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“Thanks Giving Healthy Tips!”


Natural Sugar Substitutes

Table sugar provides you almost no nutritional value and adds empty calories to the plate.
Recognizing this fact, more and more people are turning away from table sugar and going
towards other sweeteners. At the same time, even artificial sweeteners have been found to
have a number of disadvantages, one being increased craving for sweet foods. So, the best
alternative in such a case comes out to be natural sugar substitutes. They usually have low
glycemic index and, being sweeter than table sugar, are also consumed in less quantities. In
the following lines, we have provided is a list of natural substitutes for sugar.

Stevia with FOS

Stevia is one of the most popular substitutes used in place of sugar. It is native to South
America and is available in the form of liquid as well as powder. FOS, on the other hand,
stands for fruit ogilio saccharides. It has been found to be beneficial for the growth of healthy
intestinal bacteria, inside the body. Stevia with FOS is a nonnutritive powder, which can be
easily used in place of sugar.

Single Blossom Honey
Single blossom honey is another natural substitute for sugar. It includes those forms of honey
that are low-glycemic, like red clover honey and orange blossom honey. Even Agave nectar can
be used for the purpose of sweetening beverages. However, since both of them are high in
calories and carbohydrates, they shouldn’t be used in excess.

Xylitol
Xylitol is also known by the name of birch sugar and is mainly used for the purpose of baking
and sweetening beverages. Amongst the best features of Xylitol is that it has a low-glycemic
index and doesn’t lead to blood sugar imbalances or yeast overgrowth, unlike table sugar. At
the same time, it is said to be good for bone health
as well as dental health. However, excess consumption of Xylitol might lead to gastrointestinal
discomfort and diarrhea.

Note:
You can find most in your local Vitamin Cottages and Whole Foods health food stores


Special Report:Escape the aspartame trap
~From William Campbell Douglass II,M.D.~

No matter how you look at it, aspartame is bad news in my book. The massive introduction of
this neurotoxin into the food supply is nothing less than biological warfare against every single
one of us, and the only acceptable solution is to ban it from the food chain.
I wish I could stick to medicine and not get into politics—but the two are attached at the hip
—especially in the case of aspartame. So just to make sure we’re all on the same page, let’s
go back to the beginning.

The sweet poison even the FDA didn’t want to approve
For years, the GD Searle Corp., the company that manufactures aspartame, tried in vain to get
it approved. No one wanted to go near the stuff. The FDA refused to approve it for 16 years. In
fact, according to a report I read, Dr. Adrian Gross, the FDA’s own toxicologist, told Congress
that “without a shadow of a doubt, aspartame can cause brain tumors and brain cancer…”
But then, in the early 80s, Donald Rumsfeld made his move into the political arena, joining
President Reagan’s transition team. One of the first things he did was appoint a new FDA
commissioner, Arthur Hull Hays. And in 1981, despite clear evidence that this neurotoxin
induced brain tumors in experimental animals, Hays approved the chemical for public
consumption.

Did you know it’s against the law to expose people to a drug found to induce cancer in
experimental animals? (It’s called the “Delaney Clause.”) Doing so amounts to genocide and
treason, both of which, as I understand it, are still illegal.

Anyway, instead of blacklisting the chemical with a “POISON!” sign like they should have, the
perps down at the FDA stamped it with their coveted GRAS clearance. In case you’re not
familiar with the acronym, it means “generally regarded as safe.” It gets my heart rate up just
thinking about applying such a misleading term to something as UNSAFE as aspartame.

And let me tell you, that GRAS clearance has been aspartame’s “get-out-of-jail-free card” on
more than one occasion. Now, when a complaint comes in about a neurological disease or
other serious reaction that appears to be aspartame-induced, the FDA blows it off as
anecdotal and not worthy of further comment. After all, aspartame is a GRAS chemical—the
FDA said so themselves.

Things have continued on a downward spiral ever since. Before long it was everywhere, from
soda to salad dressing. All thanks to a no-good, know-nothing businessman-turned-politician.
With that sordid history of “Rummy the Magnificent” in your memory bank, let’s look at what
these artificial sweeteners have done to America’s health.

This is your brain on aspartame

Did you know that 66 percent of adults and 40 percent of children consume products containing

this deadly neurotoxin? (This statistic is from 2000, so I’m sure these percentages are higher
by now—especially considering Bill Clinton’s Diet Coke push in our public schools.)

For years, doctors and scientists have scratched their heads over the “mysterious” rise in
neurological diseases. But there’s no mystery about it. Hundreds of diseases can be traced
back to one root cause: aspartame. Over the years, various reports have implicated aspartame
in headaches, memory loss, seizures, vision loss, coma, and cancer. It also appears to
worsen or mimic the symptoms of such conditions as fibromyalgia, MS, lupus, ADD, diabetes,
Alzheimer’s, chronic fatigue, and depression.

And it makes sense: A toxin like aspartame goes to many different types of cells, but it seems
to have a particular liking for the cells of the central and peripheral nervous systems. That
means that the damage from aspartame can show up anywhere the nerves are—which, of
course, is anywhere in the body. And because it attacks your body at the cellular level, it can
cause any number of diseases.

The collection of signs and symptoms will vary, but the diseases will still come back to one root
cause—aspartame. Another major problem with aspartame is that it interacts with other
chemical substances, including antidepressants, Coumadin, cardiac medications, hormones,
insulin, vaccines, and many others. The stuff even interacts with other artificial sweeteners.

These toxins are MAKING US FAT!

Aside from these risks, now there’s even more proof that these toxins are helping you pack on
the pounds. Some recent research conducted at Purdue University shows that a group of test
subjects fed artificial sweeteners subsequently consumed THREE TIMES THE CALORIES of
those given ordinary sugar (not a good thing to eat, either, by the way).

That means some of the very things most mainstream doctors recommend for weight loss
(diet soda, Sweet-N-low, etc.) are causing us to crave calories and binge on unhealthy
carbohydrates. No wonder we’re all getting fatter!

Financing the sweetest little deception
So you have to wonder: Why haven’t you heard about this scandal on the evening news, or read
about it in the papers, or even been warned about it by your doctor? I’ll tell you why:
Professional organizations and their publications continue to suppress the truth about
aspartame because they’ve all been bought off.

In most cases, Big Pharma is behind such under-the-table deals, but in this case, the big food
corporations are the culprits. All of the food giants use the inexpensive imposter in huge
quantities in their products. How sweet it is—especially for the bottom line. That leaves them
plenty of money to buy off anyone who might want to blow the whistle on their deadly little
scam—and leaves most doctors as ignorant as their patients about the dangers of
aspartame. And it makes even more sense when you find out that most of the studies
“proving” the safety of aspartame were financed by—guess who?—the big food industry.

The use of aspartame is as detrimental to your health as any chemical ever! It’s not easy to
avoid, either. Aspartame is in hundreds of different colas, desserts, candies, and other junk
foods.

The only way to avoid it is to shop the supermarket periphery for your food—the meat and fish,
dairy, and fresh fruits and vegetables. There are also many fine foods from Europe and the far
East that come in cans and jars that don’t contain the poisonous sugar substitute—tuna, meat
and fish pates, muscles, clams—you get the idea. Yes, a lot of these foods are expensive, but I
can tell you right now, your food is NOT the place to cut budget costs. It’ll just drive your
healthcare costs up in the future.

How to satisfy that sweet tooth

Some people argue that regular sugar is just as bad for you as sugar substitutes. And in a
sense, they’re right. In time, taking in too much sugar can lead to diabetes, which will lead to
heart disease, renal disease, peripheral vascular disease, diabetic retinitis (blindness),
diabetic peripheral neuropathy, and the list goes on and on.

But again, let’s look at the big picture. What we’re talking about here is a “lesser of evils.” The
best possible thing you could do for your body would be to eliminate any and all sugar from
your diet. If you want to live to a healthy old age (key word here being “healthy”), you should
extract your sweet tooth ASAP in order to avoid the laundry list of horrors I just mentioned.

But like I said, we’re talking about a lesser of evils here, so if you have a sweet tooth that just
won’t take “no” for an answer, consider using a sweetener that doesn’t contain aspartame—
like Stevia, lo han, or xylitol. The sweetener stevia comes from the stevia plant and is said to be
300 times sweeter than sugar. In other words, it’s natural, and you don’t need a lot of it to
sweeten up your coffee, tea, or what-have-you. Even though it works great as a sweetener, the
FDA won’t allow it to be labeled as such. Instead, they insist that it be called “dietary
supplement.” I’m not going to get into the politics of it here. Suffice it to say that this is the
sweetest “dietary supplement” you’ve ever tasted—and you can find it in your local health food
store.

Lo han (derived from dried and fresh fruit) and xylitol (found in the fibers of many fruits and
vegetables) are two other natural alternatives to sugar. You can find both in your local health
food stores or from various online sources

Visit us at
http://www.douglassreport.com/Learn more about William Campbell Douglass II,M.D.©

Some more great healthy food tips

1. Add flavor, not fat.
Many recipes suggest rubbing the bird with butter before roasting. If you roast a turkey without
overcooking, it won’t dry out—there’s no need to rub it with butter beforehand. Skip it and avoid
adding extra saturated fat. Try chopped fresh herbs and garlic mixed with a little heart-healthy
olive oil instead.

2. Avoid added salt.
We've found that conventional turkeys (with added salt solution) do stay moister but if you’re
watching your sodium intake, avoid them.

3. Skip the skin
A 3-ounce portion of light meat without skin has only 132 calories and 3 grams of fat. With the
skin, that jumps to 168 calories and 6 grams of fat. (Dark meat has more calories but also
more iron: three ounces of dark meat supplies 15% of the recommended daily intake of iron;
white meat has only 8%.)

4. Broth is better.
Many traditional stuffing recipes call for butter. Use a bit of chicken broth instead to keep it
moist without the added fat or calories.

5. Hold the sugar.
Sweet potatoes are already sweet, so why load them up with brown sugar and marshmallows
when just a touch of maple syrup or honey accentuates their great flavor?
6. Forgo to much butter. If you are concerned about fat intake

The key to tasty gravy is using all the drippings from the roasting pan (with the fat skimmed off).
This gives plenty of flavor without the added fat or calories. Forgo added butter, which really
bumps up the calories and fat. Use half the amount if you want the richness of flavor or want a
little fat in your diet, which is ok.
Grandma Catherine's Thanksgiving Favorites