etchells BUILDING DESIGN
travel. scott mcrae
has been in the entertainment industry for over 24 years, loved by viewers of many shows including Postcards and Destinations. Scott shares his adventures from Channel Ten’s A Taste of Travel on Ben’s Menu with our readers. visit scott’s website arts, jessica gledhill
is an artist, curator, arts coordinator, radio presenter and director of The Creative Workshop. She is a passionate supporter of the region’s arts, design and crafts sectors and believes the Arts should be accessible to everyone.
beauty. wendy ward
is a lover of all things beauty, and has written for women’s magazines and weekend supplements across Australia. She lives on the Coast with her American husband and her pooch, and is currently working on a book of beauty tips for mature women.
motor. mark holgate
has been a journalist for more than 20 years, mostly writing motoring, motor sport and news stories for some of Australia’s biggest publication empires. Mark is obsessed with all things auto and runs an auto blogsite. visit mark’s website health. dr. diana treece
is a GP working at Kariong Medical Centre. She has worked in the UK, Borneo, India and Malawi and has a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Child Health. Diana shares her knowledge on health and general wellbeing with our readers.
OUR PEOPLE
Ditch Sugar
but not cake!
Doing away with refined sugar is becoming an increasingly popular choice to improve lifestyle and health, but it can be tough to wholly do without an occasional sweet treat. There are lots of sugar substitutes on the market but you have to be careful – many options that seem less refined and more natural can be just as calorific as refined sugar, and also have a high GI value. One sweetener that's worth giving a try, especially if you’re really missing the odd baked treat, is xylitol.
Xylitol is a naturally occurring sweetener found in small quantities in many fruits and vegetables, with commercial xylitol extracted from birch trees and corn cob fibres. It was first discovered in Europe in the late 1800s and has long been used there as an alternative for diabetics. Xylitol is considered to have a similar sweetness and taste to sugar, but has significantly less calories than sugar (2.4 cal per gram compared to sugar’s 3.87 cal per gram) and a very low glycaemic index value (7 as opposed to 65 for sugar). It’s also much better for your teeth than sugar and has been shown to have antibacterial properties. Xylitol really comes into its own in the kitchen, particularly with baking as it has the same level of sweetness and can be used gram for gram.
Carolyn Hartz was the first to bring xylitol to Australia in 2002. A self-confessed sugar addict, Carolyn had been diagnosed as pre-diabetic and was really missing sugary treats. But a chance conversation in Paris changed her life. “She told me about a company in New York that sold xylitol, an all natural sugar-free sweetener made from birch trees or the woody fibre of corn cobs that actually tasted like sugar. They also had a cake mix that was sugar, grain and flour free and very low carb. It was a revelation,” Carolyn says. Carolyn’s company SweetLife grew from there with the first shipment of xylitol and baking mixes selling out in three months. Carolyn has been on her sugar-free journey for 27 years now, and is due to release her first cookbook in October, with 60 delicious recipes for a guilt-free sweet fix. The recipes are also gluten-free. Sweetlife’s Perfect Sweet Xylitol can also be used as a sugar substitute in your favourite recipes, or even in your morning cuppa. In baking, it’s worth noting that it absorbs moisture, so some adjustments might be needed. Let’s face it, it’ll be tasty experimentation!
Stay tuned for future issues