How sweet it is...

I've always been a “coke-aholic.” I drank regular Coke or Pepsi maybe three cans a day for as long as I can remember. But somewhere during the early 1980s, probably because I had gained a few pounds, I decided to change to diet sodas. Then after returning to college in the 1990s I learned that the chemicals in the diet sodas were bad for me. So, I thought that I was probably better off drinking regular sodas and avoiding the killer chemicals. I returned to drinking regular sodas not realizing that they did not use real sugar but now used a new processed version of sugar—high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). HFCS is like sugar on “steroids”, so to speak. At this point I had returned to college and was eating a “poor man's diet” of carbs, carbs, and more carbs because they are cheap! Somewhere along the line I learned about HFCS and at that point had to “choose my poison” because I needed my fix of sweet carbonation. So, I decided to go back to diet sodas.

A couple years later after finishing a bachelor's then a master's degree, I left school and returned to full-time work. Unlike my old career (respiratory therapist) where I almost never sat down and was constantly running all over the hospital, in my new career I was always sitting down—in front of a computer. The six years at school I spent sitting in a classroom or in front of a computer most of the time as well. I guess it shouldn't be surprising that I would become insulin resistant.

When I learned that I had insulin resistance, the first thing I did was toss out all the sugar and the sugar sweetened items in my pantry and fridge. I decided to limit my diet sodas and I changed to Diet Rite hoping that Splenda was not as toxic as aspartame. I started using stevia to sweeten my coffee, tea, and desserts.

Nowadays, my preference for sweeteners is limited to stevia and raw coconut nectar. I won't lie, I do still have diet sodas as well but when cooking—I use the term loosely here because I don't currently do much—I use only stevia or a small amount of raw coconut nectar.

Next time, my favorite very quick dessert...