Now That Neil is Gone...

[Dr. Shane]

We can talk about vegan honey...

Agave Nectar

[ChildofChrist]

Yummm

[olger]

I've used a fair amount of that nectar. Good stuff.

Say, where is neil - he get clicked?

[LynnDel]

This is something I've wondered about, slightly. You're not the first person I've heard talk about honey not being vegan. Is there bee saliva in it, or something like that?

[Dr. Shane]

Donald Watson: 1944

Quote:

Veganism is a way of living which excludes all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, the animal kingdom, and includes a reverence for life. It applies to the practice of living on the products of the plant kingdom to the exclusion of flesh, fish, fowl, eggs, honey, animal milk and its derivatives, and encourages the use of alternatives for all commodities derived wholly or in part from animals

[Woody]

Let us not forget that Jonathan was sentenced to death by Saul for eating honey. So, it can be dangerous stuff.

[Dr. Shane]

I am not vegan. I eat honey, although not too much. Honey has the same sweetness as sugar. So if a recipe calls for one cup of sugar, it can be substituted with one cup of honey. And they both have the same amount of calories.

What I like about agave is that it is sweeter than sugar or honey. So if a recipe calls for 1 cup of sugar, one can use 1/3 cup of agave. It has the same amount of calories as sugar or honey but since one only need to use 1/3 as much, it ends up being 1/3 the calories.

[Neil D]

I just read on my honey jar that ONE TBS has 60 calories. Can we get the same stat for sugar?

I am sure that every beekeeper in the country will attest that honey is sweeter than sugar and that you can use less of it than you can of sugar. But what the ratios are, I don't remember.

[LynnDel]

Yes, strange thing, but a spoonful of honey does taste sweeter than a spoonful of sugar.

Stevia, anyone? I have some growing in my garden.

[Ron Lambert]

Most people find that honey tastes about half again (150%) as sweet as regular sugar (sucrose). So less of it can be used in terms of calories to gain the same sweetening effect.

I have used stevia for some years. Use only a small amount; it is many times sweeter than sugar, and contains almost no calories. I have found that stevia combined with sucralose has a much more pleasingly complete sweet flavor, as if they complement each other.

The most common artificial sweeteners, Aspartame and saccharine, leave something to be desired in the quality of sweetness, as if it is an incomplete sweet taste. Most people find that saccharine especially has a bitter aftertaste. There are many claims of ill-health effects from Aspertame.

Stevia is a refined extract from the stevia plant. It is a fine white powder. Sucralose, according to Wickipedia, "is manufactured by the selective chlorination of sucrose, in which three of the hydroxyl groups are replaced with chlorine atoms." It is said to be about 600 times as sweet as regular sugar (sucrose). Unlike Aspartame, both stevia and sucralose can be used in baking, since normal cooking temperatures do not cause them to break down, as is the case with Aspartame.

[LynnDel]

Where would one find recipes for using stevia and sucralose?

[olger]

Let us not forget that Jonathan was sentenced to death by Saul for eating honey. So, it can be dangerous stuff.

rofl

oG

[Neil D]

Where would one find recipes for using stevia and sucralose?

[Dr. Shane]

Honey has 60 calories per tablespoon

Sugar has 48 calories per tablespoon

Agave has 60 calories per tablespoon however one teaspoon has the same sweetness as one tablespoon of sugar and there is only 20 calories in a teaspoon.

There are a lot of rumors about Aspartame but there have been many extensive tests and there seems to be no substantiated proof to any of the rumors that Aspartame is harmful. Saccharine is the grand-daddy of artificial sweeteners and while there was a bladder-cancer scare for about twenty years, tests have shown it is safe and cancer warnings have been removed from it.

Stevia has had problems getting FDA approval and I do not believe it is approved for use as a sweetener in the US. Depending on how it is packaged, it can be a lot more expensive than artificial sweeteners.

[Neil D]

Found this on "Ask Alice"-

Dear Alice,

I have heard that some sugars, such as those in honey, are more healthful than others. What sugars are in honey? What are the other kinds of sugar? Can any "unmediated" pure sugar be healthful?

Thanks!

Sweet tooth

Dear Sweet tooth,

Honey actually contains the same basic sugar units as table sugar. Both contain glucose and fructose. Granulated table sugar, or sucrose, has glucose and fructose hooked together, whereas in honey, fructose and glucose remain in individual units. Fructose is sweeter than glucose, which is one of the reasons fructose is used in so many food products today. However, fructose does not convert to energy as efficiently as glucose. As a result, processed foods containing granulated sugar high in fructose convert to fat stores more easily than honey.

Caloric content of honey differs from that of table sugar. One teaspoon of table sugar contains 16 calories, while one teaspoon of honey has 22 calories. While honey may have more calories, people may actually use less of it, since it is both sweeter and denser than table sugar. This being said, you actually may take in about the same amount of calories that you would with sugar or perhaps even less.

Some nutrition experts say honey, unlike table sugar, contains small amounts of vitamins and minerals and that honey can aid in digestion. Researchers are currently looking into antioxidant levels of honey to see if they also can improve one's health.

In addition, pure sucrose, or table sugar, is highly processed, while honey has only one processing step. (The honey is heated to prevent crystallization and yeast fermentation from happening during storage.) This has implications on the environment and on people who believe that minimally processed foods are healthier. Vegans, who don't use animal products, do not include honey in their eating plans because it is produced by bees.

As far as "unmediated pure sugar," usually called unrefined sugar, goes, most researchers believe it to be a tad healthier than the processed form. The refining process, which is used to get us our good-ol' table sugar, removes all naturally occurring trace minerals from the sugar plant, leaving us with "empty calories." Moreover, unlike refined sugar, unrefined sugar has more fiber in it, which provides an added health bonus. Unrefined sugar's calories are identical to that of table sugar (16 calories/teaspoon).

[Neil D]

Dear Alice:

I have noticed that whenever I eat certain sugary foods -- especially chocolates and hard candies -- I break out into a cold sweat and feel extremely uncomfortable for about half an hour. I have no problem, however, with pure cane sugar (when I drink coffee or tea, for example). Is this a normal adrenaline reaction to sugar, or a certain type of sugar?

--Candy Lover

Dear Candy Lover,

One of the reasons that you may have different reactions to different sugary foods is that some sugars are sweeter than others. Sucrose, which is table sugar and is in most sweets, is 1.0 on a relative sweetness scale. Invert sugar, sucrose broken down into glucose and fructose, which is in hard candies and honey, is 1.3 on a relative sweetness scale. Fructose, in fruit, honey, and some soft drinks, is 1.7 on the sweetness scale-- almost twice as sweet as sucrose.

As far as your reaction to sugar, there is a "disorder" called reactive hypoglycemia which is characterized by irritability, nervousness, headache, sweating and confusion some 2-4 hours after eating a meal high in simple sugars. These symptoms make sense in the context that the brain is particularly dependent on glucose for fuel. It is not clear what causes reactive hypoglycemia, but it may be caused by the pancreas' overproduction of insulin in response to rising blood glucose levels. To control your symptoms, you guessed it-- cut down on the simple sugars! Try to eliminate the chocolate and hard candies, or eat dietetic candies if you need to, eat regular meals with some protein and fat in each, and eat complex carbohydrates that contain ample soluble fiber-- fruits and vegetables for example. Fat, protein and soluble fiber in the diet tend to moderate swings in blood glucose.

This week, there have also been some more general questions dealing with sugar and its effects on your body. There is mixed thinking on this. The middle of the road approach is that there is nothing wrong with eating sugar, unless it is in place of other more nutritious foods. If it is in place of other foods, a person could become deficient in vitamins and other nutrients.

Dental caries are the main problem associated with a high sugar intake. We have all heard the dentists' warnings about cavities-- brush your teeth after meals and after eating sweets. If that's inconvenient, limit your intake of sweets or eat them with meals, instead of in between meals or by themselves. This way, other foods help to dilute and neutralize the acid that is produced by bacteria on your teeth.

Again, according to the moderates, there is no credible research that supports claims that sugar causes heart disease, diabetes, or other problems. They stress moderation-- limit sugar intake to 10% of your total kcalorie intake. That would allow 10 teaspoons (50 gms) on a 2000 kcalorie diet.

There are others who believe that sugar is the devil incarnate. For their side of the story, read "Sugar Blues", available in your local bookstores. Whoever you choose to believe, here are some tips for reducing your dietary sugar intake:

At the supermarket

Read ingredient labels. Identify added sugars in a product. Select items lower in total sugar when possible.

Buy fresh fruits or fruits packed in water, juice or light syrup rather than in heavy syrup.

Buy fewer foods that are high in sugar such as prepared baked goods, candies, sweet desserts, soft drinks, and fruit-flavored punches and drinks. Substitute vanilla wafers, graham crackers, bagels, English muffins, and diet soft drinks, for example.

Buy nuts (dry roasted), sunflower seeds, and air-popped popcorn or baked tortilla chips to replace candy for snacks.

In the kitchen

Experiment with spices such as cinnamon, cardamom, coriander, nutmeg, ginger, and mace to replace sugar for sweetness and flavor in foods. (This also works well with plain yogurt instead of buying sweetened ones).

Use home-made foods with less sugar whenever possible rather than commercially prepared ones that are higher in sugar.

At the table

Use less of all sugars-- including brown sugar, honey, molasses and syrups.

Reach for fruit instead of a sweet for dessert or for a snack.

Add less sugar to your foods-- coffee, tea, cereal or fruit. Get used to using half as much, then see if you can cut back even more.

Cut back on the number of sugared drinks. Substitute water, fruit juice, or diet sodas.

[Amelia]

Where would one find recipes for using stevia and sucralose?

http://splenda.allrecipes.com/Default.aspx