We are excited about our newsletter. The articles are designed to help you and your family have a healthy lifestyle.

This month we are discussing Alternative Sweeteners for Sugar Free Desserts and How important is Breakfast?

We have also included a great recipe for Spinach and Shrimp Salad

A salad that sizzles with flavor!

Do you have a sweet tooth? Do you crave sweet desserts? Have you ever felt like a sugar addict? Most desserts are packed full of sugar, and yet there is plenty of evidence that sugary desserts are not healthy foods.

You may decide to cut your sugar intake for a number of reasons:

• To eat a more natural diet - sugar is a highly processed food, and our hunter gatherer ancestors did not evolve to eat such a concentrated source of 'empty calories'.
• To assist in the control of your blood sugar - research shows that low sugar diets do help to control your blood sugar levels.

  To lose weight. A high sugar intake is a diet buster, regardless of which weight loss diet you try. So how can you satisfy your sweet tooth without sugar? There are a number of strategies:

  Create desserts from fresh, unprocessed fruit, with no sweeteners added. Sugar free fruit salad is a classic example of this approach. There are a number of classic desserts that can be served in a version based on this theme, such as Ambrosia, Balsamic Berries and Minted Melon.

  Cut out desserts, or only serve dessert as a very occasional treat. Believe it or not, even the strongest and most demanding sweet tooth will eventually quiet down, if your sugar addiction is not being fed.

  • Use alternative sweeteners. Which alternative sweetener you use will be influenced by your reasons for giving up sugar, and by your own taste buds. Natural sweeteners include honey, and Stevia.
  • Honey is still a very concentrated food, and should be used very sparingly, if at all, if your goal is to control blood sugar or to lose weight. However, honey, in very small quantities, does still have its place in a natural foods diet.
  • Stevia is an extract from the leaf of the Stevia plant. It is intensely sweet, and only tiny amounts are needed to sweeten a dessert, so it's more suitable than honey for blood sugar control and weight loss. But there are a couple of catches with Stevia: It is approved as a supplement, rather than as a food additive, so you can only use it for foods that you sweeten yourself. And, depending on the brand, it can have a slightly 'liquorice' taste. It's well worth experimenting with different brands, to find the brand most acceptable to your taste. Generally speaking, the white extracts have less taste.
  • Oh yes, and watch out for the fillers! There's not much point in using a low-calorie / low-carb sweetener like Stevia if it's a brand that's packed with a high-calorie / high-carb fillers, so remember to read the labels.

  Artificial sweeteners include saccharine, aspartame and Splenda. It's worth bearing in mind that some people are sensitive to one or more artificial sweeteners, and report headaches and other side effects. Whether or not you use them is ultimately your decision. Many people have decided that when the only drinks available are artificially sweetened diet drinks or sugary drinks, that for them, the artificial sweetener is the lesser of the two evils.

  If you're cooking with artificial sweeteners, read the label and avoid those with high calorie / high-carb fillers. But don't bother cooking with aspartame.

  • its sweetness disappears with the heat of the cooking. This is why aspartame is mainly used for drinks. And it's worth noting that if you'd like to reduce your artificial sweetener usage, but don't like the taste of Stevia, a combination of Splenda and Stevia is pleasantly sweet and virtually tasteless
  • somehow the Splenda 'smoothes out' the Stevia flavor.

  Ultimately, it's a personal decision which sweeteners or combination of sweeteners that you use, but with the range of alternative sweeteners available you can make delicious sugar-free choices.

  Source: http://www.articlecircle.com
  About the Author
  Find out more about Diet and Nutrition at healthandfinesse.com

The Benefits of a healthy Breakfast are:

Jumpstart your metabolism from the overnight fast: Breakfast is considered an important meal because it breaks the overnight fasting periods and replenishes your supply of glucose. Glucose is your body’s energy source and is broken down and absorbed from the carbohydrates you eat. In the morning, after you have gone without food for as long as 12 hours, your glucose levels drop. When this happens, your body compensates by releasing the glucose that has been stored in your muscle tissue and liver, called glycogen. Once all the energy from the glycogen stored is used up, the body breaks down fatty acids to produce energy. Without carbohydrates, fatty acids are only partially oxidized, which can cause reduced energy levels.

Works towards weight Loss: After 12 hours of sleep your body has been fasting overnight, and in the morning you are almost in the first stages of starvation. Skipping breakfast keeps your body in ‘starvation’ mode, while eating a good meal will give your metabolism a boost. If you’re trying to lose weight, the last thing you want to do is keep your metabolism at this lowered state. Eating a healthy breakfast will increase your fat burning ability. Breakfast, therefore, can boost your energy levels as well as your metabolism for the day.

Increase your essential nutrients and overall energy levels: Breakfast provides a significant proportion of the day’s total nutrient intake and offers the opportunity to eat foods fortified with nutrients such as foliate, iron, vitamins and fiber. Essential vitamins, minerals and other nutrients can only be gained from food.

Give You Brain fuel To Enhance Concentration: Eating breakfast improves your thinking ability and keeps you at top mental performance. It provides your brain with fuel to enhance problem solving and memory retention.

Beat The Binges: Eating a good breakfast will keep you from getting too hungry, which will help prevent you from over eating later in the day. Breakfast eaters are able to better resist fatty and high caloric foods throughout the day. If you skip breakfast, you will tend to nibble on snacks during the mid-morning and turn to coffee for an energy boost.

So what does a Healthy Breakfast comprise of?

A healthy breakfast should consist of a variety of foods. It should contain complex carbohydrates, protein and fiber. Protein can come from eggs, beans, or soy. Fiber and carbohydrates can be found in whole cereals, grains or in fruits. A good example of a healthy breakfast might be something like a boiled egg, an orange, and a bowl of whole grain cereal with skimmed milk.

No matter what you choose, eating breakfast gives you body and your brain the energy they need to carry you through the day. Be good to yourself and eat breakfast, as it will make you feel much better throughout the day.

About the Author Indy Stewart is a fitness expert and has a wealth of knowledge on how to Build Muscle with Weight Lifting. More info on Muscle Men
Source: ArticleTrader.com

Nutritional Analysis Per Serving:
Calories: 205
Protein: 27 grams
Fat: 6 grams
Carbohydrates: 12 grams