 minutes sooner than the original recipe
calls for
and 2 to 3 minutes for cookies.
* For cake recipes, add 1/2 cup nonfat dry milk powder for
every cup
of granular substitute.
* For cookies, add 1/2 teaspoon baking soda for every cup of
substitute
used.
* In muffins and quick breads, the addition of 1 to 2
tablespoons of
honey or molasses will add moisture as well as flavor.
Recipe
Artificial sweeteners aren't all calorie-free
May 14, 2002
BY JUDITH BLAKE
SEATTLE TIMES
"SUGAR-FREE," shouts the package of vanilla-cream sandwich
cookies in the supermarket.
So what makes them taste sweet? And does sugar-free mean the
sweetener is calorie-free?
Unless you're unusually tuned in to the world of sugar
substitutes, you might not recognize one of the
ingredients, maltitol syrup, as the sweetener in these
cookies.
And no, maltitol -- a sugar alcohol -- is not calorie-free,
as you
might expect, although it has somewhat fewer calories than
sugar and won't rot your teeth.
The estimated 163 million Americans who consume foods or
drinks made with sugar substitutes could be excused for
being a little foggy about those substitutes because
they're numerous and often are hard to find in the
ingredients list.
But it doesn't hurt to clue yourself in about sweeteners,
especially if you're among those who choose sugar-free
treats over sugared ones to help control your weight or, if
diabetic, your blood sugar.
The varied traits of sugar substitutes affect how they're
used in
processed foods and in your kitchen, as well as their
potential
impact on health -- a point of long-running controversy in
some cases.
Soon, more nonsugar sweeteners could show up on store
shelves. The FDA is reviewing two new ones, neotame and
alitame, for possible approval -- as well as possible
reinstatement of the once-approved, then banned, cyclamate.
Of the three, neotame appears closest to approval, say
knowledgeable observers, though the FDA does not reveal
expected timing on such
actions.
Neotame is closely related to aspartame, an artificial
sweetener used in thousands of food products, especially
soft drinks. But because of a slight chemical difference --
use of a different amino acid from
one in aspartame -- the body metabolizes neotame
differently.
What's the difference?
The difference is significant, says Adam Drewnowski,
director of
nutritional science at the University of Washington and a
researcher
in artificial sweeteners. Once in the body, he says, neotame
does not
break down into phenylalanine, an amino acid that's harmful
to people
with the rare disorder phenylketonuria (PKU) -- a problem
with
aspartame.
Neotame is the sweetest of all known sweeteners -- 8,000
times
sweeter than sugar, Drewnowski says. "So you would use tiny,
tiny,
tiny amounts."
To achieve the same level of sweetness in a can of
carbonated soft
drink containing 35,000 milligrams of sugar, he says, you'd
need 186
milligrams of aspartame or 124 milligrams of the sweetener
saccharin,
but fewer than 5 milligrams of neotame.
As for the related sweetener alitame, the FDA has requested
additional scientific documentation from its developers.
The agency continues to review cyclamate, which was marketed
in the
1960s, then banned in 1970 as a possible cause of bladder
cancer. The
FDA says that because subsequent studies have not confirmed
that
link, it's considering a petition to re-approve cyclamate.
Nutrition experts bring wide-ranging opinions to the subject
of sugar
and sugar substitutes. If you're diabetic, the American
Diabetes
Association no longer says you must completely avoid sugar,
as long
as you're able to maintain an appropriate blood-glucose
level through
overall diet, insulin or medications.
Yet for diabetics with a sweet tooth, the ADA says
artificial
sweeteners can provide a pleasurable taste of sweet without
sugar's
blood-glucose-raising impact.
Theoretically, calorie-free artificial sweeteners such as
aspartame,
saccharin, acesulfame-K and sucralose can help you control
your
weight. Yet in some treats, the calories from fat or other
ingredients may offset the savings from avoiding sugar.
As many have pointed out, Americans are growing more obese
even as
sugar-free foods proliferate.
Drewnowski believes the best use of calorie-free sweeteners
is in
soft drinks, where there are no, or few, added calories from
other
ingredients.
Dori Khakpour, research nutrition coordinator with the
University of
Washington's Diabetes Care Center, gives her vote to
sweeteners that
(unlike white sugar or artificial sweeteners) have at least
some
nutritive value. Among them: molasses and sucanat, a blend
of
molasses and evaporated sugar-cane juice. These aren't
calorie-free,
however, so limited use is the way to go, she says. They can
also
raise blood-glucose levels.
Among artificial sweeteners, Khakpour prefers sucralose
(brand name
Splenda) because it's not absorbed by the body. She says
this
virtually eliminates any possibility of the headaches or
other side
effects some consumers tie to aspartame.
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