Trina, I agree. I'm sure the AS's are plenty bad!

I don't use them much. A little sf syrup in my coffee and a jello cup now and then, that's about it. As for stevia, I can only tolerate it with other things and in small amounts so I don't use it much. Of course, I rarely bake anything so I really don't have a need for AS's that much. My personal preference for a sweet after dinner or at the movies is a piece of 71% or 85% chocolate. Now THAT'S good eats! And healthy because while it does have a little "normal" sugar, it's quite a small amount.

Also, as time goes on, I'm beginning to think I'm better off eating a small amount of real sugar (in a particular dish or whatever now and then) than eating the AS's.

__________________
It is always necessary to leave some part
of cooking to improvisation. - Paul Bocuse
Member since 2001

I agree. I love 70% chocolate and anything lower seems way too sweet. And to think I used to be the milk chocolate queen. There's a brand that I get at Whole Foods called Rapunzel that uses rapadura sugar which is supposed to be the least refined sugar. The nice thing about the really intense dark chocolate is that a small amount satisfies.

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>^..^<
Esther

MarcieLynn- The oil's in the trash. Am going grocery shopping today, so I will be stocking up on good fats and oils.

Sharron- Read that Brutish and Short article the other night - WOW! Hadn't even thought of connecting dental health (specifically, crowded teeth, etc) to overall health! Makes you want to chuck it all and go live on your own farm! (REALLY wish I could find some of that deep golden colored butter to try that's talked about in the article... maybe I should trade in the two dogs for a cow? ) Talked to DH about it when he got home from work, and he fully believes in all of that was said in the article. He grew up on a farm where most everything they ate was natural. Was 6'2" and 185 pounds until he joined the Air Force and then started eating more and more 'garbage foods." Now he's 275 and is going back to the Atkin's WOE again.

Have to agree about the margarine issue. I haven't bought margarine in about 3 years (since trying Atkins for the first time in 2001). I had a professor once who was explaining the idea of "partially hydrogenated" and said that it really isn't possible.... something about only removing some of the hydrogen from a fat chain can't work... That's always stuck in the back of my head... don't know why it didn't click until now, but if that's really not possible, what kind of crazy lab experiment was I eating?!

Anyway, I appreciate all of the discussion. I sure do learn a lot from everyone on this board! And I'm looking forward to learning more.

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Mada
221.6/193.8 <--- ONEderland! /sz 8

Mada -

An excellent butter to use is Plugra, European style.

It's sold at Trader Joe's for $3.99 a pound here in Southern California. It has a slightly higher butter fat content than normal brands. About 82% vs. the norm of around 80%.

In my opinion, it tastes better than any of the standard brands and costs less! How great is that?

I use unsalted (I like salting my food myself) but they also sell a salted version.

Here's what they look like.



Red wrapper is the unsalted and the black is the salted.

Every time I run out I get so irritated with myself. My nearest TJ is 10 miles away so sometimes I have to settle for the regular stuff. I always regret it and high-tail it down to TJ's as soon as possible.

__________________
It is always necessary to leave some part
of cooking to improvisation. - Paul Bocuse
Member since 2001

Marci Lynn - LOL! My nearest TJ's is probably a minimum 8 hour drive! (Boy do I miss TJ's!) But I will keep an eye out for that butter here! Maybe the co-op in Bozeman....hmmm....

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Mada
221.6/193.8 <--- ONEderland! /sz 8

http://www.mercola.com/2003/oct/15/cooking_oil.htm

I just bumped into this article and thought you might be interested

Sharron!

I've been looking for that chart and couldn't remember where I saw it! Thanks

__________________
It is always necessary to leave some part
of cooking to improvisation. - Paul Bocuse
Member since 2001

Thanks Sharron - what a great chart!

I'm still reading, reading, reading all those articles. Very interesting! I really wish I had known all of that 10 - 15 years ago... I was born the year "they" decided that lard, coconut oil, etc... was bad for the public, so I've lived my whole life falsely believing that margarine, etc. was good. Arrgh! It's so frustrating! But at least I know now!

Thanks for steering me to this site!

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Mada
221.6/193.8 <--- ONEderland! /sz 8

Tell me about it, Mada. I could get angry about what "they" did to my mom and my family, but it serves no purpose...

It is easy to spend DAYS on those two sites I gave you (Mercola and WAP) -- I don't buy into everything they say. Sorry, I just can't eat raw food all the time, and I have to allow some soy into my diet on occasion, but overall what I've learned has been life changing. The single switch from cooking "oils" to lard was absolutely huge for me.

I hope it is helpful to you as well

Mada, your statement that the year you were born was when they started touting artificial fats got me to remember that as a child my family always bought margarine. The only time I ever ate real butter was at a restaurant on special occasions. How I loved the taste of that butter!!! During the "low fat" years I dutifully stuck to lite shedd's spread and the like. Imagine how wonderful life became for me when I discovered through low carb I could eat *gasp* real butter. That's all I buy now. My DH even commented that he hates eating his toast without real butter, it's the only way he can tolerate the lc and wheat breads.

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Karen
147/135 LF
135/127/117 LC

These articles are such eye-openers! I'm currently reading "The Great Con-ola" and had no idea that the Omega-3's that are advertised as being in canola are really worthless/unhealthy! It's unbelievable how wholly (and easily) the public can be sucked into believing what the food industry wants us to believe. Advertise it long enough and it starts to become truth!

If you haven't started reading about this, I highly recommend the articles on the sites Sharron has posted!

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Mada
221.6/193.8 <--- ONEderland! /sz 8

Mada, I think the most shocking thing to me was the bit on Crisco. That was all we ever used when I was a child, and it was all I used until I switched totally to cooking "oils."

After reading those articles, I'm off both! I do own a bottle of expeller pressed something-or-other oil for if I want to make homemade mayo, but I don't do that very often. I am not a large consumer of mayo, and neither is my family. Olive oil alone in it is rather icky

I just bought a 5 gallon pail of expeller-pressed coconut oil! THAT set me back a few pretty pennies but I've decided that will be my "oil of first choice" from now on, based on a lot of reading I've been doing about it over the past few months.

I'll keep olive oil around for salad dressings and dishes where I want the flavor though!

Char

__________________
Veni, vidi, velcro. I came, I saw, I stuck around.

Save the Earth - it's the only planet with CHOCOLATE!

Char, we're two peas in a pod now!

I have a pail of the TT stuff sitting next to my pantry on the floor. I just refill the quart jar for daily use. At least they paid for the shipping!

__________________
It is always necessary to leave some part
of cooking to improvisation. - Paul Bocuse
Member since 2001

Ditto, Marcie, TT is da bomb! I figured it's about 18 cents an ounce bought that way, vs. 36 cents and UP, depending on where you get it, otherwise.

Since it doesn't go rancid and I'm gonna use it - why not?! Of course my DH, the poor tortured soul, just looks at me like, "Sure, Honey, whatever you need...." He doesn't suffer TOOOO much, so don't bother feeling sorry for him! LOL!!

Char

__________________
Veni, vidi, velcro. I came, I saw, I stuck around.

Save the Earth - it's the only planet with CHOCOLATE!