My delusions of Splenda being devoid of calories and
carbohydrates are over now. This morning as I was adding my typical 15 packets
of Splenda to my oversized coffee, I noticed in small print on the box it said:
“Free” Food = up to 4 packets. WTF?
For a diabetic, a “free” food is a food that does not have
enough carbohydrates to significantly impact your blood sugar. Foods that most
definitely do not fit into this category: pasta, ice cream, bread, etc. To me
this term is outdated, or should be considered outdated, because “free” implies
you can eat as much of the food at you want. Even though steak would
technically fall into the category of foods that do not significantly impact
your blood sugar, you should not feel “free” to eat as much steak as you want.
Same advice for broccoli. Even though it will not significantly impact your
blood sugar, if you eat too much of it, you will probably end up farting so
much that no one will want to be around you.
Even though I was applying that common sense to other foods,
I ignored it with Splenda. The box just stated something that should have been
obvious to me, but it caused me to launch a full investigation. Or at least
caused me to look into it.
4 grams of Splenda = 3.6 gm of carbs = 13 calories
1 packet of Splenda is 1 gram
Therefore 15 packets = 13.5 gm of carbs = 48.75 calories
How dare you Splenda! I should have been taking 2 extra
units of Novolog insulin for each cup of coffee… or, much more sensibly, been
using much less or no Splenda.
And the calories! Oh God the calories! I try to keep up with
all the calories I eat per day using my phone (this is partly a byproduct of
keeping up with the carbs I eat to know how much insulin to take with meals). To
think of all the extra calories I’ve been taking in unknowingly breaks my heart
and fattens my ass.
Splenda, we might have to discuss a breakup. It will be hard
to let go, but you mislead me and now I know how bad for me you really are.
This raises the question: which is worse: a broken heart or a fat ass? In our culture the answer is not all that clear-cut. Although there might be a slight correlation between them.
ReplyDeleteI'm so bad at "this or that?" I choose neither! :-)
Deleteskip Splenda, it sucks in every way possible. Are you interested in food overall? I am and I read this awesome book recently - the paleo solution. I recommend it!
ReplyDeleteI am interested in food! I'll look up the book, thanks!
DeleteI used to have suger in my coffee and casey used to have A TON! we changed it out to french vanilla coconutmilk - so so good and completely natural.
DeleteTry using a teaspoon of real honey in your coffee instead of sugar (or just slowly add, stir and sip until you get the flavor you want).
ReplyDeleteThere is actually a whole thing on the Internet about substituting Honey for other forms of sugar in your foods and drinks, due to how easy it is for your body to break it down and process without turning it into loads of glucose in your bloodstream (and all the great vitamins, etc., in it are worth paying attention to).
Plus it tastes really, really good. Beats the hell out of plain old sugar or the artificial sweeteners, that's for sure. Getting the right mix of honey in a cup of plain coffee turns it into the fabled nectar of the gods (just keep in mind that a little honey goes a long way).
Honey is WAY better
Delete