Sweeter Than Sugar
Our bodies are our gardens – our wills are our gardeners. – William Shakespeare Thrive! Presents practices that can improve life. This post explores sugar and sweet alternatives. Six thousand years ago, the sugar cane plant’s juices were first extracted in India and Southeast Asia. Four thousand years later, sugar granules were produced. In time, they were refined into crystals. Cane growth and sugar manufacture then spread throughout the early Islamic world. Later, to the West Indies and tropical Americas, along with enslaved Africans. Until the 1500s, sugar was rare and expensive. When technology allowed cheaper production, more people could buy those sweets. In 2014, JAMA Internal Medicine reported adult men eat an average, added 24 teaspoons of sugar daily. Dr. Frank Hu, professor of nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health continued, “Excess sugar’s impact on obesity and diabetes is well documented, but one area that may surprise many men is how their taste for sugar can [cause] a greater risk of dying from heart disease. Of non-sugar sweeteners, one concern is their potential negative impact on the gut microbiome. This is a distinct ecosystem inside intestines. Its trillions of microscopic organisms include over a thousand species of bacteria, as well as viruses, fungi and parasites that help the body. Read more. According to Dr. Axe’s “12 Best Sugar Substitutes,” side effects from artificial sweeteners like aspartame, sucralose, ace-K and saccharin have been linked to,” headaches and poor digestion to cravings and even mood disorders.” Are there healthy sugar substitutes? Dr. Axe reports, “Some experts like fruit the best because there are no empty calories involved and the sugars are naturally occurring.” Here are some popular, natural sweeteners listed by Dr. that Axe, Stevia (0 calories) Dates (1 Medjool date = 66 calories) Coconut sugar (1 tablespoon = 45 calories) Banana puree (1 cup = 200 calories) Monk fruit (0 calories) Manufacturers are now developing new ingredients that can sweeten foods and beverages without adding calories or chemicals. Sweet proteins are naturally-occurring compounds in some tropical plants and berries native to West Africa and Southeast Asia. Unlike conventional sweeteners [which are typically sugars or artificial compounds], sweet proteins are amino acids. Their names include thaumatin, brazzein, monellin, curculin, and miraculin. They are 400 to 3,000 times sweetener than sucrose [table sugar]. The better-known stevia and monkfruit are 200-300 times as sweet as sucrose. Because sweet proteins are metabolized differently from sugars, they do not raise blood sugar levels. Plus, their intense sweetness means eating fewer calories. To be used in US food products, any new ingredient must receive GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) status from the FDA. While thaumatin has been approved, ongoing studies are testing safety and usefulness of more sweet proteins. Recipes Sugar Free Recipes 340+ trusted sugar-free recipes from appetizers to main dishes to desserts [includes cookies, cakes, cobblers]. 30 Days of Sugar-Free Recipes From enchiladas to salad dressings and more. Resources: 12 Best Sugar Substitutes Are Sweet Proteins the New Stevia? History of Sugar Sweet Danger of Sugar See These Videos Sugar Alternatives, 04:37 [Yes, sugar can cause health problems. But there’s another, hidden dietary culprit.] If You Quit Sugar for 30 Days, 6 Healthy Alternatives, 03:52 The HEALTHIEST Sugar-Free Sweeteners at the Grocery Store, 13:29, COMMENT Succeed and Soar! Sandra Gould Ford Presenting arts experiences to encourage, refresh, enrich creative thinking and inspire. Radiant Tree Books Beyond the Sky’s Limits shares encouraging wisdom and uplifting images about going beyond boundaries and making dreams come true. Space is open for notes, sketches and journaling. Contact to arrange in-person and online Illustrated Wisdom and Writing workshops. 36-Page, 5×8 soft cover, $15 Preview or Purchase 48-Page, 8×10 soft cover, $20 Preview or Purchase, View All Books Thanks for shopping!
New Year Wisdoms and Inspirations
For years, I’ve collected inspiring quotes. As this new year begins, here are words of wisdom offered to encourage, refresh, enrich creative thinking and inspire. Click here for a free, printable, PDF booklet of these inspirations. Take big steps. You can’t cross a chasm in two small jumps. –David Lloyd GeorgeGetting to know and like people and getting people to know and like you are the two top cards in the game of success. –UnknownCherish your visions and your dreams, as they are the children of your soul; the blueprints of your ultimate achievements. –Napoleon HillObstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal. –Henry Ford What is the recipe for successful achievement? To my mind there are just four essential ingredients: Choose a career you love . . . Give it the best there is in you . . . Seize your opportunities. And be a member of the team. –Benjamin F. Fairless Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other. –Abraham Lincoln Succeed and Soar! Sandra Gould Ford Presenting arts experiences to encourage, refresh, enrich creative thinking and inspire. COMMENT.
2024 Beyond the Sky’s Limits 1, Dreams
The best way to predict the future is to create it. — credited to Abraham Lincoln * For decades, I’ve collected uplifting, motivating quotes. In 2019, Succeed and Soar allowed me to share them, illustrated with evocative images. The theme for the first of this “Beyond the Sky’s Limits” series is Dreams. As a Disney commercial sings, “A dream is a wish your heart makes.” Many believe our hearts can be our best guides. Photographs from my “SkyScapes Gallery” accompany this series. Here are quotes about dreams I’ve cherished for years, * Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil. — James Allen All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible. — T. E. Lawrence Hope is a waking dream. — Aristotle If you can dream it, you can do it. Always remember this whole thing was started by a mouse. — Walt Disney The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers. But above all, the world needs dreamers who do. — Sarah Ban Breathnach Succeed and Soar! COMMENT. SkyScapes Journals Record your dreams, hopes, plans and achievements in these beautiful, inspiring notebooks. Details: 6” x 8, spiral notebook 120 pages, ruled on both sides Art printed on front Cover is thick paper stock. Back cover is medium gray Inside front and back covers have pockets for storing extra paper and pens View All Notebooks Thanks for shopping!
Wisdoms, Understanding Happiness
Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own. — Robert A. Heinlein For decades, I’ve gathered precious insights. Each one I read is like a breath of life. They lift my spirit and remind of the good we can do and marvelous things we can be. I hope this web site’s words and images encourage, refresh, enrich creative thinking and inspire. I hope they gladden your heart. True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future. — Lucius Annaeus Seneca A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery while on a detour. — Unknown The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves. — Victor Hugo Live as though life is rigged in your favor. — Rumi The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up. – – Mark Twain Succeed and Soar! Sandra Gould Ford Beautiful, inspiring Succeed and Soar posters. Sizes from 8”x6.5” to the popular 30” x 23.5” Four Shape Options: Natural, Vertical, Horizontal and Square Printed on acid-free paper with archival inks Includes 1” white border to allow for future framing and mounting View All Posters Thanks for shopping!
Inspirations Worth Remembering
The heart is indeed the abode of the soul. – Michelangelo For decades, I’ve gathered precious insights. Each one I read is like a breath of life. They lift my spirit and remind of the good we can do and marvelous things we can be. I hope this web site’s words and images encourage, refresh, enrich creative thinking and inspire. I hope these wisdoms and inspirations gladden your heart. A generous heart, kind speech, and compassion are the things that renew humanity. — Buddha Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life. — Confucius I think it not improbable that man, like the grub that prepares a chamber for the winged thing it has never seen but is to be — that man may have cosmic destinies that he does not understand. And so, beyond the vision of battling races and an impoverished earth, I catch a dreaming glimpse of peace. — Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. Silence is also speech. –Fulfulde proverb An early morning walk is a blessing for the day. – Henry David Thoreau Succeed and Soar! Sandra Gould Ford SkyScapes Metal Prints Bring artwork to life while decorating with stylish lines and depth Details Image printed directly on 1/16” thick aluminum Select sizes from 6″x8″ to 30″x 40″ Aluminum print offset from wall by ¾” thick wood frame attached to back The high-gloss aluminum compliments rich colors with stunning results See All Metal Prints Thanks for shopping!
Inspirations, The Importance of You
A diamond is merely a lump of coal that did well under pressure. ~ Henry Kissinger For decades, I’ve gathered precious insights. Each one I read is like a breath of life. They lift my spirit and remind of the good we can do and marvelous things we can be. I hope this web site’s words and images encourage, refresh, enrich creative thinking and inspire. I hope these words of wisdom gladden your heart. There is a life force, an energy, a quickness that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost. You do not have to believe in yourself or your work. It is not your business to compare yourself with others. It is your business to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you, to keep the channel open. –Martha Graham Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act. Action will delineate and define you. — Thomas Jefferson Any life, no matter how long and complex it may be, is made up of a single moment–the moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is. –Jorge Luis Borges Neither evil tongues, Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men, Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all The dreary intercourse of daily life, Shall e’er prevail against us. –William Wordsworth Every one of us has in him a continent of undiscovered character. Blessed is he who acts the Columbus to his own soul. ~ Unknown Succeed and Soar! Life Well Lived offers floral photographs, wise words and invitations to see life as a garden of possibilities. This 60-page book offers lots of space for personal notes, sketches and meditations. Here are opportunities to both enjoy life’s seasons and find enrichment. A great gift. * 5×8 $14.50 Preview and Purchase. * 8×10 $19.00 Preview and Purchase. Thanks for shopping! While a How-To Illustrated Wisdom video is developed for Life Well Lived, here’s a helpful companion, Self Care through Visual Journaling: 5 Easy Steps.