[Sca-cooks] Diabetes and Honey - substitute or not?

[Mike C. Baker]

My personal "take" on this is all things in moderation (including 
moderation) -- and the *best* thing to do when in doubt about a "diabetic 
friendly" dish is to ask the target audience just what they mean in their 
usage of the term.  (For example, for MYSELF, the Platina honey-sweetened 
cheesecake is something that I absolutely adore -- and rigorously limit to a 
_small_ serving each day I find it available.)

"When in doubt":  my personal rule of thumb for such a dish IF working under 
such a request and unable to communicate directly to the potential diners 
would be to send any questions to the head of retinue / entourage while 
testing various combinations in advance.  For a direct example, with the 
tagine in question, try halving the amount of honey and adding back some 
amount of Splenda (*not* Splenda Baking Blend!); a separate batch with 1/4 
the suggested honey, a dusting of stevia powder, and a little extra liquid; 
and perhaps a third batch with a light syrup of apricot juice mixed with 
Splenda and reduced over a very low heat.

In general, fruit juice that has *not* been cooked or otherwise handled in 
such a way that fructose converts to sucrose is more "friendly" than refined 
sugars or even unprocessed cane sap / juice -- but much comes down to *how* 
the given diabetic is managing their condition, and the variations are way 
too many in number to cover briefly.

Apologies that I can't speak more specifically to how this affects a 
"tagine" -- not a dish / type of dish covered in the references I have ready 
to hand. (Not even an unabridged dictionary?  Sad comment on dictionary 
compilation, I suppose...)


Adieu, Amra / ttfn - Mike / Pax ... Kihe (Mike C. Baker)
SCA: al-Sayyid Amr ibn Majid al-Bakri al-Amra, F.O.B, OSCA
"Other": Reverend Kihe Blackeagle PULC (the DreamSinger Bard)
Opinions? I'm FULL of 'em  |   Buy my writings!: 
http://www.lulu.com/WizardsDen
   http://www.livejournal.com/users/kihebard/

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ysabeau" <ysabeau at mail.ev1.net>
To: "'Cooks within the SCA'" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Sent: Saturday, May 06, 2006 12:48 PM
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Diabetes and Honey - substitute or not?


> I've been asked/volunteered to prepare a dinner at a local non-feast event
> for the crown and other visiting nobles. There isn't a kitchen on site so 
> I
> was looking at prepare ahead recipes. While it isn't necessarily period,
> there is a great recipe for a lamb with honey and apricots tagine in the
> latest Cooking Light magazine. Since our current crown has a North
> African/Muslim Spain (not really sure which) persona, I thought I'd try a
> tagine as one of the dishes. However, they also request a diabetic 
> friendly
> diet...so what do I do about honey? I don't think Splenda makes a good
> substitute so any other ideas? How does honey fit into the diabetic diet?
> Should I just try something else?
>
> I'm sure there are other cooks on the list that have prepared food for 
> TRMs
> Mahdi and Valeria...any suggestions?
>
> Thanks,
> Ysabeau
>
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