Most of us who follow the paleo lifestyle or do a combo of paleo and primal know that dairy is not necessarily acceptable. It's taken me a while to limit or remove dairy from my diet but I still do indulge in borderline good sources of dairy. One in particular is heavy cream. I've contemplated giving it up and dabbled in other sources to see if it could suit me. Coconut milk is okay but doesn't taste as well with my coffee or have the same consistency. I've attempted to just drink black coffee but that doesn't do it for me either. So after playing around with half and half and heavy cream, the winner is heavy cream.
So what's the difference between heavy cream and 1/2 & 1/2?? Heavy cream is full fat cream at approximately 36% of fat, if you can buy it organic yay! Half & Half is 1/2 full milk and half cream. Half & Half is lower in fat but higher in carbs because of the milk. Depending on your insulin response and lactose response half & half can have a negative response in your body versus heavy cream. Robb Wolf and Mark Sisson use heavy cream in their morning coffee so why not me??!! The primary reasons why I use heavy cream vs. half & half is because I need the fat in my diet in the morning and if I am going to have some carbs I know that milk's response to my body causes a higher insulin response then will some veggies I mix with my eggs in the morning. I used to be to be a flavored creamer junkie but now I can't even stomach them. Heavy cream is rich makes my coffee taste amazing and doesn't have any added oils or fake sugars! No insulin response for me! Just pure caffeine!
Now lets talk sugar alternatives!!! Splenda, Sweet-n-low, Equal are all bad for you we know this!! I've actually done a science project for school to see how sugar, splenda, sweet-n-low, equal and stevia react in your body. How you do this is add yeast, water and the sugar to see how much CO2 is created, this basically shows how the sugar spikes in your body. (If you really wanted, I can show you the test results) In any case, with the exception of Stevia, the sugar and sugar alternatives created almost the same amount of CO2. Basically what this says is that your sugar high responds the same way in your body. Stevia did not create CO2 which explains you don't have that sugar high response. This is why I use stevia in my coffee. After trying powder versus liquid form of stevia. Liquid by far is better, it doesn't have any after taste and is pure. Just like any changes in anything you eat or drink, you have to get used to it. But give this a try and I'm pretty sure you'll fall in love with it!
Agave nectar is not bad for you its a natural sweetener you do have some insulin spike similar to honey but it's better for you. The reason why I don't use Agave or honey is because it does spike my insulin but more because there are calories involved and I'd rather eat some fruit or veggies!
I'll admit I still enjoy a diet coke or coke zero - it's my crack, but I try to limit it only on days that I'm fasting because I need a little sugar high to get me through the 18-24hr fasting period!
Quote of the Day!
"Losing is a learning experience. It teaches you humility. It teaches you to work harder. It's also a powerful motivator."
Yogi Berra
I have heard the same thing about those "fake" sugars, you didn't add turbinado sugar to your tests did you. I happen to use that in my coffee. A cup I make is normally 80 calories with 4 tsp and just black expresso. I tried your heavy cream 3 tsp add's a whopping 200 calories to that.
ReplyDeleteI'm a bit reluctant to continue down the heavy cream train. I'll have to compare the caloric contents of half & half instead of heavy cream. Really either is fine, don't taste much of a difference between the heavy cream nor the 1/2 & 1/2 besides one is obviously thicker and add's body to your coffee.
I have yet to try stevia, I'll probably pick some up and experiment as it took me a while to convert back to the "sugar in the raw" which is basically just dirty sugar lol.