Category: Stevia

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Diary of a Diabetic: the Power of Stevia

We received some great feedback about our Stevia Frozen Yogurt Mix from a type 2 diabetic named Steve (this is a real experience but names have been changed to protect the innocent). Keep in mind that this is not a conclusive scientific study, but rather one person’s anecdotal account.

On two different days, Steve measured his blood sugar level before eating frozen yogurt and two hours after. He compared YoCream, which is sweetened with lots of sugar, and Nanci’s stevia-sweetened frozen yogurt. Keep in mind that Steve does not take any medications to control his blood sugar levels.

Here are his results:

Day 1: YoCream sucrose (table sugar) sweetened frozen yogurt
Starting blood sugar level: 135
Blood sugar level 2 hours after eating 4 oz. of YoCream: 280

Day 2: Nanci’s Stevia Frozen Yogurt
Starting blood sugar level: 123
Blood sugar level 2 hours after eating 4 oz. of Nanci’s: 116

These numbers mean that the Nanci’s Stevia Frozen Yogurt had no affect on Steve’s blood sugar level, while the YoCream product caused his blood sugar to spike dramatically.

For many people with diabetes who can’t handle sugar, stevia is an excellent option. It is an herb from South America that has been used as a natural sweetener for centuries. The leaves of the Stevia plant have a clean refreshing taste and have zero calories, zero glycemic index, and zero carbs. And it’s 300 times sweeter than sugar, so you can use very little of it. And best of all, it is natural!

Check out our Vanilla Stevia Frozen Yogurt mix on our website. We also have a Chocolate Stevia Frozen Yogurt mix coming soon.

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Make Frozen Yogurt at Home

If you don’t have a commercial soft serve machine, the texture at home would not be as smooth and firm that you would get in a frozen yogurt shop. If you are a home user and do not have a business, the best place to get frozen yogurt mix is on eBay.

Choosing the Right Sweetener: Fructose vs Stevia

Fructose sweetened and Stevia sweetened frozen yogurt products are popular and are preferred over sugar sweetened. Stevia sweetened mixes work best in home machines because they freeze at a higher temperature.

Fructose Frozen Yogurt Mix and Commercial Frozen Yogurt Machines

When using fruit-based sugars like fructose in frozen yogurt mixes, the temperature is critical for proper freezing and crystal formation. Typically, in frozen yogurt shops, they use large frozen yogurt machines that continuously cool the frozen yogurt mix to around 17° F (-8° C). The frozen yogurt mix is constantly churned at these temperatures inside the machine using refrigerant. Commercial frozen yogurt ice cream machines use precise scraper blades that scrape the inside of the machine and allow for thorough mixing of the frozen yogurt mix, producing a smoother texture. In contrast, homemade ice cream makers tend to produce final products that are more granular.

Stevia Frozen Yogurt Mix and Homemade Ice Cream Makers

Most ice cream makers made for the consumer market use a thick metal drum that you first chill in the freezer at home. For example, many machines are made by Cuisinart or Hamilton. To mix your homemade ice cream or frozen yogurt, you remove the metal drum from the freezer while you churn the frozen yogurt mix. As you churn the mix, the temperature rises because it is not held at a constant. Achieving a constant 17° F (-8° C) isn’t possible with these methods. However, you can get much closer to the 25° F (-4° C) needed in order to successfully mix frozen yogurt that uses Stevia as a sweetener.

Nanci’s makes frozen yogurt mix with Stevia in 2 base flavors (no sugar added): Chocolate and Vanilla. If you are looking to purchase only single bags, our frozenyogurtparts eBay store is a great place to find them.

If you are looking for a great way to reproduce the classic star pattern of ice cream or frozen yogurt extrusion, you could use our star caps in the end of a ziploc bag with the corner cut off.

Flavoring Frozen Yogurt

When it comes to choice, Nanci’s has 100+ flavors to choose from. You can also check out our recipes page to find mixing instructions for the proper ratios. You can check our Ebay store flavor listing to order any individual flavors we make.

Bonus Tip

Pre-chilling your frozen yogurt to around 32° F (0° C) before mixing will lower the temperature differential between the mix and the homemade ice cream maker metal drum. In turn, this will allow the drum to stay at colder temperatures longer, resulting in better results no matter what type of frozen yogurt mix you use.

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Are soft drinks and sugar as bad as cigarettes?

A recent study from he American Journal of Public Health has found that soft drinks and smoking cigarettes both speed up your body’s aging process. Drinking a 20 oz soda per day can lead to 4.6 years of additional aging, which is the same effect as smoking cigarettes.

The culprit in the soft drinks is the huge amounts of sugar. A 20 oz soda would have about 43 grams of sugar, which is about 3 Tablespoons.

Nanci’s Frozen Yogurt uses superior sweeteners, such as fruit sugar and stevia. Stevia is a natural sweetener that comes from a tropical leaf. It has no caloric impact and has a glycemic index rating of zero. Fruit sugar (pure fructose) does not require the same amount of insulin as table sugar and does not spike blood sugar levels like sugar.

Click here for a news article about the report.

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New “Just Add Water” Mixes

Many powder frozen yogurt mixes require milk and/or fresh yogurt in order to make a smooth, creamy frozen yogurt product. We feel that when you have to add milk, you lose many of the advantages of the powder — like cost savings and not needed to refrigerate the mix.

For the last 6 months we’ve been working create a just-add-water mix to rule them all. We had two goals in mind when we started this process: 1) eliminate the need for customers to add milk, and 2) create mixes that stay smooth and creamy even after several days in the machine.

We feel that we’ve achieved both our goals — while still keeping the same great taste our customers love!

We’ve made upgrades to the following products:

  • Vanilla Frozen Yogurt Base Mix
  • Chocolate Frozen Yogurt Base Mix
  • Plain Tart Frozen Yogurt Base Mix
  • Stevia Vanilla Frozen Yogurt Base Mix (no sugar added)
  • Stevia Chocolate Frozen Yogurt Base Mix (no sugar added)

Read below for more details on the “Just Add Water” Mix and our new High-Yield Stevia Mixes.

New “Just Add Water” Mix

The most exciting part about Nanci’s new mixes is that you only need to add water! The base mixes already include milk, yogurt powder, probiotics and all the ingredients needed to make creamy frozen yogurt.

We still recommend adding air into the mix using the machine’s air tubes. Click here to read more about adding air.

Many shops have previously been adding milk to the base mix. In our testing, adding milk to the new base mixes can actually make them too thick. Plus, just adding water will result in significant cost and operational savings. Most importantly, they taste every bit as good as our original mixes made with milk.

New High-Yield Stevia Mix

Our new Stevia-sweetened mixes, both Vanilla and Chocolate, are also now High-Yield mixes. So instead of using 2 gallons (8 quarts/7.5 liters), you should use 2.5 gallons (10 quarts/9.5 liters). The final yield per bag is 3 gallons of mix. You may also need to add an additional 1-2 ounces of flavoring with the higher yield.

If you don’t use the increased amount of water, you may find that the mix is too thick and won’t feed into your machine.

Also, for the Stevia Mixes be sure to only add water and not milk. This is important for the consistency and also to keep the total sugar count low. Milk has naturally occurring sugar that will increase the amount of sugar per serving.

The previous Stevia mixes had to be mixed with warm water, but the new mixes can be added to any temperature water and they will dissolve fine.

Cost Savings with New Mixes

By only needing water, our mixes can provide you a significant cost savings. Here is an example scenario for a typical store on the East Coast, USA.

Previous Base Mix (with half milk and half water)
Cost per Gallon of Mix: $9.80
Cost per Ounce: $0.068

New Just Add Water Base Mix
Cost per Gallon of Mix: $8.40
Cost per Ounce: $0.058

For the Stevia Mixes there are even greater savings. Here is another example comparing the previous Stevia Vanilla and the new Stevia Vanilla (both made with water):

Previous Stevia Vanilla
Cost per Gallon of Mix: $9.20
Cost per Ounce: $0.064

New High-Yield Stevia Vanilla
Cost per Gallon of Mix: $7.67
Cost per Ounce$0.051

For questions about our new mixes email us at info@nancis.com or call 1-800-788-0808.