Archive for the ‘Healthy Eating’ Category

20
Nov

Reducing Sugar – part deux

   Posted by: Larissa Lyons Tags:

If you missed the first installment, here tis: http://larissalyons.com/blog/2009/11/13/lets-talk-about-sugar/

First, a couple more ways to reduce sugar in your beverages, then I’ll cover recipes as promised.

1.Make your own sparkling water. This can be done by either combining fruit juice and water, fruit concentrate and water, or water and a carbonated beverage such as Blue Sky. If you haven’t checked this last one out yet, do so. The flavors are fabulous — Grape (one of my favorites… we make freeze pops out of it!) and the Cherry Vanilla work great to give water a hint of flavor and sweetness.

2. I know I thought of one other in the week since I made that original post… if it comes to me, I’ll fill it in here, if not… well, then…I guess I’m letting everyone know about the gaps in my mind :-)

WHACKING the SUGAR from your dessert recipes:

Years ago while standing in line at a grocery store, a stranger and I somehow started talking about recipes. She mentioned she literally cut the sugar amount in half. Too easy to work, I thought, but nevertheless I tried it. Cakes, cookies, brownies…you name it. If a recipe called for 2 cups of sugar, I used one. If it called for a cup and a half, I used 3/4…you get the idea. I was amazed! This actually worked. What a simple, easy way to significantly reduce sugary intake.

Since then, I’ve refined a number of ways to take regular, traditional recipes, and make them in healthier ways. The first thing I tried was substituting one part honey for the amount of sugar called for. That was a disaster. Honey has a strong enough flavor that when used by itself, not only did the amount of liquid (keep in mind, sugar granules are dry) completely offset the balance of the wet to dry ingredients in the recipe, but the taste usually overwhelmed and overrode whatever the item was supposed to be. So unless you’re making a traditional Honey cake, I’d steer clear of this one.

What I’ve learned since is never substitute the full amount of sugar called for with one single wet ingredient. In other words, if a recipe calls for a cup of sugar, consider trying one third cup of sugar, one third cup of maple syrup, one third cup of honey. Or depending upon how long you’ve been experimenting, you may be able to completely skip the honey and only have two thirds cup total sweetener. Maple syrup does work well, but I use the pure, real stuff, so sometimes it’s cost prohibitive to use excessively…this is where being creative comes in.

We purchase agave nectar from Amazon in good-sized quantities. I now use it as an ingredient in practically all of my baked goods, and it works great. Plus — agave nectar has a really low glycemic index, which is a bonus.

Think of all the sweet liquids you know of… Honey, maple syrup, brown rice syrup, the aforementioned agave nectar, molasses! Don’t forget this little gem…molasses packs a powerful punch, so I don’t use it in large quantities, but I love how it flavors things like banana bread. (I’ll be posting a fabulous banana bread recipe in the near future… and it uses very little to no sugar and tastes great.)

Brown rice syrup is the only one listed I haven’t used and tend to stay away from. Due to extreme MSG and free glutamate sensitivity (for a gold mine of information, see www.msgmyth.com), it’s just not an ingredient I’ve been drawn toward.

As far as sugar itself goes, the grainy stuff…that’s a whole ‘nother post, one I’ll do at a future date!

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13
Nov

Let’s talk about SUGAR

   Posted by: Larissa Lyons Tags:

I’m back! Did you miss me? Bet you didn’t even know I was out of town for almost a month! Sorry about the last couple of weeks–computer access was minimal but I’m back with lots of exciting stuff going on. Next week I’ll post a November writing update so you can see where Jonah and Suzy and I are (always fun, hanging out with a sexually uninhibited smart mouth & the cowboy who’s up to the challenge of tamping down her excessive wildness!).

Sugar. The bane of moms, diabetics and dieters.

How do we live in a society that pours pounds and pounds of sugar down our throats, get our kids to eat what we make, and maintain static waistlines so our entire wardrobes don’t need replaced every two years?

I admire people who’ve completely done away with any form of sweetener or sugars. I’ve done it in the past, for months and even a year or two at a time, so I know with confidence that it can be done. I also don’t consider it 100% realistic for where I’m at, or even where I want to be. Right now my guiding motivation is balance in all things. I want a healthy balance of exercise, meditation, quality nutritive eating–and writing time, of course.

Can you make beverages and baked goodies that taste good without refined sugar? YES you can. Unequivocally and wholeheartedly, you can. I have over 15 years experience in reducing sugar both in my day-to-day diet, as well as in baked goodies. What I’m going to do here is simply list off several of the tips I’ve gleaned, the ones that have stuck with me and worked and in a future post, I’ll talk more in depth about alternative sweeteners and how to modify recipes.

How to get the Sugar out: [Remember, the goal here is to significantly REDUCE the amount of sugar you take in on a daily basis, and not have this be something — like a temporary diet — that you can’t wait to see the end of. You want to begin implementing what ever steps appeal to you that you can stick with for the long run.)

(In no particular order…)

BEVERAGES
1. Stop drinking sodas or sugary tea or even lemonade with a meal. If you’re going to enjoy a sugary beverage, have it by itself. Really enjoy and savor every swallow. Don’t use it to wash down food. (Drink water with your meals, or better yet… 30 minutes before or after. Food digest bests when it’s not mixed with a lot of liquid.)

2. Cut your current sugar beverage consumption in half. Starting immediately. If you drink four cokes a day, commit to drinking only two.

3. Use those nifty can lids to keep the carbonation in so you aren’t compelled to drink an entire 12-16 ounces at one sitting. (Or do what I do — a rubber band and a square of Saran Wrap).

4. Don’t switch to diet drinks. Artificial sweeteners play havoc with your liver…I’ve heard some really sad, moving stories (from fatally ill people) who believe their love of diet coke led to their early demise.

5. Use a wine glass. When Mr. Lyons pops open a Blue Sky (the brand of carbonated beverage we enjoy at our house), I fill an extra tiny wine glass with crushed ice and poor in an inch or two of soda. That’s it. I do this less than once a week and I’m very satisfied.

6. Drizzle fruit concentrate into your water or Blue Sky… Black Cherry concentrate is our favorite. It’s quite pretty too–drizzled all over the crushed ice. Actually, water, Cherry concentrate, and a little squirt of agave nectar make a fun drink.

7. Learn to like and enjoy water. There’s nothing wrong with it. Why people don’t drink more, I’ll never know. On any given day, I drink water and nothing else. This is coming from a gal who was raised drinking Coke or lemonade or sweetened tea with every single meal during the day. Habits are learned; habits can be changed.

And hasn’t this gone on longer than I expected? I’ll do cutting sugar from recipes and food next…

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