Hi Everyone!

I've been lurking here (and in the Intuitive Eating and LWL forums) for some time. I thought it was about time to introduce myself and ask you all a question.

I suppose I should tell you a little about me first. My name is Beth. I'm 43 and live with my husband in the Minnesota. We're working artists with two dog-like cats.

First off THANK YOU ALL and 3FC's for these great forums. I've lost about 70# over the past 10 years and am now down to my last 20 which seems to be the hardest to lose. I stumbled across this Super Foods/Whole Foods lifestyle about a week ago and thought I'd give it a try along with trying to learn Intuitive eating. Well low and behold I've barely begun and have already lost 3#s breaking a two month long weightloss stall. I am eating more food per day but of course much healthier foods and eating 5-6 times a day. Wow do I feel great! I'm not hungry all the time and feel totally satisfied when I do eat. Who knew healthy food was so yummy, LOL!

My question is does anyone know if there is a website or cook book that gives an accurate conversion for sugar to Stevia? I've never been a big sweets fan as most things are too sweet for my taste. Usually I use either honey or Stevia if I "need" sweetner. I'd like to try baking with Stevia but don't have a clue how to substitute it for sugar in recipes since it is so much more concentrated than regular table sugar. Any help?

Again thank you all for so much great information and support you give each other.
Beth

Does this help?

http://www.cookingwithstevia.com/ste...ion_chart.html

Perfect! Thank you.

What the heck is stevia? Is it tasty? Better for you than sugar?

Feisty - Drs. Roisen and Oz say the their new book, You on a Diet on page 98, that stevia is a noncaloric natural herb. They also say "the taste isn't ideal, and seems to lower sperm count in some studies."

CinnamonGirl - welcome to 3fatchicks! I'm curious, in light of what the good Drs. said, I wonder if you liked the taste of stevia right away, or was it something you had to get used to? I like the idea that it is a natural food, and may try it.

Hi Jane,

Like I said I don't really like sweet in general but have had Stevia in really bad iced tea or occationally in oatmeal if the quality of the oatmeal isn't so good (ie restaurant stuff). I bring a little packet with me "just in case." Stevia does taste different than sugar but then all the artificial sweetners taste different than sugar to me even Splenda. I've not tried baking with it yet but now that Mandalinn82 has pointed me to the cooking with Stevia website I'll make a batch of scones tonight and see how they taste.

Beth

They have a whole recipe section too - so if you can't figure out how to adapt one of your existing recipes to stevia, you can use one of theirs.

Thanks, Mandalinn82, I'll check those out.

Jane, about the lower sperm count here's what the cookingwithstevia site has to say on that...

"A contraceptive? Two studies showed stevia to have a contraceptive effect. The first study was done in Uruguay over 30 years ago and since then no one has been able to reproduce the results. The second study was done by a graduate student in Rio de Janeiro and the results and methods have been questionable. Multiple other studies have shown that stevia has no contraceptive effect."

So, hopefully no one will count on Stevia as a contraceptive or they'll probably be in for a big surprise in about nine months, LOL!

I like to use a drop or two of liquid stevia or some powdered stevia in my coffee basket when I brew a pot of coffee (if the coffee isn't the greatest). I think it takes the bitter out without really sweetening it (a drop per cup would sweeten it, a drop per pot seems to take out the bitterness). I've looked at the cooking with stevia site, but since I don't really make anything sweet in the first place I haven't tried any of the recipes. I guess if I were to make a dessert I'd be more inclined to use real sugar anyway just because I won't be the only one eating it and I usually don't eat it anyway! Oh, and I certainly wouldn't count on it being a natural contraceptive!!! I'd go with something proven or else!!

Thanks for the info, ladies.

Well I made my scones with Stevia and decided to NOT follow the directions and cut the Stevia back by 30% to help eliminate the bitter taste. I cut it back to 50% because i don't like sweet stuff and boy were they not sweet, LOL! So now we have 4 more to eat before I try again. Next time I'll follow the directions and cut out only 30%. The scones weren't bad but with whole cranberries in them they were very tart.

Thanks again for the info!
Beth