By accident I spent most of today immersed in things sans sugar, again.
The Sana customers have been requesting Stevia for a loooong time. We promised to introduce it over a year ago but experienced painful legislative difficulties as it was not an approved sweetener. Now it is, but only in a particular, slightly more pricey form (high Rebaudioside A).
Finally we got organised and launch date was set for 1st December.
Observant readers will note that today is a little beyond that deadline. Mmmmmm (thoughtful, 'I wonder how that happened?' noise). In our defense, being one month and eight days late is not considered seriously tardy in the world of product launches. It's practically ahead of schedule.
I'll be blogging some Stevia baking trials as soon as Junk Free Jan is over. The reason is, I'm not sure if it's allowed. I think part of the mission is to avoid pumped up flavours. So far, so good. I've made it to day 5, judging by the daily banana count..
My Daily Banana's #4 and #5 were both just a stand-alone, un-enhanced banana. Note our completely un-earthquake proofed shelves in the background. We do tend to lose a few in big aftershocks.
I have noticed a few effects of the low-sugar diet. The reason I think these things are due to the sugar-free aspect is that wheat and industrial oils are not prevalent in my diet anyway. BUT sugar is. Fruit, dried fruit, crumbles, cakes, bars that are stuck together with honey...
#1. I'm losing weight. I'm not sure how much yet (my scales are broked, probably a good thing..), but my previously tight jeans are now loose. These are jeans I couldn't wear when flying home from Melbourne two weeks ago, as they were too tight for in-plane comfort. Also, today I ... ok, this is going to sound weird...
I was standing with my feet together, doing a yoga stretch and something felt odd. I realised that my knees and thighs weren't touching. As in, a few days ago, when doing that stretch, the inside of my knees would connect. But today, there is a gap. I've lost weight on the inside of my knees. How about that?
#2 I had a low blood sugar moment. As in dizzy, nauseous, shaky hands, felt an immediate need to sit down. That was two days ago while shopping in a hardware store (more about that exciting project tomorrow). I headed to the cafe and did something I haven't done in years. Had a latte.
It had a very artistic swirly design.
That did the trick, and since then, no strange symptoms. I think my body missed its usual mid-afternoon Lara Bar fix but has now adapted.
I know that milk has lactose in it, but lactose has no fructose - it's a combination of maltose and glucose. So, I think that's ok.
Today is the last day of The Programmer's christmas holidays, and Mamasana has a plan to cook us dinner on the BBQ (outdoors 'grill' for my American readers), so I'd better sign off. I'll be back tomorrow with a mixed bag of special things:
* A special message from The Princess (if I can sort out some audio file issues)
* A special update on some construction work
* A special revelation about my study plans.
:D
Stevia was not an approved sweetener? Seriously? O_O
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking that I probably need to give that stuff a second chance. My one and only Stevia adventure ended badly years ago; it had a REALLY nasty aftertaste. Maybe I did something wrong?
And that's one giant mutant banana. I think it ought to be wearing pyjamas and coming down the stairs...
Oh - I noticed a setting in Blogger Dashboard somewhere that needs to be set to "yes" to allow the embedding of audio files. I think...
ReplyDeleteRebaudioside does not have the nasty aftertaste that the high-Stevioside Stevia products had. It is still a tricky product to use though. We've got another Stevia product coming out soon that should improve the chance of a good result - it's premixed with Erythritol. The main problem with aftertaste is using too much, even if you think you aren't.
ReplyDeleteHehehe, Bananas in Pyjamas. This is definitely an idea for a Daily Banana pic.
Oh, and as for the Stevia thing. You could use it in 'Dietary Supplements' but not as a sweetener. So, if the NZFSA asked, you had to say it was in there for some other reason. The problem is that it's not truly inert. It 'can' lower blood pressure. The TGA in Aussie still doesn't like it.
ReplyDeleteAnd when I say 'can', I mean... nobody could ever eat that much of it....
ReplyDeleteFunny. It's in every health food store I've ever visited. Crazy food & supplement laws.
ReplyDeleteSame here. I think legislators tended to turn a blind eye to it. The big problem was sending it from one country to another. So, that would be a problem for Aussie customers and we wanted to get it right. The problem is always 'customs'. AQIS is a word to strike fear into the heart of an exporter..
ReplyDelete