Sweetness Without The Sugar, and other Healthy Eating Tips

Magic ingredient for those who would like to be slimmer!

I’m not surprised if you haven’t heard of STEVIA. 

Stevia is a sweetener extracted from the herb of the same name. It is many times sweeter than sugar, has NO calories, and none of the adverse effects of saccharin. IT IS A TOTALLY NATURAL PRODUCT! 

Incidentally this programme is the perfect step for pre-diabetics to take. It is also a suitable sweetener for people with diabetes.

Here in Spain you can buy stevia in Mercadona. For UK dwellers, it’s readily available on the internet, and probably in most UK health shops. Obviously it’s a bit more expensive than sugar but you can’t only count ‘cost’ in pennies.

So if you’re interested to trim your waistline, the first thing you can do is to throw out /give away / stop buying sugar!

Everyone knows sugar is bad for you, but did you know that when you eat simple sugars it causes a spike in your blood sugar level, and a corresponding spike in the insulin levels in your body. The more these two yo-yo the more your body is triggered into storing the calories as fat.

The system on which I have lost 3+ kg in two months is based on changing your body from ‘fat-storing’ into ‘fat burning’ mode. The good thing is that my weight is holding as I continue the new life-style, and is still reducing very slightly each week with no further effort.

Basically the advice is to eat small meals more often than the ‘three meals a day regime.’

The secret is in providing your body with slow-release energy foods, so your blood sugar and insulin are kept at a relatively constant level.

So the next things to replace in the store cupboard are .....  the standard white flour, pasta, and anything pre-packaged, or tinned that contains refined flour or sugar

Replace these with all types of 100% wholegrain flours, which in Spain you can get from www.elamasadero.es. They do online deliveries if you can’t get to their head office in Alhaurin el Grande, Malaga. 

I personally make a mix of ‘integral’ (wholemeal) rye, oatmeal, spelt and maize flours for the everyday cookies, and quiche bases (see recipes at the end.)

Here is my basic shopping list of ‘flours’:

Spelt

Oat flour

Maize

Rye 
I use also the maize (cornflour,) with a little butter and semi skim milk for making sauces, because it’s the finest in texture.

Other items to remove permanently from your store cupboard;

·   Fruit juice (apart from freshly squeezed, where you can see its just squeezed oranges and nothing else.)

Once the fibre has been removed from the processed varieties you’re left with nothing but sugar-water.
I hardly need to mention the fizzy drinks! The diet ones of course are sweetened with saccharin which your body can't process so it stays in your body for ever; who knows where!

Replace with,

Water, green tea, tea or coffee in moderation.

I also drink something even better than green tea called yerba mate. Available from Amazon, and the health food shop by Eroski in the Miramar Centre in Fuengirola, it is high in many desirable vitamins and minerals and is high in anti-oxidants. Sweeten to taste with stevia. You can find the benefits of drinking it here;

http://mejorconsalud.com/los-increibles-beneficios-de-la-yerba-mate-en-la-salud/

You no longer have to worry about anything you want to sweeten, with stevia in the cupboard.

·   Energy Drinks

These are also full of sugar, and give you that 'sugar rush,' regardless of any claims of 'low sugar' on the tin!

·   Wholemeal bread; Surprise!

Wholemeal bread is not always what it seems, and often contains the same refined flour and sugar that makes up white bread, and causes insulin spikes which lead to the body storing the calories as fat.

Replace with

100% Wholegrain bread. The denser the bread the closer it is to the ideal.

See my shopping list at the end of where you can buy all of the replacement ingredients.

·   Pre-packaged products;

Read the labels. The most surprising items contain sugar (baked beans for instance.) You want to avoid sugar and refined flours, and the easiest way to do this is to bake your own, starting from scratch. 
If you’re worried about the time this takes, you can make a large batch at the weekend and store in the fridge or freezer. They’re very easy to make and the most time is spent chopping the nuts and dried fruit

·   Energy bars

Many people look on these as a good alternative to biscuits, but they can be full of simple sugars, and high in fat. Often they will produce a rush of energy, followed by a crash as the insulin and blood sugars fluctuate.

Replace with,

Homemade, slow release energy everyday-cookies. Recipe at the end.

·   Margarine/Oils

Margarine is the worst as it contains many synthetic and unnatural ingredients which the body can’t process and therefore store as fat.

Vegetable oils, including sunflower oil contain trans-fatty acids, which are bad for your health and your waistline.

Replace with;

·   Small amounts of butter, olive oil or coconut oil.

·   Olive oil contains monounsaturated fat, which doesn’t clog up your arteries.

·   Coconut oil is solid at room temperature but can be microwaved into oil. You can sauté vegetables for soups or stews in just half a teaspoon, and retain all the goodness of the vegetables.

If you have the time read up on the benefits of coconut oil here;

http://products.mercola.com/coconut-oil/
You can buy this in Asian food shops. There is one in Fuengirola; go to the bus station and turn left (facing the sea) and its before the next set of traffic lights.

(You can also combine coconut with cocoa powder and stevia to make chocolate.

Fancy being able to eat chocolate without the calories and without the guilt!)

Food-combining is also a good rule to follow. Try to make up small meals with carbohydrate and protein such as hummus with homemade wholegrain crackers to keep your energy level constant.

Alcohol

You’d be doing your body an enormous favour if you could do without it, but all alcohols are not created equal.

The best, because of no / low sugar content, are gin, vodka and red wine.

The recommended amount is around 2 units per week, but I have a small glass of red wine most days and it still get the result I want!

Processed meats, sausages

If you must have these occasionally see if you can acquire a George Foreman grill so most of the fat drains as you grill the food.

If You Are Still With Me....

Doesn’t the whole thing just make a load of sense. Going ‘back to basics’ has to be better for your body than just shoveling in what the food manufacturers produce.

If you think they have your best interests at heart ...

This programme will work if you stick with it. You have to revise your portions over a few weeks. Using smaller plates / bowls is a good way to start. Once you’ve reduced the amount you eat at each meal to the right level, you will notice a gradual but steady loss of pounds and inches. (I’m still much happier with ‘old money.’)

So........

WHERE CAN I BUY ALL THIS ‘HEALTHY PRODUCE?’   

You can buy many of the basic ingredients you need in Mercadona (our Spanish equivalent of Tescos or Asda.)

Here is my Mercadona shopping list;

·         Muesli

·         Greek yogurt, no sugar (sin azucar)

·         Semi skimmed milk

·         Salt free butter (sin sal)

·         Olive oil, Balsamic vinegar

·         Multi-grain (multi-cereales) or nut (nuces) loaf (In the fresh bread section

·         (Dense loaf, not your average ‘Windmill wholemeal’ type.)

·         Jars of cooked chick peas (for hummus)

·         Jars of lentils for soup

·         Dry Red kidney beans. Remember to soak overnight and boil rapidly for
           10 minutes before lowering to simmer to finish cooking.)

·         Various dry beans

·         Baking powder (levadura)

·         Pesto sauce (above the frozen fish) for salad dressing (mix with olive oil 
          and balsamic vinegar)

·         Tins of whole tomatoes for soups / Bolognese sauce

·         Small cans of tomato concentrate

·         Stevia powder (currently in the tea products section)

·         (In UK you can order from Amazon. 
          The best tasting variety is Nu-naturals.)

·         Wholemeal rice

·         Vegetable multi coloured spaghetti

·         Various nuts

·         Red wine

·         Dried; Raisins, Prunes, apricots, figs and cranberries.

      (I’m still looking for a wholesale source of organic dried fruits. In the             meantime I still lose weight using the standard supermarket varieties.)

·         All types of fruits and veg

·         Cheese (use in moderation)

·         Eggs (You can fry in a very small amount of coconut oil.)

·         Frozen Turkey fillet (In the freezer in the meat section, under the jars of         herbs)

·         Chicken breasts

·         If you must have red meat, choose the leanest cuts, and cook on the             Foreman grill.
          Fresh mackarel (caballa)

Other places to buy your products:

Amasadero  Alhaurin el Grande by the police station, near Mercadona.

Amazing on-line supplier of many types of un-refined eco-flours including;

Rye; (centauro) Oatmeal; (Avenna) Spelt; (Espelte) and Maize (maiz)
They may even ship to UK if you can’t find a local supplier.

They also sell organic sunflower seeds.

From the Vital health store, by the stone cross (on the de la Torre road out of town;)

Stevia chocolate (although you can make your own,) and Spelt spaghetti.

Iceland
Porridge oats (whiz in the blender to make oatmeal flour
Rooibos tea (I normally hate herb teas but this one is much nicer.

NOW FOR THE TASTY BIT!......

Recipes

There are loads available on the internet. Just type stevia recipes into the search and be amazed at how many people already use it.

My Recipes:

Healthy Hummus

I make this with a jar of drained chick peas, a tub of greek yogurt, juice of a lemon and a splash of cumin. Just whizz in the blender and keep in the fridge.

Stevia Jam

I used plums, but you can use any suitable fruit in season. Slice and cook the fruit in some water, juice of a lemon (works like pectin to help setting) and several sachets of stevia (to taste.) Simmer for around 25 mins, and leave to cool. I keep in the fridge or freezer as I haven’t tested its keeping qualities.

Try this with some greek yogurt and tell me you still need to buy those horrendously expensive ‘fruit corners!’

Everyday-Biscuits

Rub an ounce of butter into a large bowl of mixed integral flour, porridge oats, chopped nuts, chopped dried fruit, baking powder, stevia, and mix together with a dash of olive oil, an egg, and milk to bind the ingredients together. Press the mixture into a lined baking tray, pre-cut the size of biscuits you want, and bake for 10-15 mins in a mod-hot oven.

These are perfect with cheese, stevia jam, or just on their own.

I bake in large batches and freeze them to use in daily rations.

Crackers for cheese
Make the base the same as the everday cookies. Roll to the depth you want the biscuits and bake in a moderate oven until crisp.
They stay crisp in an airtight tin for a week or more.

Quiche
Use the same basic mixture for the base. Press into the quiche dish and blind bake for ten minutes. (Put a piece of baking paper on the base mixture and add some dry beans as a weight to keep the base flat as it cooks.)
For the topping cook a mix of vegetables in a teaspoon of coconut oil with seasoning to taste, add an egg to the cooled mixture, put on top of the pre-cooked base and grate cheese on the top.
Bake for 15 minutes until the cheese is browning.
You can freeze pieces of the finished quiche, and blast for 2 minutes in the microwave and its ready to eat.

Soup

Chop as many different veg as you like and put in a pan (with a lid) with a small knob of coconut oil.

Slowly cook until the veg are beginning to soften.

Add stock / stock cube, tinned tomatoes, tomato concentrate, garlic / garlic powder, barbeque powder (available at various markets) salt, and extra water if necessary, and cook until veg are soft.

If you’re making lentil soup with dried lentils, add any tomatoes right at the end (the tomatoes inhibit the lentils from cooking!)

Perfect for freezing. Excellent for lunch with a slice of toast with butter.

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First post over! Hope you enjoy your new Healthy Living Without Sugar.

I'd be very interested to know if you also lose weight on this plan.