Splenda

From splenda.com:

“SPLENDA® No Calorie Sweetener can lower carbohydrates and calories in recipes. For example, a cup of SPLENDA® Granular has 96 calories and 24 grams of carbohydrates, compared to the 770 calories and 192 grams of carbs found in a cup of sugar. Since SPLENDA® Granular measures and pours like sugar, you can use it like sugar in your favorite recipes. For your favorite beverages, SPLENDA® Packets are the perfect size to take with you anywhere you go.”

I tried baking with it. It just doesn’t seem to mitigate the carb count in baked goods enough to make it worth the effort, because baked goods usually contain wheat flour, which is also high in carb. Plus, baking with Splenda leads to uneven results. Sometimes the baked good ends up too sweet, and sometimes not sweet enough. By the way, you might want to try your favorite banana bread recipe without any sugar or Splenda. A friend told me that the bananas sweeten the bread naturally. I tried it with only 1/4 cup added Splenda, and it was plenty sweet. So if you previously added a cup of sugar, you would be saving quite a few carbs and calories by substituting Splenda and using much less of it.

Baked goods aside, I think Splenda is a fantastic product for a number of uses:
-Fresh squeezed lemonade
-Dressings and marinades
-Fruit crisps and cobblers (with low-glycemic fruit and oat flour)
-Drizzles to sweeten things with lowered sugar

Any sweetened liquid is like kryptonite to a diabetic, because the liquid is processed into the bloodstream so quickly, thereby spiking blood sugar. So lemonade, orange juice, apple juice, and regular soda are out. But with Splenda, we can have our juice and drink it, too. For this reason alone, Splenda is a miracle product.

When every single carb counts, I think it’s worth it to use Splenda. I love sweets, and I can have dessert as long as my dinner has been low carb and high protein. I’m lucky. My mother-in-law has been diabetic for 20 years but recently was able to go off insulin by changing her meds and going strictly low carb. So when we have her over for dinner, I can still serve dessert if I use Splenda and some care. I’ll be posting my rhubarb crisp recipe here soon.

I also think it’s worth it to use Splenda for marinades and dressings to keep carb count really low. For example, the Kung Pao chicken recipe featured in this blog is delicious and very low in carbs; substituting Splenda for sugar makes no difference in taste and saves 4g carb and 45 calories. I also mix our own tomato-based barbecue marinade and use Splenda for a little sweetening. Splenda doesn’t work as a part of a basting sauce, though. Real sugar crystalizes, and Splenda won’t.