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Updating my diet

July 7th, 2013 at 04:06 am

Sooo, it's not always easy to eat healthy and keep food costs down at the same time. This is especially true for us guys who want to maintain a certain minimum protein intake level.

After having my food budget free-wheeling out of control for a while, I finally sat down to reign it in, update my diet, and right now, it still comes out to be around $10 a day. Yes, I know it's still high, but I'll keep trying.

Actually, the hardest part will probably be staying on the diet. Hopefully that will work out as well. In the meantime, I will keep looking for cheaper, but quality diet alternatives.

Among other things, I finally bought a small pack of Stevia to try out. In case you didn't know, it's an all-natural sweetener that, because it's so sweet, does not require a whole lot to achieve a similar level of sweet taste as normal sugar. Thus, it contains next to no calories, and is cheaper than, say, buying soda all the time.

Unfortunately, I also learned the hard way that the main ingredient in most commercial Stevia products are either dextrose, or this more sinister thing called Erythritol. The latter is suppose to be some kind of "sugar alcohol" substitute that has been said to be partially indigestible, and in large doses, could cause like diarrhea or something.

Great, huh?

And yet that's usually the main ingredients in Stevia products, whereas the Stevia extract itself is typically second or third.

Nonetheless, it wasn't terribly expensive, and I'd be lying if I said that I can stop eating sweets for the rest of my life. As such, if this Stevia thing works, then this would help both my budget as well as my diet.

I decided to mix a packet with a glass of milk (which is realistically what I may use it for), and unfortunately, I really can't taste it all that well. I mean, I can taste it, but it's rather faint. Oh well, I still have 49 of those packets left to experiment with, so we'll see.

Life is a strange thing, isn't it? Time moves on, people move on, the world keeps on turning. And yet, life itself is a currency that is so finite and so precious. I hope you are all doing well in your life's travels.

9 Responses to “Updating my diet”

  1. PatientSaver Says:
    1373199220

    What do you know...i checked the ingredients on my Truvia,and you're right: Erythritol is the first named ingredient.

    However, I'm not sure why you're concerned about using it. 80 grams equals about 20 teaspoons, which seems like an awful lot of stevia to consume to experience upset stomach. And why would you put any of it in your milk?

    I use a half packet to sweeten my tea, but that's about it. Too expensive to rely on for everything you might eat. Since you'd probably be buying the sweets you like, why would you need additional sweeteners?

  2. litllegopher Says:
    1373205302

    Maybe you could try to eat more whole foods, substituting fruit for the sweet taste - after a while your taste will adjust and then you could add in the occasional real deal sugar treat. You may even find your past favorite treats too sweet Smile
    Good luck finding what works for you!

  3. MonkeyMama Says:
    1373208476

    I don't know much about Stevia, but in general, artificial sweeteners are pretty frightening for your health.

    I think it is just a good rule in general to avoid these "shortcuts."

    Certainly most the people I know consume copius amounts of artificial sweetener and seem to be fine. But, you still couldn't pay me to eat it.

  4. PauletteGoddard Says:
    1373212237

    The point of erythritol is that the sweetness is so concentrated you don't need to take large amounts. As stevia is a noncaloric sweetener (I had one can of orange Zevia last night and we discussed the nutritional facts labelled on the can), it's unlikely to make you fat, but all foods ingested should be within moderation. 90% of erythritol is digested before it reaches the large intestine.

    I like stevia in tea and homemade soft drinks (add club soda and juice), but not so much in anything else.

    I agree with the difficulty of getting cheap protein. I'd have to eat 19 eggs a day to get my ideal protein intake (1.6g per kilogram of body weight), but only 160g of meat. If the meat is ground beef it's slightly cheaper than the eggs. And those protein powder shakes: $1.80/scoop for about 19-25g protein (but you get amino acids and a decent carbohydrates-protein ratio).

  5. Tabs Says:
    1373212648

    Patient:
    How you've been? Not concerned really. Otherwise, I would not have bought it to try out in the first place.

    I put it in milk because that's what I had at home at the time. :P However, you are right that it's pretty darn expensive if I were to put that in everything.

    Gopher:
    Haha, you know what, I should probably just go ahead and leave it to regular fruit after this. But yeah, at least I now know what commercial Stevia tastes like.

    MonkeyMama:
    Ah, the interesting thing about Stevia is that it is a natural sweetener. More specifically, it's a kind of herb in the sunflower family. Otherwise, I too avoid artificial sweeteners.

    Paulette:
    Fascinating and informative. Didn't know you were watching your protein intake as well. But I'm glad someone understands why maintaining this sort of diet isn't all too easy.

  6. PauletteGoddard Says:
    1373217304

    I was reminded that tofu, lentils and canned tuna are cheap protein sources. With the first two, I'd gotten into the mindset that if it didn't have eyes and a pulse, the food source could not be dense protein, but that is wrong. Tofu's about $2/pound, same with lentils, and 6 oz of canned tuna can give you 40g (water packed) - 50g (oil packed).

  7. ThriftoRama Says:
    1373223344

    Just throwing it out there. You can grow stevia plants as houseplants and use the leaves to sweeten your foods. Seriously! If you want to know exactly what is in your sweetener, that is definitely one way to go.

    I sometimes adhere to the paleo diet, which I love because it is filling and it makes me feel great, but you're right, protein is expensive. As much as I love controlling the grocery budget, I feel that high quality produce and organic farm-raised meat is worth the price. I usually cut corners on the less important things (think couponing for shampoo, unbrand toilet paper, etc.) to free up money for what actually goes into my family's mouth.

  8. rob62521 Says:
    1373226980

    I know you'd like to keep your food budget down, but sometimes you need to also look at the whole picture. If eating healthy and often pricier foods costs a little more, isn't it worth it in the long run? Sometimes cheapest isn't always best.

  9. Tabs Says:
    1373332904

    Thanks again for all the replies. They were all very helpful. Yes, in the end, I don't mind paying a bit more for healthy, quality foods. That's partly why my food budget is rather high.

    On another interesting note, it appears that one can indeed grow Stevia plants! But ah, right now, I'm going to just stick with fruits.

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