Here’s an interesting comparison I did in my kitchen.
In the Wheat Belly lifestyle, we occasionally desire non-wheat, non-grain snacks, desserts, and treats made without sugar or other unhealthy sweeteners. We therefore reach for natural non- or minimally nutritive sweeteners that allow us to have, for example, a cookie or slice of cheesecake without problems of tooth decay, high blood sugars, inflammation, or any of the other health problems accompanied by foods made with grains and sugar. This allows you to entertain friends, serve treats to kids and grandkids, and enjoy holidays without destroying health.
But such sweeteners can be pricey. So I did this comparison. Shown in the photo is the amount of sweetener required to yield the equivalent sweetening power of one tablespoon of table sugar, shown at the far left. Below each little pile of one tablespoon-equivalent sweetener is the cost per tablespoon (based on the retail price I paid at a local Milwaukee grocer that carried every sweetener shown, thereby eliminating differences based on varying markups at different stores—the store for anyone in Wisconsin is the Woodmans’ employee-owned chain with an incredible selection of sweeteners and other foods).
Some conclusions can therefore reached by this simple exercise:
- Lakanto (erythritol + monkfruit in a proportion designed to be used like sugar 1:1) is the most costly sweetener by a substantial margin, over 3-fold the cost of the SweetLeaf stevia
- Wheat-Free Market’s Virtue Sweetener is the least costly, also by a substantial margin. Even though Virtue, like Lakanto, is a mixture of erythritol + monkfruit, the different proportions of sweetener (richer in the intensely sweet monkfruit) make it four-fold sweeter, thereby reducing the quantity required, tablespoon for tablespoon. In fact, the Virtue Sweetener is only a bit more costly than sugar.
- SweetLeaf stevia (inulin + stevia) is also a great buy.
- Wholesome (erythritol without the added sweetening power of monkfruit or stevia) and Swerve (erythritol + oligosaccharides) are just behind Lakanto as high-cost sweeteners.
Of course, you may mix your sweeteners in ways that avoid, for instance, the metallic aftertaste of stevia preparations. You may therefore combine some stevia with Virtue, or stevia with erythritol, to obtain sweetness with less prominent aftertaste.
I did this comparison because Gary Miller of Wheat-Free Market expressed concern that, despite formulating the Virtue Sweetener for concentrated sweetness and value, many people did not recognize the cost advantages. Well, here you see it in play daylight: the unique monkfruit + erythritol mixture of the Virtue Sweetener means you can make delicious wheat-, grain-, sugar-free and healthy Wheat Belly dishes at just a tiny bit greater cost than using conventional sugar.
Eating the Wheat Belly way is rich, varied, and delicious! Get some additional inspiration for wheat/grain-free dinners with these recipes.
This will also sign you up for the Wheat Belly newsletter featuring additional, delicious recipes and the latest information about new developments in the Wheat Belly lifestyle! Enter your name and email to get started! 
Dr. Davis was wondering about the use of sunflower seeds as a “flour” substitute; I have been making crackers with grinding salted sunflower seeds along with Parmesan cheese and these make great crackers for cheese, hummus, dips etc. I’m not sure where I found the recipe, I believe it was on cooks.com under low carb recipes
Deb wrote: «…wondering about the use of sunflower seeds as a “flour” substitute»
Approved. See:
https://drdavisinfinitehealth.com/2015/03/wheat-belly-meals-flours-baking/
That’s as whole sunflower, and its meal or flour.
To expand on a remark advising “Minimize use of polyunsaturated oils (corn, safflower, mixed vegetable, and sunflower)” in the recent “Do you need an oil change” article, if you use this oil, seek the “high oleic” variants (which still are are 36% Omega 6 linoleic acid).
Also, in the context of a newer article here (“Like detergent to your intestines”) on emulsifiers, avoid or minimize consumption of products containing lecithins, including sunflower lecithin.
________
Blog Reply Associate (click my user name for details)
I recently had a argument with a place that sells hummus. I wanted it with sea salt instead of refined salt. Mainly because of loss of minerals in the refining process. Also because of the anti caking. Does it matter? Or is my blood pressure safe with the cheap table salt?
Courtney wrote: «I wanted it with sea salt instead of refined salt.»
If you’re going to ask for a specific salt, I’d suggest unrefined ancient mined salt:
https://drdavisinfinitehealth.com/2016/02/wheat-watch-campbells-healthy-request-tomato-soup-2/comment-page-1/#comment-64045
We use a coarse pink Himalayan, grinding it as needed.
«Does it matter?»
As a matter of infrequent exposure, probably not, compared to a lot of other ingredients in processed foods. Choose your home salt carefully, but focus on other issues when shopping and dining. Beware of those touting “sea salt” (for the reasons at that link above).
«Or is my blood pressure safe with the cheap table salt?»
Salt consumption is being deprecated as a “nutrient of concern” by consensus authorities who are slowly realizing they never had any science to support their low salt mania. It is, however, something that still needs to be minded by those with high BP (and there are lots of things to do to lower BP other than meds). The type of salt is likely irrelevant with respect to BP.
________
Blog Reply Associate (click my user name for details)
Does Woodmans carry virtue?
Kim wrote: «Does Woodmans carry virtue?»
It doesn’t appear so. WFMF’s list of retailers is here:
https://www.wheatfreemarket.com/store-locator.html
Until recently, they were web order only.
________
Blog Reply Associate (click my user name for details)
Good to know. I love Virtue sweetener.
One that Dr. D. didn’t mention but has recommended in his books is xylitol. The Xyla brand is my go-to sweetener and replaces sugar 1:1. We’ve not detected any funky taste whatsoever. It’s the only one I use for cranberry sauce and other “fruity” dishes. Current Amazon price is $11.70 per pound. Swerve (and other erythritol brands) is good for everything else. To my taste buds, granular stevia in it’s various forms is awful but the liquid “Sweet Drops” and KAL “Pure Stevia” are fine, as long as you don’t overdo them.
As Bob indicated above, mix-and-matching according to personal preference and type of recipe may be required for the best results
Kate wrote: «One that Dr. D. didn’t mention but has recommended in his books is xylitol.»
Xylitol comes with caveats. It’s not zero GI and it’s lethal to dogs.
My inclination would be to reserve it for applications where nothing else provides its unique properties, and even then, treat it as 60% net carb.
Using xylitol if you own a dog is like using PTFE (Polytetrafluoroethylene, Teflon®) cookware if you own parrots – great care is required. An accidental spill can be lapped up before you even know the dog is in the kitchen, or a treat gets snarfed off the coffee table while you attend to a phone call – either scenario resulting in a Poison Control Center call, vet call, and the need for crucial, prompt, and possibly expensive action.
________
Blog Reply Associate (click my user name for details)
I agree, Bob. Xyla is reserved (mostly) for cranberry sauce … otherwise “bye-bye” cranberries! We don’t own dogs, but a friend of mine had a similar experience to what you described. It doesn’t matter how careful you are, those little critters will get their paws on it sooner or later. Fortunately my friend caught the little guy in the act and they were able to get immediate treatment with a good outcome. (She got rid of the xylitol pronto!)
I’m with you with the Xyla. I only put it into my Bullet Proof Coffee in the a.m. and very EVER so rarely do I have a sweet with it. Honestly, I prefer my ‘fat bombs’ as a dessert. I tried some of the others, shown, and ended up throwing them out. The taste had no appeal… and the aftertaste wasn’t to my liking. So, it’s one of those things switching to LCHF, for me, that has a ‘gateway’ pricetag. Finding the right fit for it cost a lot of $$ for each bag not wanted. No regrets, though. And no dog in the house.
“Below each little pile of one tablespoon-equivalent sweetener is the cost per tablespoon…”
Does that mean you’ve shown the cost
per tablespoon or the cost per tablespoon equivalent?
bill wrote: «…cost per tablespoon or the cost per tablespoon equivalent?»
Unless Dr. Davis contradicts me, my assumption was cost per tablespoon equivalent.
Few alternative sweeteners are 1:1 volume replacements for granulated sucrose in every recipe, so people usually start at tablespoon equivalents.
________
Blog Reply Associate (click my user name for details)
There’s only one problem with all these “natural” sweetners (uh, hello, SUGAR is natural also!); the ones you mention all taste absolutely DISGUSTING! I’ll stick with the natural cane sugar, thank you.
Reny Simone wrote: «the ones you mention all taste absolutely DISGUSTING!»
Reactions vary. We tend to use specific alternative sweeteners in specific recipes. I might add that we haven’t tried the WFMF products yet.
«…(uh, hello, SUGAR is natural also!)…»
The point of using the word “natural” is to distinguish these alternative sweeteners from “artificial” sweeteners (all of which, so far, have presented disqualifying issues of one sort or another).
«I’ll stick with the natural cane sugar, thank you.»
And within daily/interval net carb limits, that’s actually not a problem.
________
Blog Reply Associate (click my user name for details)
“And within daily/interval net carb limits”
WBTH carb limits are 15 per meal, assuming 3 meals a day. If I eat less than 3 meals a day, won’t I become under-carbohydrated and have my health suffer?
palo wrote: «WBTH carb limits are 15 per meal, assuming 3 meals a day.»
The real target is blood glucose, and the 50g/day, 15g/(meal or 6-hr period) net carb guideline is just a rule of thumb that provides decent odds of keeping fasting BG below 90 mg/dL, and postprandial BG at no-rise.
«If I eat less than 3 meals a day, won’t I become under-carbohydrated and have my health suffer?»
Is there such a thing as under-carbohydrated? As long as we’re getting enough prebiotic fiber (for which the main source is non-starchy vegetables), and ample micronutrients (which many veggies provide) we don’t really need any other carbs at all.
Wheat Belly endorses, for example, nutritional ketosis for certain scenarios, and that’s commonly taken to mean less than 20g net carb/day.
If you’re concerned about it, eat more veggies at the meals you do have.
________
Blog Reply Associate (click my user name for details)
“Wheat Belly endorses, for example, nutritional ketosis for certain scenarios, and that’s commonly taken to mean less than 20g net carb/day.”
Are you saying that in the WB life style we should consume no less than 20 net carb per day? Some days I’ll go below that. Is this dangerous?
palo wrote: «Are you saying that in the WB life style we should consume no less than 20 net carb per day?»
No. That number is just the generally accepted threshold of full-time ketosis.
People following Wheat Belly who are dealing with, for example, T1D, epilepsy, and other candidate ailments, may well want to stay ketogenic indefinitely.
«Some days I’ll go below that [20g/day]. Is this dangerous?»
No, and even less so than an extended fast. WB doesn’t prescribe a lower limit of net carbs, as long as, over time, prebiotic fiber (a non-net form of carb) and crucial micronutrients (often from carbs) are accounted for.
And keep in mind that this isn’t about the carbs per se. It’s about glycation over time (and the separate effects of fructose). For this, blood sugar is the easiest proxy to measure, but figuring net carbs doesn’t even require a finger stick.
________
Blog Reply Associate (click my user name for details)
Palo, I agree with Bob that “under-carbohydration” is a very strange concept. But your post did remind me of discussion I had with Bob on a previous post, which can roughly be paraphrased as follows.
K (making obvious & true statement on arithmetic): “If you intermittently fast, while choosing to maintain the same total daily caloric intake and also choosing to maintain the same dietary composition, i.e. percentages of carbs, etc, then you will (greatly) exceed the 15g/6h rule of thumb.”
Bob (making an also obvious & true statement on arithmetic):”If you intermittently fast, while choosing to maintain the same total daily caloric intake and also choosing to (greatly) reduce the percentage carbs in your dietary composition (or to be that low to begin with), then you can certainly still maintain adherence to the 15g/6h rule of thumb,”
which is equivalent to (but with different emphasis)
“If you have 1 meal/day rather than 3, while choosing to maintain the same total daily caloric intake and also choosing to maintain adherence to the 15g/6h rule of thumb, then you will (greatly) reduce the percentage carbs in your dietary composition to less than ~3%.”
Of course, the real question is, which of these options (or some other option) might someone prefer (for whatever reason), and what is the likely effect of this choice? It seems Dr. Davis has not specified anything regarding this.
So, Palo, if you (or another reader of this) actually do sometimes eat 1 or 2 meals per day and do have a blood glucose meter, it’d be good if you can report to us what you did and the corresponding blood glucose readings, just so we have some sample data. [You might need to report it on a more recent post, since the comments get locked after a certain time.]
K wrote: «…discussion I had with Bob on a previous post …»
Presumably this one: https://drdavisinfinitehealth.com/2016/03/safe-sex-on-weekends-only-2/#comment-64457
«…the comments get locked after a certain time. »
At present, it appears to be 14 days from initial post, or re-post of an older article. I have more tips on how to use the Wheat Belly blog in an article on Wheat Free Forum, linked from my user name on this response (only).
________
Blog Reply Associate
I bought the Virtue sweetener and for me it has a strong aftertaste [not unlike Stevia] so I’m willing to pay a higher price for no/less aftertaste. I know that our taste buds are different and that mine have likely changed in the year I’ve been on WB, but I’m curious to know if anyone else experienced the same aftertaste.
I love Virtue sweetener and have not experienced an aftertaste. I use it in baking and for sweetening ice tea.
I’ve used Monk fruit and it has carbs…….how does this Virtue Sweetener not have any?
Darlene wrote: «I’ve used Monk fruit and it has carbs…….how does this Virtue Sweetener not have any?»
Round-off-to-zero due to Serving Size (1 tablespoon), it appears.
I wouldn’t worry about it unless serious exceeding that amount in a portion.
________
Blog Reply Associate (click my user name for details)
Does anyone have an opinion of the Whey Low sweeteners from VivaLac?
Ellen wrote: «Does anyone have an opinion of the Whey Low sweeteners from VivaLac?»
See:
https://drdavisinfinitehealth.com/2012/10/in-pursuit-of-sweetness/comment-page-2/#comment-54311
It’s mostly fructose (appears to be HFCS without the glucose), then lactose, and some plain ‘ol table sugar. In my view it provides all the chronic hazards of any simple sugars, but it temporarily fakes out a blood glucose monitor.
________
Blog Reply Associate (click my user name for details)