Interesting thoughts on sugar free products
There are a couple of popular issues that keep cropping up in readers letters
namely sugar free dairy products, particularly yoghurt and ice cream, and sugar
free puddings.
While I use the term “sugar free” to describe yoghurt, a better description
would have been “sweetened with a sugar substitute and containing a small amount
of naturally occurring sugar arising from the fruit content”. That’s quite a
mouthful and the term “sugar free” though technically incorrect, is simply a
more convenient term. The important thing is that the amount of sugar is only a
fraction of the sugar that is normally added to regular flavoured yoghurts.
Unfortunately many manufacturers simply bump up the amount of sugar as they drop
the amount of fat so read your labels carefully.
With low fat ice cream look for brands that contain a sugar substitute and / or
with the words “no sugar added”.
The other issue concerns low calorie or sugar free deserts either the jelly type
(Jell-O) or cooked/instant puddings. The former has absolutely no food value and
digests quickly. In other words red light. While this will have no impact on
your weight it will do nothing towards making you feel satiated which is one of
the principal reasons for eating green light foods.
The puddings, cooked or instant, are little more than flavoured cornstarch, a
high GI ingredient which again digests very quickly and provides minimal
nutrition. The only benefit from these puddings is that most of them are made
with milk. I would much rather you consume your milk through other low GI dairy
products such as yoghurt, cottage cheese or sour cream. All make delicious green
light desserts especially when you add some fruit.
Talking of delicious green light desserts, this month’s reader’s recipe from
Gerda is an excellent example:
Raspberry Dream
(serves 4-6 for those in Phase 1; serves 4 for Phase2)
3 cups fresh or frozen raspberries/mixed berries (thaw them first)
2 Omega III eggs (split)
1 cup no fat sour cream
½ cup low fat have cream cheese (Philadelphia Ultra)
a few drops of almond essence
1/3 cup Splenda
1. Preheat oven to 375°F
2. Lightly grease 9″ pie dish.
3. Cover the bottom of the dish with the berries
4. Mix in a separate bowl the 2 egg yolks, the sour cream, half the sweetener
and almond essence until thick and fluffy.
5. In another clean mixing bowl, beat the two egg whites until it forms stiff
peaks and has become shiny, while gently adding the remaining sweetener a bit at
the time and mixing well.
6. Add the egg white mixture to the egg yolk/cream cheese mixture; stir it in
quickly using a metal spoon.
7. Pour the combined mixture over the raspberries.
8. Bake for 30-35 minutes at 375°F, until it has risen and the middle is
slightly set.
9. Serve at room temperature..