I have been reading heaps of low carb recipes and many of them have brown sugar twin in them. Can someone please tell this poor Aussie what the heck it is? We have no such product and I am assuming that it is a brown sugar substitute. Am I right?

Also why do many of the sweet recipes have a combination of sweeteners. Sweeteners cost a fortune and to have several in use at once is a little on the expensive side. I have found that LC eating is not low price eating. Definitely the opposite. My grocery bill has jumped by a considerable amount.

Hope someone can fill me in.

Dianne, hello again. Brown Sugar Twin, is just that. Sugar Twin is a sweetener made with Aspartame that is readily available in North America. Brown sugar twin is just a brown sugar version of it. I have a box of it at home, but have yet to use it. The reason behind the combining of artificial sweeteners is that they don't taste exactly like sugar. A mix and match helps with this. There are a few tricks to low carb cooking that you'll learn as you go along.

Yes, it can be more expensive than high carb, because you do end up doing so much cooking, and then there's the meat But I have found it evens out. I bring everything I eat to work now. Nothing sits in the fridge at home and goes bad because we don't eat it. The artificial sweeteners do cost more than sugar (lets face it, sugar's cheap) but they are also MUCH sweeter and you use MUCH less.

Take care,
Nat

You're right Sugar Twin is a sugar replacement which can be used in cooking. According to the box it's made by Alberto Culver USA, Inc. and the ingredient list is: Malodextrin, sodim saccharin, calcium chloride, caramel color and artifical flavor.

Re using different types of sweetner - the idea is that by using a variety of different types in a recipe you can actually use less sweetner overall, thereby decreasing the likelyhood of a "sweetner" taste. To be honest, this is all theory to me because after testing a number of different recipes (and throwing them out) I realise I can always taste the sweetner in cooked goods, so I've given up trying to use them.

Jay

Canadian Brown Sugar Twin is made with the artificial sweetener sodium cyclamate, not saccharin or aspartame. It is supposed to be much better than the American version.

Cyclamate is an excellent artificial sweetener, remains stable in heat and cooking (unlike aspartame which breaks down and loses sweetness). It may become available in the US in the next two years. It has very little aftertaste as well. And, because it requires only half the maltodextrin filler as Splenda, it's 50% lower in carbs

Cyclamate was all the rage in the mid-70's around the world, until some lab somewhere gave a dose to a rat 10,000 times the normal dose and the rat got cancer. So it was banned in the US. But it's always been available in Canada. It's much less expensive than Splenda or Equal/aspartame. There's a zero-carb liquid version, as well as a brown sugar version. Personally, I think the risk to my health of being obese, diabetes, heart disease, arthritis etc... is greater than my chances of getting rat cancer from the occasional use of cyclamate sweetener.

Nat is right ... mixing sweeteners saves money ... they potentiate each other, increasing the sweet taste ... so you ultimately use less overall. As well, they seem to balance one another, and the taste is improved, no bitter aftertaste. Equal/nutrasweet/aspartame breaks down into aspartic acid and phenylalanine when exposed to heat. This may be the problem folks have with bitter aftertaste when they try to bake or cook with aspartame??

Hope this helps.

Doreen

...and to add my 2 cents, you don't need artificial sweeteners on a regular basis to make progress with this way of eating. Every once and a while is nice, but a steady habit is, well a habit!

I find with most sweet goods that a little sub goes a long way. 2-4 Tbsp. as opposed to a cup of regular sugar.

Same goes for low-carb substitutes for high-carb foods. Making breads and all that kind of stuff is really expensive.

There are protein bargains to be had. Wonderous things can be made from chicken legs, ground beef, pork shoulder, stewing beef and hard-cooked eggs. It takes a little bit of research but that is part of the "learning curve" with this WOE. It's a pretty exciting curve.

Karen

Really! And here I am musing away in my Journal about body image, and how I think HIPS present a pretty exciting curve. Yer just too academic, Karen.

Doreen

I have mixed both Splenda and Brown Sugar Twin to make ice cream. It does help make it taste sweet for those of us who just cannot give up sweet things. One thing to watch for those who use Aspertame, be careful since I know several people who are allergic to it. If you've never used it try only a little at first.

Well now I understand. It does make sense I suppose. I haven't had much in the way of sweet things since I started this WOE however I love experimenting with different recipes and since I have discovered some great sounding ones I am keen to have a go. Also I have been looking for an alternative breakfast food and today I made breakfast nut bread. Tastes pretty good so that will make a nice change from egg, bacon etc.

My other objective is to have some baked items to freeze so that if the urge for something naughty strikes I can quickly grab something LC and filling as well as satisfying.

As it is unlikely that Australia will have brown sugar twin anytime soon I guess those recipes are out unless I just add extra splenda or saccharine. We'll probably get it eventually but it will take years!!

I found soy protein powder today, as well as whey protein so I am all set to get cookin'. Thank goodness for health food stores.
Thanks again everyone.