No, it really doesn't taste anything like sugar
So, I'm a mentor. I am volunteering with a program called Go Girls!, which aims to promote the values of acive living, healthy eating, and good self-esteem among 12- to 13-year-old girls. In my experience, and in the experience of the people at Ophea, who administer the program, 12- and 13-year-old girls are at a pretty high risk of developing negative habits and negative self concepts. So, for the next seven weeks I am spending my Friday afternoons playing games, eating snacks, and hanging out with a group of 8th graders from a local public school.
This entry emphasizes the snack portion of the program. You see, it's my responsibility each week to provide these girls with yummy, fun, healthy snacks to eat that don't taste "healthy" or look like rabbit pellets. Last Friday's pita chips went down fairly well, as did the carrot sticks, but the hummus and raita dips were met with a chorus of "why can't we eat Canadian food?" Ignoring the fact that we will, at some point, be addressing the idea of Canada's multicultural nature and the importance of experiencing the wealth of diversity we have in this country, their comments alerted me to the fact that what I think is a tasty treat (hummus), is not what a tween thinks is a tasty treat (chips and melted cheese from a jar). They want junk food. So, in the spirit of compromise, I went looking for some low-calorie brownie recipes (that I plan on serving with fresh fruit).
As open-minded as I like to think I am, I am not a fan of artificial sweeteners. I basically think they are evil and taste like soap. But I was willing to give Splenda a try, given its apparent ability to be used in baking. So, I went out and bought a box and made my hip-friendly junk food. The result? Brownies that taste like.... soap. Splenda does not look like sugar. Splenda does not melt like sugar. And Splenda sure as hell does not taste like sugar. It tastes like an artificial sweetener. (Duh.)
Now, I am not naive to the origins of Splenda. I know that it's not a natural sweetener. Mother Nature does not strip sugar molecules of hydrogen and oxygen atoms and replace them with chlorine. The food scientists at McNeil Nutritionals do that. But if you're going to establish an entire brand identity on the idea that a product tastes like sugar, shouldn't you try to make it.... taste like sugar? And maybe you could make it look a little less like an illicit substance while you're at it.
Comments
Cool you're volunteering! That is awesome. You couldn't pay me enough money to go through my teen years again.
Brownies in and of themselves, even when made from sugar, aren't unhealthy. If you cut them up into 1-inch squares instead of dividing a 9"x9" pan into quarters, which is the size most people associate with your average brownie these days ;-), and you let them have only 1 each (served with fresh fruit as you suggested ;-)).
What about little make-your-own mini pizzas? It has melted cheese (but not from a jar),and you can get them to stick some green pepper, tomato, even basil, etc. on it (ok... green leafy stuff may be pushing it with tweens ;-)). Again - given the proper serving size (which is considerably smaller than the diameter of a dinner plate ;-)) that could be considered a healthy snack.
One of my personal favourites (but may not be popular with that crowd) is a granola-fresh-fruit-and-vanilla-yogurt parfait. And the fruit can be fun "exotic" stuff like mango and papaya...
Fresh fruit smoothies (cause of the straw factor, and the fact that they're sorta milkshakie) may also be an option if you can bring a blender...
Have fun :-)
Posted by: heather at April 23, 2006 11:18 PM