This recipe reminds us of an apple crisp, with less fructose. The only organ in your body that can take up fructose is your liver. The first thing that eating fructose does is causing an increase in uric acid. Fructose inhibits nitric oxide, which would otherwise reduce our blood pressure. This is why fructose is famous for causing hypertension (high blood pressure).
Fructose also initiates what’s known as lipogenesis, excess fat production. And the third thing that fructose does in the liver is it initiates an enzyme that inhibits our insulin receptors. That means your insulin levels all over your body have to rise...causing a whole slew of problems, including weight gain.
Between 1970 and 2003 our average consumption of fructose increased from less than half a pound per year to 56 pounds per year. We were never designed to take in so much fructose. Even some natural sweeteners have lots of fructose. From 90 to 97 percent of the sugar in agave nectar is fructose. Up to half of the sugar in some varieties of honey is fructose. To read more, check out the book: GOOD CALORIES, BAD CALORIES.
So is an "apple" the devil...no, but here is a way to lower the fructose overall.
Nutritional Comparison per cup:Apple = 95 calories, 21 carbs, 4 fiber
Zucchini = 20 calories, 4 carbs, 1 fiber
TIP: Boil the zucchini slices in 1 cup of apple tea for 10 minutes! The zucchini soaks up the apple flavor and you would never notice the difference!
"HEALTHIFIED" CRISP
8 cups cubed peeled zucchini
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup Swerve (or 1/4 cup erythritol and 1 tsp stevia glycerite)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
TOPPING:
1 cup Swerve (or 3/4 cup erythritol and 1 tsp stevia glycerite)
1 cup chopped pecans (or other nut)
1/2 cup almond flour
1/2 cup Jay Robb vanilla whey or egg white protein
2/3 cup cold butter
In a bowl, combine the zucchini, lemon juice, sweetener, cinnamon and nutmeg; mix well. Pour into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish.
For topping, combine sweetener, pecans almond flour and protein powder in a bowl; cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over the zucchini mixture. Bake at 325 degrees F for 45-50 minutes or until bubbly and the zucchini is tender. Makes 8 servings.
NUTRITIONAL COMPARISON (per serving)
Traditional Apple Crisp = 525 calories, 67 carbs, 2.3 fiber
"Healthified" Crisp = 363 calories, 15 carbs, 7.2 fiber!
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| Serve with Apple Ice Cream |
Thank you so much for this! A lot of my readers give me a hard time about not eating a lot of fruit. I think I will direct them to this post :)
ReplyDeleteThanks girl! You have a HUGE following!
ReplyDeleteDoes April still have a blog? I tried to go to it, and was redirected...LOVE your blog, Maria! My kids are excited about trying the goldfish crackers and Oreos, and I'm excited about trying...everything! Working on building my stock of kitchen tools, your cookbooks, and pantry staples.
DeleteIt looks like she shut her site down.
DeleteThanks for the kind words! :)
Maria, does this taste like apples? Or Zucchini? I see a lot of zucchini recipes, yours and others, and don't dare try them because I think I won't like it! Is it worth a try??
ReplyDeleteIt tastes a lot like an apple crisp. You would be suprised! I suggest make a half batch to see if you like it. Let me know if you try it.
ReplyDeleteHi Maria I was wondering if I can use sweetleaf liquid stevia as I do not have the Now brand? If so will it be the same measurement? Thanks
ReplyDeleteI would try half the amount first and taste the dough, then add sweetness to taste;) keep in mind that some of the sweetness bakes off. So the dough should be a little sweeter.
ReplyDeleteFor those of you who need more info on the difference between sugars...
ReplyDelete1. After eating fructose, 100 percent of the metabolic burden rests on your liver. But with glucose, your liver has to break down only 20 percent.
2. Every cell in your body, including your brain, utilizes glucose. Therefore, much of it is “burned up” immediately after you consume it. By contrast, fructose is turned into free fatty acids (FFAs), VLDL (the damaging form of cholesterol), and triglycerides, which get stored as fat.
3. The fatty acids created during fructose metabolism accumulate as fat droplets in your liver and skeletal muscle tissues, causing insulin resistance and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Insulin resistance progresses to metabolic syndrome and type II diabetes.
4. Fructose is the most lipophilic carbohydrate. In other words, fructose converts to activated glycerol (g-3-p), which is directly used to turn FFAs into triglycerides. The more g-3-p you have, the more fat you store. Glucose does not do this.
5. When you eat 120 calories of glucose, less than one calorie is stored as fat. 120 calories of fructose results in 40 calories being stored as fat. Consuming fructose is essentially consuming fat!
6. The metabolism of fructose by your liver creates a long list of waste products and toxins, including a large amount of uric acid, which drives up blood pressure and causes gout.
7. Glucose suppresses the hunger hormone ghrelin and stimulates leptin, which suppresses your appetite. Fructose has no effect on ghrelin and interferes with your brain’s communication with leptin, resulting in overeating.
Regular table sugar is 50 percent fructose and 50 percent glucose, and the two are metabolized very differently. Nearly every cell in your body was designed to use glucose for energy—especially your brain cells—but fructose breaks down into a variety of toxins that can have devastating effects on your health.
ReplyDeleteFructose has the following adverse metabolic effects:
* Fructose does not stimulate a rise in leptin, so your satiety signals are suppressed.
* Fructose raises your insulin and your triglycerides, which effectively reduces the amount of leptin crossing your blood-brain barrier. This interferes with the communication between leptin and your hypothalamus. Your brain senses starvation and prompts you to eat more.
* Fructose does not suppress ghrelin like glucose does. Ghrelin is the “hunger hormone,” making you want more food.
All of this also sets the stage for overindulgence and hence overweight, placing you on the path toward diabetes.
I strongly advise keeping your total fructose consumption below 25 grams per day.
However, it would be wise for most people to limit fructose to 15 grams or less as it is virtually guaranteed you will be getting “hidden” sources of fructose from just about any processed food you eat.
This includes fruits, which also need to be carefully measured to make certain that you’re not inadvertently going over the fructose limit.
Maria,
ReplyDeleteI am a mom to 9 and am using your recipes.. I am IN LOVE with your site!! I have been eating like you do for the last 18 months I lost 30 lbs in 3 months. You have so many recipes I never even thought of. Thank you!
My question on this fructose/ glucose issue is how do we know how much fructose we are getting? Is there a chart? And which foods have the preferable glucose? Thank you!
Thanks Kelly!
ReplyDeleteSugar is 50/50 glucose-fructose
Honey is 45-55 glucose - fructose
HFCS is 35-65
Agave is 90 percent fructose!!!
I stick with low starch veggies to get glucose. I stay away from potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, beets...
I hope that helps;)
after eating this a million times, I came to terms with it NOT being 20 calories per serving....with that said.... how many calories per serving, how big is a serving and how many servings does this make. I am trying to track on my daily plate. O and I just downloaded Nutritious and Delicious on my NookColor...LOVE IT and YOU :)
ReplyDeleteMakes 8 servings.
ReplyDeleteNUTRITIONAL COMPARISON (per serving)
Traditional Apple Crisp = 525 calories, 67 carbs, 2.3 fiber
"Healthified" Crisp = 363 calories, 15 carbs, 7.2 fiber!
Just made this tonight. Very, very tasty!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Kelly! I'm soooo happy you liked it;)))
DeleteYum I am wanting something sweet so I think I will try this one to. I have lots of zucchini I put into our freezer from the garden this summer. YEA!
ReplyDeleteThanks! :)
DeleteAt the end of the recipe, you give the carb and fiber count as 5 and 3 per serving. Within the comments, you say the counts are 15 and 7.2 per serving. Which is accurate? Thanks! :-)
ReplyDeleteI updated the correct values above. Thanks! :)
DeleteWe had an over abundance of Zucchini this year. I came across this recipe. It was amazing. We all loved it. Can't wait to make it again.
ReplyDeleteThanks! :)
DeleteWill be trying this over the extended Labor Day weekend . Thanks so much !
ReplyDeleteThis was so awesome - I could not believe it! My husband loves apple pie so I think I will try putting this into your pie crust recipe - like a French apple pie. Thank you Maria!
ReplyDeleteThank you! Glad you liked it! :)
DeleteMaria, I am a little confused. I have made the apple crisp according to your recipe and LOVE it. But now I see where you boil your zucchini in apple tea...is that for the crisp? If so do you drain the water?
ReplyDeleteYes, you would drain it and continue with the recipe. :)
DeleteI bought this today to try-wonder if this would be good in there? www.yogiproducts.com/products/details/caramel-apple-spice-snack-tea
ReplyDeleteThat looks pretty good! I think it would work great in this. :)
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