Healthier US ingredients in Finland?

[mCowboy]

Now after buying all that unhealthy food from Stockmann's today, to counteract the impact on my body, does anyone have ideas where to find the following (or good substitutes):

- nitrate free turkey bacon
- low carb tortillas
- Pam
- Splenda
- sugar free Jello
- Canola oil
- low fat Parmesan cheese
- black beans

[karen]

I've seen the "Pam" type products in CM. Canned black beans were also at Kamppi CM. Dried black beans at some CM. I don't think I've seen any of the other items here.

[Sara]

Is Splenda a sweetner? If so you can buy Canderel here, in a big jar just like powdered sugar. Its pretty good

Last time I was in Behnfords they had Jelly, but I dont know if it was the sugar free sort.

[mCowboy]

Is Splenda a sweetner? If so you can buy Canderel here, in a big jar just like powdered sugar. Its pretty good

Last time I was in Behnfords they had Jelly, but I dont know if it was the sugar free sort.

yes, Splenda is a sweetener. The difference between Splenda and Canderell and Hermesetas, is that Splenda is succralose (made from real sugar by changing the chemical compound, whereas Canderell and Hermesetas are aspartame based, IIRC. Basically Splenda should be a bit more healthier and is favored by many nowadays in the US.

[mCowboy]

I've seen the "Pam" type products in CM. Canned black beans were also at Kamppi CM. Dried black beans at some CM. I don't think I've seen any of the other items here.

I gotta check again, I only seen this squeezy bottles of modified oils, but not sprays...

I even bought a normal spray bottle, but for some reason the olive oil seems to be too thick for it to work, even thou I've seen couple of cooking shows where chefs used those...

[Hank W.]

You need to have the oil in room temperature, but it needs a bit of a larger nozzle, and theres thinner oils. Smilesalot is the expert on hygrotylbrghh... of whatever oil is healthiest.

[mCowboy]

You need to have the oil in room temperature, but it needs a bit of a larger nozzle, and theres thinner oils. Smilesalot is the expert on hygrotylbrghh... of whatever oil is healthiest.

I've had it in room temp, but I dunno where to get the larger nozzle. I've used extra virgin olive oil, but that didn't work.

[smilesalot]

Good question, Im going to answer each topic individually because It would take to much time in one sitting.
First lets discuss splenda which is found in practically every food store here in Finland, while it is being marketed as a natural sweetner called sucralose its a derivative made from sugar (sucrose) and chlorine. Its considered an artificial sweetener and has the E number 955 and is very controversial right now (especially from the sugar industry) to read more check out wikipedia commentary.

Just so you know I'm a firm believer in whole foods and naturally made with that point said, this product is artificially produced and it currently has no long term human studies, I do know it causes migraines in some people as well disentary but these are from individuals who used the product in large doses.

One of the opposition sites has this to say so I won't go into it, what I will go into is some other natural sweetners found here in Finland.
1 of course is Honey which is a mixture of sugars fructose, sucrose and glucose they are some pretty interesting studies coming out on the benifits of honey (see previous link) but it still has a moderate glycemic value so while its healthy its not lo carb like you want. Another is Intiaanisokeri which is basically natural sugar cane sugar, both these are good because of the natural trace minerals found in them. They also enhance the flavor and texture of our favorite home made treats. (As a side note did you know 95% of all white sugar here in Europe is beet sugar). I love the information listed on http://www.worldshealthiestfoods.com/foodstoc.php down at the bottom under natural sweeteners Ive posted before on high mineral density of black strap molasses

I found this sitethat lists other natural sweeteners its from a 2003 news letter but its still good some of the sweetners left out are Lo Han Kuo (good references) also has been processed and is called SlimSweet and/or SugarNot, Trutina Dulcem made from kiwi fruit also called thermosweet, and Yacon syrup which is from a root and has a content of FOS (fructooliosaccharides) this is the natural food used in high quality friendly bacteria supplements (something else Im working on )

Here is another reference for healthy sweetener alternatives
Again notice only a few natural sweeteners have 0 calories, 0 carbs and 0 glicemic index the primary being Stevia.

Hopefully I haven't been to long winded and you will find these of interest

Next post we'll talk about Fats and oils and whats a good fat and whats a bad fat.

smilesalot

Nothing in life is certain except death and taxes
Benjamin Franklin

[Ktulu]

If you want a good natural sweetner... you can't go past stevia

[mCowboy]

smilesalot: thanks a lot for the info package. I do know that none of the artificial sweeteners (including Splenda) are not good for you in large amounts, and since Aspartame has been getting quite a bad rap recently, and Splenda seems to be the favorite at the moment, that's why I asked about that. Most healthier choice recipes from the US usually have Splenda listed as the sweetner, so that's why I asked about that, so I could cook some of the foods easily according to those recipes, if I had Splenda.

Another thing is that using any other sweetener than the one in recipe (especially if the sweetener is natural) will change the carb/calorie amounts sometimes quite significantly.

I'd like to favor organic whole foods, but seems that the selection here in Finland is surprisingly limited. One of my favorite cooking shows is http://www.eatthis.tv and Smiles, if you read the recipes, I'm sure you gonna love it too...

[mCowboy]

someone in Finland is making a big profit...

http://www.stevia.fi/

50ml 12.95e
50g 12.95e

[karen]

I have some Stevia that I had forgotten about. I'm going to start using it again.

[CH]

- nitrate free turkey bacon
I haven't seen turkey bacon, nitrate free or not, here. (Turkey bacon just doesn't sound right...)

- low carb tortillas
Low carb products haven't really hit Finland (other than the no sugar added ones). So I don't think there are any available here.

- Pam
Already mentioned. You could also try ordinary cooking oil in a spray bottle. There actually are spray bottles for this purpose, but dunno if they are sold here.

- Splenda
Only Splenda I've seen here is the one in Coca-Cola light. I'm sure it will come eventually here too, but unfortunately the sweetener market here seems to be pretty conservative. If you only want it to add sweetness, there are plenty of other sweeteners. If you want it for baking (it behaves as ordinary sugar, if I have understood correctly), then there really aren't any good substitutes. Btw, for a better sweet taste, mix different types of sweeteners.

- sugar free Jello
I have actually bought some here. Either from Behnfords or Mr. Nibble, don't remember which one. But the K-Market at least in Kamppi had 4 different Jell-O flavors (sugar versions), so you could try requesting from them too. You can of course just use plain gelatin, and make your own jello.

- Canola oil
= Rypsiöljy. Well, Canola is actually "rapsi", but it's more or less the same thing.

- low fat Parmesan cheese
Now why would you want that. I actually think I saw something like that not too long ago, but since I really don't like low fat cheese(products), I didn't look close enough.

- black beans
Which one? I assume you mean the bean bean, not the Chinese fermented soy bean, also known as black bean. The bean one was already mentioned, the fermented soy bean can be bought at least from the Chinese stores on Hämentie in Helsinki.

[Hank W.]

- low carb tortillas
Low carb products haven't really hit Finland (other than the no sugar added ones). So I don't think there are any available here.

I'd be glad just to find tortillas in the first place... making your own is kinda tricky w/o a tortilla press

[Hank W.]

- Canola oil
= Rypsiöljy. Well, Canola is actually "rapsi", but it's more or less the same thing.

Yes but no. And there *is* rapsiöljy too...