Sunday, April 18, 2010

"healthier" doesn't always taste better

eating healthier.

it's good. right? and tastes good too? um, I'm going to be honest. no. not always.


My friend, Lauren's Mommy, has been writing about making healthier choices at the grocery store, like switching from white bread to whole wheat and buying more fruit for snack time. GREAT choices. and while I'd love to say we only buy whole wheat, sometimes we buy white wheat. [it's true] we are pretty good about eating fruit fruit fruit. both kids love apples, blue berries, raspberries and peaches.

Another friend was having some prediabetic issues and had gained about 50 pounds. She eliminated white bread, pastas, rice and sugar and in a year has lost all the extra weight.

WAIT.

I love pasta, rice and potatoes. eeek. it would definitely be healthier if I served my family less of this stuff.

but seriously. give up white pasta, white rice, and white potatoes? ... oh and white flour.

sheesh. no pain, no gain. That's for sure.

Well, how about limiting our intact? I can do that. we can limit. cut back, restrict. yes. we can do that.


ok, well I need a first step. my first plan of action.

What do I eat the most of that I can cut back on first?

sugar. plain and simple sugar. not for my family. for me. sugar.

sugar.


SUUUUUUUGGGGGAAAAARRRR ... in coffee.
two tablespoons of sugar and a splash of milk. in my big mug.


I went to the grocery store to look for a respectable substitute. Truvia won the grocery store challenge. made from the stevia plant. I'm familiar with it from my working days at a dietary supplements company.

This morning Husband made coffee and he decided he'd join me in the "eat less sugar challange" [He's even worse than I am because of his love for sweet tea] We got our mugs out, measured our Truvia, poured our coffee, added the milk, stirred, sipped.

yuck. Husband said it didn't taste that different, but he uses more milk and less sugar than I do. It left a bitter taste similar to Nutrasweet in my mouth. NOT AS BAD, but it was there.

I ended up adding one spoon of sugar to the coffee and now it tastes respectable.


For a positive spin on the situation I have officially cut my sugar in coffee intake in half! And that's a step in the right direction. ;-)


6 comments:

laurensmommy said...

Wow! I feel so honored that you linked back to my "healthier eating" ramblings! :)

I have not tried truvia yet. (well, we don't drink coffee, so I can't really compare in that).

We LOVE sugar as well- I've used Splenda out of desperation, but I haven't found anything that is the same! :(

Christy Ross said...

how does splenda compare to real sugar taste wise? I haven't tried it before.

Erin Caden Rogers said...

Try the Splenda. I'm a purist as well, but after Christmas, I got really serious about losing some weight & exercising on a regular basis. I started replacing my teaspoon of sugar with Splenda & there is absolutley no aftertaste...that I can tell. And I can't stand artificial sweeteners!!! My only advice is to start off with the Splenda packets, add 1 to your coffee instead of 2 bc it seems to me that its sweeter than sugar. If u like it, let me know & ill share my fabulous marinated green beans recipe with you;) So, back to the topic, from 1 purist to another, give it a try. After I figured out the poundage gained after a year of my coffee consumption with sugar, it forced me to try.

bpeterson said...

DO NOT do the fake sugar stuff! The stuff they put in it is so bad for you! Do your homework first. Switch to whole wheat pasta instead and keep your sugar. It tastes really good and will make you feel better about keeping the sugar! Also, for whole wheat bread, we use Nature's Pride honey. I can't even eat white bread anymore!

Lee said...

The fake sugars are nasty. I have not found one that I like yet. I have found No Salt added Heinz Ketchup to be better than the original and I am not a ketchup person. They use a salt substitute. We had to cut back when Mike went thru his "low sodium kick" last summer.

I also buy whole wheat pasta. The only downsides that I have found is that they need to cook just a little longer and if you make lasagna it looks burnt because the noodles are brown. Other than that it is pretty good.

I want to grow my own wheat but the seed catalog was out. =(

Nicki said...

I'm a sweet tea addict and my husband is a coffee and sugar addict ... we've been down this road before, but hadn't found a substitute that works for both of us. Everything I've tried so far has either been horrible tasting or makes my stomach hurt. I keep saying that anyone who could come up with a sugar substitute that doesn't kill your body AND tastes great would get rich off my household alone. :P