Hi everyone. Looking at different recipes of fat bombs, tried before but when refrigerated all feel like eating sand paper due to erythritol crystallization. Can’t stand stevia aftertaste. One Keto recipe advises to use Carb free Sugar free syrup made of Sucralose. Sucralose supposedly rises insulin by 20%. Any views on this one? And if anyone had any luck with Keto sweet treats that taste normal? Many thanks
Carb free Sugar free syrups
PaulL
(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing)
#2
It would be interesting to know where that information about sucralose comes from. My understanding until recently was that the effect of non-sugar sweeteners on insulin was unknown, because it had never been tested. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not permit the sale of non-sugar sweeteners that raise serum glucose levels, but it has no such requirement where insulin is concerned, so the manufacturers won’t pay for studies of the effect of their product on insulin.
On the other hand, I recently watched an interview with Dr. Eric Westman, who said he advises his patients to count non-sugar sweeteners as part of their carbohydrate intake, but the remark was in passing, and they didn’t discuss the source of his data.
There is plenty of anecdotal evidence on these forums to suggest that every non-sugar sweetener has an effect on somebody’s insulin, but that no sweetener affects everybody the same way. In other words, X may raise your insulin, but Y may not; whereas X may not raise someone else’s insulin, but Y might. Unfortunately, since testing insulin levels has to be done with a radioassay, there is no home test we can use. People have tested various sweeteners on themselves and tried to infer their effect on insulin from the pattern of their glucose readings. This, however, is tricky and time-consuming to do right.
Quite apart from their potential effect on insulin, however, non-sugar sweeteners are not ideal. The experts all discourage the use of such sweeteners, but say go ahead and use them if you need a crutch. But a lot of people find that it’s easier to avoid all sweet tastes. Personally, I have found that my taste has changed, and nowadays things that I used to enjoy now taste sickeningly sweet.
ETA: There are quite a few sugar substitutes out there that you can try. Allulose has its proponents, as well as erythritol. There are also sodium saccharin and the much-maligned aspartame. Not to mention all the sugar alchohols (which often have disastrous digestive effects, so be careful if you try them, especially maltitol). A little research ought to turn up quite a few candidates for testing; whether your local supermarket would carry all of them is a different question. There is no really good umbrella term for these sweeteners, however (for example, most of them occur in nature, so “artificial” doesn’t work, etc.), so you may have to try different search terms to come up with a comprehensive list.
JustMo
#3
There are plenty of YouTube videos showing people eating sucralose and measuring their blood glucose and ketone levels before and after. It’s one of the few sweetener I have seen that consistently had no effect of either blood glucose or ketone levels.
Shinita
#5
I personally have no problems with erythritol but my fat bombs never even had sweeteners. I preferred savory fat bombs (not like I could afford the fat but they were tasty and me careful) and my sweet ones used coconut, butter, walnut, occasionally raspberries… Nowadays I would use heavy cream. They are all sweetish. But it’s actual and not even a negligible amount of sugar in the case of heavy cream so I wouldn’t use it in more than tiny amounts every day.
Every sweetener have fans and haters, try multiple ones and find your fav if you need one at all.
I hate all dense ones like stevia and sucralose, they are the worst tasting things ever to me.
But it’s very individual and the actual dessert matters too.Very dense sweeteners add no volume. Syrups are different from powders.
I’ve read in marshmallow recipes that xylitol beats erythritol due to crystallization… You need very little of the dense sweeteners so they shouldn’t cause crystallization problems but if the recipe needs sweetener for volume, that’s a problem.
Xylitol has net carbs, yeah. So it’s probably out for you, very low GI or not.
Normal is individual. Sucralose and stevia and ALL the other dense sweeteners I ever tried are out, they aren’t just abnormal, they are torture. Xylitol tastes just like glucose to us in this household and it’s very normal. But the boring erythritol is no problem as I don’t use as flavoring, it just gives sweetness. BUT too much erythritol tastes and feels odd (to me, at least). So it’s not good for overly sweet desserts. Not like we need them but a beginner ketoer probably wants super sweetness in a dessert. But it depends on the dessert too, sometimes I want them very sweet and sometimes I don’t need sweetness at all (plain dark chocolate).
Shortstuff
(Allie)
#6
Try it and see how you get on rather than blindly following what others say. I have no blood sugar reaction from sucralose but still avoid it as it’s just too sweet for me.
PaulL
(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing)
#7
It’s also worth pointing out that if you are going to cook with a non-sugar sweetener, the best results will be from recipes designed to use that particular sweetener. Sugar (sucrose) may be present in a recipe for effects quite apart from its sweetness, so blindly substituting a non-sugar for sugar may not yield the desired result. Also, each non-sugar sweetener has its own degree of sweetening power, so even where sweetness is the only desired effect, using the right amount of a particular sweetener can be tricky.
I once made a sugar-free cheesecake, not knowing any of this, and substituted a stevia/erythritol blend for the sweetener called for in the recipe—the result was overwhelmingly sweet. Eventually in order to get the recipe to taste right, I had to re-translate the recipe from the non-sugar sweetener it called for back to the equivalent in terms of sucrose, and from there into the correct quantity of the stevia/erythritol blend I was using. It was complicated, but the recipe now comes out correctly. It would have been far easier to either use the recipe as written, or to find one using my preferred sweetener!
In cases where the original recipe uses sucrose for its effect on texture or colour, only certain non-sugar sweeteners a can be substituted, and the recipe needs to be carefully re-worked.
Inna
(Inna Sterbet)
#8
That makes sence. I do like sweet things, just nuts and cream are not enough personally for me. Decided to ask everyone’s opinion before spending a lot of money ordering different types of sweeteners. In Ireland only Stevia available, I order Erythritol from US, bulk buy, paying VAT, delivery charges and import duty, comes up quite pricey.
amwassil
(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.)
#9
The bitter truth is ‘sweet’ serves no useful purpose and the sooner lost the better. It might hurt for a while but you’ll get over it and be happy you did.
Shinita
#10
I agree with everything. I dislike wasting food so I simply try out a recipe with a smaller amount if possible and I am especially careful with the sweetener. Even if we use the same kind, our sweetness perception is different. My own drastically changed in the last several years and it continues to change. It’s normal among people who stop eating added sugar. So I look at recipes from sugar eaters with a different eye but beginner ketoers use tons of sweetener too. And of course, tasting the dish while making it can help too.
lfod14
#11
Yup, used the powdered stuff instead of granular or just use liquid. Eat something with a bunch of Sucralose and see if your blood sugar drops like a rock. If it doesn’t, there’s your answer. Don’t become insulin paranoid. We’re always secreting insulin, don’t worry about some normal movement, worry about it when it’s always high, which if you’re eating keto it won’t be.
atomicspacebunny
(Bunny)
#13
I love this guy the author of Forget Calorie Counting; It’s the Insulin Index, Stupid.
collaroygal
(KCKO, KCFO)
#15
Did you use regular granulated? If you have a coffee grinder, grind the granulated and see if you get a better result before spending lots of money on something else, since you indicate your choices locally are limited. At least try it. I use Swerve which is a blend of erthritol and stevia, I keep the granular around and grind it when I need a confection texture.
PaulL
(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing)
#16
I forgot to mention that the packaging of alternative sweeteners can be very confusing, especially in the U.S. My local supermarket, a national chain, sells a variety of artificial sweeteners, and some of the varieties actually contain sugar, despite claims to the contrary on the front of the package. You have to look at both the nutrition panel and the list of ingredients in order to be sure. The Truvia brand, for example, has stevia/sugar blends as well as stevia/erythritol blends, and they all look the same.
Read carefully! And remember that, in the U.S., a manufacturer can legally set the serving size on the label small enough that they can claim 0 g of sugar per serving, when a serving actually contains 0.4999999999999999 g of sugar.
keithchh
(Keith C)
#17
Great blog article,thank you.
I have read Jason Fung and he deserves the Nobel Prize as well as Gary Taubes and there are many others.