I ordered the sugar substitute Xylitol from my local GNC store a few days ago.  Simply, it’s a sugar alcohol that can claim to naturally sourced (like sugar) yet not spike your blood glucose levels (unlike sugar).  While not sugar, it’s not an artificial sweetener – which health food advocates claim is no better than consuming refined sugar in spite of its lower or zero calories.

This particular brand is called “XyliSmart.”  Its texture is more coarse than ordinary table sugar and it’s sweet, but not quite as sweet, as ordinary sugar.  Artificial sweetener is much more sweet per serving that xylitol, in my opinion.  I’ve added it to coffee and to my breakfast smoothie.  In both cases, it provided a nice sweetness that I enjoyed with no after-taste.  This xylitol does have calories, ten calories per teaspoon serving.    I’ve not tried cooking with it, but will use it when I make Korean beef in lettuce wraps.

The XyliSmart label does contain a “caution label.”  First, pregnant or wanna-be pregnant women are supposed to ask their doctors about using xylitol.  Fair enough.  Also, it’s pretty clear you don’t want to gorge on xylitol since it’s a sugar replacement.  It can upset your stomach if you overdo it.  I have not suffered a single side effect.

At about $12 per pound, it’s a luxury item when compared to the $1.50 sugar canister.  If I use it moderately in my eating habit, I don’t think my wallet will miss the higher price of sweetening my food without sugar or traditional artificial sweetener.

NOTE:  I am not a scientist or health food expert.   I’m only a consumer who’s trying to lose a few pounds, dodge sugar, dairy, corn and most wheat.

I whipped up a great smoothie as dessert.

4 strawberries

1 large orange

1 cap full of orange oil

2 caps full of vanilla extract

1 serving of flax-seed

1 cup of Vanilla coconut milk

1 tablespoon of Xylitol (a sugar substitute that’s quite good)

1/2 scoop of pea protein powder (if it’s handy)

It was my first recipe using the sugar substitute “Xylitol,” which is easy to find online.  It was sweet and very dessert-like.  At about $12 per small canister, I recommend it if you can afford to add it to your regiment.  The smoothie was very sweet and pleasing after a dinner of pot roast.  I would try this smoothie as a breakfast meal by adding some frozen spinach or broccoli.

The Virgin is easy to integrate into everyday living.  We’re beyond our 21 day introductory period with the diet and Week Four has been rather smooth sailing.  If you’re trying to follow this plan, you can do it.

We’re finding that our “diet” is allowing us to eat foods that we’d eat if we weren’t worried about calories.  The happy accident tonight was a pot roast.  The only curve ball was you replace white potatoes with turnips.

1 Eye-of-Round Roast

2 turnips

1 carrot

beef broth

1 teaspoon of minced garlic

1/4 cup of red cooking wine (my wife’s guess)

salt & pepper to taste

Cook in a crock pot for several hours.  That’s as scientific as I can make it.

Brown Rice (cook separately)

The turnips seemed to add a little spice to the overall flavor.  That surprised me to the point that I thought cinnamon was placed in the meal.  It isn’t.   This is a neat dish and we have leftovers.  Just place the rice in the bowl and grab a big scoop of the roast.  I think this conforms to JJ Virgin’s plan.  If not 100%, it’s close….but I’ve enjoyed red meat throughout my 21 days on the diet.