The Coconut Diet: The Secret Ingredient for Effortless Weight Loss. Cherie Calbom

sweeteners. Keep in mind that not all xylitol may be derived from birch bark and may not be as healthy.Sugar alcohols such as sorbitol, manitol, malitol, and xylitol are sugar alcohols that are derived from dextrose or glucose, or in the case of xylitol, from birch trees. On gum and candy labels they are often termed “sugar free,” but this is somewhat misleading because when broken down, they act similarly to other forms of sugar. None are free of calories, and only xylitol does not promote cavities. Sugar alcohols tend to ferment in the digestive tract, causing cramping and diarrhea. (See Resource Guide for more information.)

       Lo-Han Guo comes from the Chinese plant Lo Han Guo Siraitia grosvenorii, a perennial vine in the cucumber or melon family that grows in China. Lo Han fruits contain triterpene glycoside sweeteners known as mogrosides. When processed into a fine powder, this natural sweetener is soluble in water. It is about 300 times sweeter than sugar, so very little is needed to sweeten foods and beverages. It is also very low in calories.

       Stevia is extracted from a herbal leaf of a plant that grows in South America. Like Lo Han Guo, it is about 200-300 times sweeter than sugar, so you need only a small amount in comparison to sugar. It has virtually no calories. There is no evidence that it is harmful to the body in any way. The FDA does not allow it to be marketed as a sweetener, rather it is labeled as a nutritional supplement. Stevia comes in powdered or liquid form and can be found at most health food stores.

       THE NATURAL HIGH-CARB SWEETENERS: NOT GOOD CHOICES FOR WEIGHT LOSS

      The only advantage that natural high-carb sweeteners have over those that are processed is some nutrients and the absence of chemicals used in processing and refining of other sweeteners. They are still sugar. Be aware that they will raise blood sugar and insulin and they will contribute to insulin resistance. All these sweeteners, with the exception of honey, are about equal in carbs to white sugar; honey is slightly higher.

       Brown rice syrup is a naturally fermented sweetener in which enzymes convert carbohydrates to maltose. Maltose may be tolerated somewhat better than other natural sweeteners by people with blood sugar metabolism disorders. It is made from whole-grain brown rice (malt barley syrup from barley) and contains some B vitamins and minerals. The consistency is similar to honey, but it is less sweet and more delicate and subtle. It can be found in most health food stores.

       Date sugar is made of ground, dehydrated dates. It has a higher fiber (pectin) content than many other sweeteners and some vitamins and minerals. It can be found at most health food stores.

       Honey (raw is best) is composed of simple sugars, and it is both sweeter and slightly higher in carbs and calories than white sugar. When preparing recipes, you need less honey than white sugar. Its composition, color, and flavor are as varied as the blossoms that feed the honeybees. Most raw honey has been lightly heated and filtered, and retains some of the enzymes and traces of vitamins and minerals. Most commercial honey has been highly processed, and therefore, is less nutritional. Raw honey is usually available in health food stores and from private growers.

       Pure maple syrup is made from boiling the sap of sugar maple trees. It is less sweet than honey but sweeter than brown rice syrup. It comes in different grades according to how long and at what temperature it is boiled. The purest maple syrup may be imported from Canada as some U.S. producers use formaldehyde pellets to keep tapholes open. Look for labels that indicate the syrup has no added salt, chemical preservatives, or defoamers.

       Molasses is a by-product of the sugarcane refining process. Blackstrap molasses has a strong, bittersweet taste while sweet molasses is sweeter than blackstrap, but less sweet than white sugar. Blackstrap molasses is the final excretion of sugarcane and has some calcium, iron, and other minerals. A more nutritious purchase is unsulphured molasses, which is most readily found in health food stores.

       Raw sugarcane is the product that exists before the bleaching stages of making refined sugar. To prepare this sugar for market, it is steam-cleaned; it retains a fraction of the dark molasses produced in sugar refining. Raw sugar is not subjected to the same chemical whitening, as white sugar. Raw sugar may go by the names Turbinado or Succanat, which can be found at most health food stores.

       I had lost 17 pounds just before I started on virgin coconut oil and have effortlessly lost an additional 6 pounds since I started including virgin coconut oil in my diet. A few months before I also stopped eating sugar and reduced my overall carb intake. I’m sure that has helped immensely.

       Julia

       REFINED SWEETENERS: POOR CHOICES FOR WEIGHT MANAGEMENT AND HEALTH

       White sugar refers to the pure white crystals that remain after sugarcane or beets are refined; the chemical name is sucrose. To produce white sugar, this product goes through a series of washings, filterings, and bleachings, and nutrients are stripped away. Since raw sugarcane is brown and sticky, most refineries use slaughterhouse bone ash as a filtering agent to remove the molasses and create a free-flowing sugar. This sugar has virtually no nutritional value. It is readily available and found in many commercial desserts and packaged foods and treats.

       Brown sugar is mostly white sugar flavored with molasses. Its brown color comes from a charcoal treatment that may introduce traces of carcinogenic impurities, resulting in a product that is more refined and possibly more harmful than white sugar.

       Fructose is the chemical name for one kind of sugar that occurs naturally in honey and ripe fruit. The connection between commercial fructose and natural fruit sugar is in name only, however. The product you find most often in packaged foods and table sweeteners is not from fruit or honey. Powdered fructose is often extracted from sugarcane, beet sugar, or corn syrup. In processing, the sucrose molecule is broken down into two component simple sugars—fructose and glucose. This makes fructose more processed than white sugar.Calorically, fructose is equivalent to sugar, but it is sweeter, so less is needed. Though fructose is often recommended for diabetics because it doesn’t affect blood sugar and insulin levels like sucrose, it actually is more likely to cause insulin resistance. Studies on animals and humans have shown that consumption of large amounts of fructose impairs the body’s ability to handle glucose (blood sugar), which ultimately leads to hyperinsulinemia (elevated insulin levels) and insulin resistance. Dr. Meira Field says, “All fructose must be metabolized in the liver. [In studies] the livers of rats on a high fructose diet looked like the livers of alcoholics, plugged with fat and chirrhotic.”4

       Corn syrup and high-fructose corn syrup are highly refined sweeteners made from corn. Corn syrup is composed of dextrose and small amounts of fructose. It is considerably cheaper than sugar, which accounts for its popularity in processed food. Manufacturers make high-fructose corn syrup by converting some of the dextrose in corn syrup to fructose.”

       Dextrose is a powdered form of corn sweetener that is used widely by food processors. It is structurally similar and biologically identical to glucose.

       Table syrup (includes maple-flavored syrup, pancake syrup, and waffle syrup) are often confused with pure maple syrup. They can actually look and taste like maple syrup, but they are made from a blend of sweeteners with emulsifiers, stabilizers, salt, viscosity adjusting agents, acidifiers, alkalizers or buffers, defoaming agents, artificial flavors and colors, additives, chemical preservatives, and fats and oils, as desired by the manufacturer. All these additives are not healthful and contribute to the body’s burden of toxicity. This type of syrup should be avoided completely, even after you have achieved your weight loss goals.

      Many of the sweetener definitions in this section have been adapted from The Goldbeck’s Guide to Good Food by Nikki and David Goldbeck.⁵

       Artificial Sweeteners: Avoid These Fakes

      There is a great deal of controversy over sugar substitutes. I’ve placed them in the “completely avoid” category because of negative