Sweet Success or Sweet Terror?

The Plan Z Diet low-down on sweeteners...

By: Zola
Chief Dieter
Plan Z Diet




I promised I would lead a Plan Z Diet discussion about sweeteners – Sweet Success or Sweet Terror?

That would be the question. I am not a chemist and don’t profess to be a sweetener expert but I pay a lot of attention to these things. As the leader of The Plan Z Diet by Zola, I get bombarded with questions about sweeteners. Seems like a new one hits the shelves just about every week and everyone wants to know if the new one is okay to consume on The Plan Z Diet.

I have to admit I have a hard time keeping up. This is a booming industry fraught with potholes, secret tunnels and mine fields galore. Let’s start with the big NO-NO’s. In my opinion those definitely include aspartame (Nutra-Sweet and Equal) and sucralose (Splenda). The problem is aspartame is in over 6000 products in your local grocery store and I don’t even have a count on those including Splenda. Both were approved by the FDA so it doesn’t seem as though we can count on them for keeping us safe.

If you are going to have an allergic reaction to either of the items listed above, the list of reactions is basically the same: skin rashes/flushing, panic-like agitation, dizziness and numbness, diarrhea, muscle swelling, muscle aches, headaches, intestinal cramping, bladder issues and stomach pain. Not everyone has these problems and for some these reactions don’t rear their ugly heads until the quantity builds up. No long term studies were ever done on either of these sweeteners so the jury is still out and might be out for a very long time.

I am not taking my chances with either of them anymore. When I was 34 years old I had an issue where I got so dizzy I lost my equilibrium. I had to be put on special medication to keep me upright while the doctors did all kinds of testing to figure out what was wrong with me. They put me on a medication that they said would cause me to gain weight but it could not be helped. I gained 29 pounds in a month.

They never did figure out what was wrong. Now that I’ve been studying aspartame more, I think I have glued together enough information to realize it was the aspartame in my diet soda. You see, during those days I lived on half of a peanut butter sandwich and at least six diet sodas a day. That was not a good strategy for trying to control my weight. You want to get the daylights scared out of you, watch this Fox News expose on aspartame.

Under the category of big NO-NO’s on The Plan Z Diet I should probably include sugar and sugar offshoots like HFCS (high fructose corn syrup). Not that sugar in a tiny amount is not okay, but at this point the US Department of Agriculture estimates that we each eat about 140 pounds of sweetener per year, on average. That comes out to about 10 teaspoons per person, per day. Since I’m not eating 10 teaspoons per day and the thousands of people on The Plan Z Diet by Zola, are not eating 10 teaspoons per day, that means there are plenty of people getting even more! Try to find a processed food product in the grocery store that does not contain some kind of sugar. It’s mind-numbing.

So in order to avoid sugar and those horrible artificial sweeteners we are all on the hunt for a substitute. Something as close to natural as we can get. I’m going to list what seem to currently be the best of the not so great. None of these are perfect, but they are Plan Z Diet approved.

SweetLeaf – Ingredients:inulin, vegetable fiber

Most people like this one. It tastes the most natural. Sometimes hard to find at stores.

Pure Via – Ingredients: Dextrose, Reb A (rebiana is a stevia extract)

Dextrose is the villain in this one. Dextrose is the extender used in here so that it measures like sugar. If you get straight stevia powder, the amount needed to sweeten your coffee would fit on the head of pin. So manafactures mix it with other stuff to extend it.
Stevia in the Raw – Ingredients: Reb A

This has less than 2 calories per packet and if it’s less than 5 calories per packet, technically it can be labeled as ‘zero’ calories. Go figure.

Truvia – Ingredients: Erythritol

This is processed stevia. Same deal. To make it white so it looks like sugar this stuff is processed. I use this for many recipes because Truvia has a huge distribution. You can find it in almost ALL grocery stores. This works in some baking recipes but it doesn’t always do well when you heat it. It can get a tinny aftertaste.

Stevita – Ingredients: Reb A, erythritol

Nu Naturals – Ingredients - Stevia, maltodextrin

Maltodextrin is another extender used so the stevia can look like what we are used to. I am going to investigate this one more because it seems to work well in baking. I don’t bake much so this will take me some time.

Now let’s move onto some other sugar categories.

When you bake on The Plan Z Diet and need a sweetener that caramelizes, there is a proliferation of new choices there too, but it’s still a minefield. People try to say that organic coconut sugar is a good choice because it’s lower in carbohydrates than regular sugar. That’s not necessarily true. You’ll have to read labels and be careful.

For example: 1 teaspoon of Madhava organic coconut sugar has 4 grams of carbohydrates and 15 calories. Funny thing is regular white cane sugar is exactly the same. So it’s not a wise choice.

Coconut Secret is another brand that sells raw coconut crystals. That one has 10 calories and 2.3 grams of carbohydrates per teaspoon. It’s lower but that doesn’t mean this is a license to run wild with it. What I tell people is if a holiday/celebration rolls around and you insist on making a Plan Z Diet dessert that contains sugar, try this stuff. It cuts your glycemic uptake in half and cuts the calories by one third. So if you are going to make cookies 4 times a year this is a suitable option. If you starting making cookies once a week or even once a month, this probably just means you’ll get fat slower. You are still likely to gain weight. It’s not cheap either. These coconut crystals are almost $10 for 12 ounces. Think of it as another way to reinforce that sugary desserts should be seen as a treat and not a regular habit.

Soon we will discuss other carbohydrate loaded ingredients in baked goods; namely, flour. The flour is just as bad as the sugar. You need to find alternatives to baking with regular white or wheat flour. Good news is you have options. And this is one of them.

In order to get your sugar fix try one of my favorite Plan Z Diet recipes: The Easiest Chocolate Mousse on the Planet:

Plan Z Diet Easiest Chocolate Mousse on the Planet

Cheers, 

To read more of Zola's blogs CLICK HERE or head over to https://www.planzdiet.com/blog