Organics Reviews

Crackers: A General Overview

Crackers eaten together with some nut-based cheese, eaten with some hummus, or consumed as is, can make for a snack that is quite wholesome. It is true, especially for people who don’t pay much attention. Just like chips, a lot of different brands put a bunch of substances into their products and other ingredients that are unnecessary, such as preservatives, artificial flavors, salt, and sugar. Going for vegan and organic crackers is one strategy to avoid artificial ingredients.

People may think that vegan and organic may be boring or restrictive.  There are also times when the cracker’s main ingredients, such as white flour (all-purpose), are not the ideal option for one’s health and can result in discomfort for the digestive system especially for people with stomachs who are sensitive.

Organic and Grain-Free Crackers to Consider

Below are some of the best grain-free and organic crackers to consider

1. Simple Mills Almond Flour Crackers

This cracker contains ingredients such as seed and nut flour blend. It also contains rosemary extract, organic garlic, organic onion, organic sunflower oil, cassava, and tapioca. These crackers from Simple Mills are non-GMO, paleo-friendly, soy-free, and gluten-free. 

For every 17 crackers (one serving), you can get:

• Vitamin E: 10% of the daily RDI 
• Protein: 3 grams

Customers are also claiming that this product from Simple mills is gluten-free, lower in carbs, healthy, delicious, and crispy. 

2. Go Raw Spicy Fiesta Sprouted Flax Snax

You can go for crackers that are made up of seasonings and seeds instead of grains. Go Raw Spicy Fiesta Sprouted Flax Snax is created using organic ingredients such as:

• Garlic powder
• Celtic Sea Salt
• Spices
• Lime juice
• Cilantro
• Jalapeno
• Sesame seeds
• Sunflower seeds
• Flax seeds 

This cracker is designed for optimal retention of nutrients, non-GMO, soy-free, and gluten-free. Customers are claiming that these crackers are not that spicy although they are tasty, contain wholesome ingredients, and have good quality products. People can use this cracker as a crumbled salad topping or right out of the bag.

3. Julian Bakery Paleo Thin Crackers

For a snack that is crispy and light, people may want to try out Julian Bakery Paleo Thin Crackers. These crackers are made from sea salt, paprika, garlic powder, black pepper, flax seeds, chia seeds, sesame seeds, cassava flour, blanched almond flour, and filtered water. 

Every six crackers (one serving) can provide you:

• Iron: 6% RDI
• Calcium:  6% RDI 
• Protein: 2 grams 

This product is available for $10.00 for an 8.4-ounce box.

4. Rawlicious Food Company Raw Artisan Bread Crackers

This product does not look like a typical bread cracker. It does not contain any sugar, no refined salt, no buckwheat, no wheat, and grain-free. These crackers are made using different kinds of seeds, such as blonde sesame, black sesame, sunflower, pumpkin, and flax. 

These crackers also come in sheets and not in the typical cracker size that is square. This product is available for $13.00 for a five-ounce box.

5. Doctor in the Kitchen Flackers

These crackers are organic and are made using sage, rosemary, Bragg Liquid Aminos, apple cider vinegar, and flax seeds. 

For every six crackers (One serving), you can get:

• Protein: 5 grams 
• Fiber:  7 grams

They undergo dehydration at temperatures that are low to make sure that the nutrients including the enzymes and the omega-3s remain stable and vitalized. 

6. Foods Alive Flax Cracker Variety Pack

This variety pack comes in bulk form and includes 6 different variants in one pack-Hemp, Cinnamon, Maple, Italian Zest, Mexican Harvest, Onion Garlic, and Original. 

These crackers are gluten-free and undergo the dehydration process at low temperatures that ensure that their essential nutrients and vital living enzymes are preserved. These crackers also contain elevated levels of protein, omega-3s, and fiber. Each Flavor contained in the variety pack all starts with flax seeds that are golden with flavors changed due to different seasonings. 

Crackers are already fantastic and popular for snacking and you can’t go wrong with them. Going for organic and Grain-Free crackers adds that definite health advantage you need to achieve optimal health.

Organic Blue Agave is a syrup (or nectar) that is all-natural and plant-derived. This sweetener is produced from organic agave plants, a native plant of the Mexicans. Many diabetes patients who want to replace table sugar may want to use agave instead. But then, some other people who do not have diabetes may want to replace sugars for other reasons. Agave nectar has its advantages but it also has downsides too. Agave plants are very succulent and they come in different varieties. If you ferment blue agave, you can make tequila. The process of making agave nectar involves the use of enzymes. The FDA affirms that this process is “generally recognized as safe”.

Agave nectar became more popular because it has a low GI (glycemic index) in comparison with other sweeteners. Can you imagine that the GI of Agave is just about 20-25? The GI of table sugar, on the other hand, is usually as high as 60-65. What does this mean? When the GI of a food is low, it means that it will raise your blood sugars very slowly. As such, people generally believe that sweeteners with lower GIs are better choices in dealing with diabetes. Is GI ranking enough to rate the healthfulness of a sweetener? How is agave sweetener made? We will talk about these in this article.

How is Organic Blue Agave Made?

It takes about 5-7 years for blue agave to grow into maturity. At maturity, this plant will stand at about 6-8 feet tall. The sweetness usually peaks at this stage. And that’s the best time to harvest it and use it for making the nectar.

The sweetness treasure of blue agave resides in the plant’s core (or what experts call the piña). Do you know the reason why they call it the piña? It looks like a pineapple when you trim the leaves away. The bluish color of the species comes from the wax present in the plant’s long leaves.

To harvest blue agave plants, farmers typically hand-cut it using simple razor-sharp blades. If the farmer is very skilled, he can trim and cut a 100-pound size of blue agave within only 5 minutes. Farmers leave the field trimmings behind on the farmland to reduce erosion and revitalize the soil.

After cutting the piñas of blue agave, farmers will take them for pressing at the mill. This is where the inulin-rich juice of the plant will be extracted and cleaned. The natural inulin of Agave is a fiber with complex carbs.

Naturally, this inulin does not have a sweet taste. But when you heat it (or hydrolyze it, as experts would say), it becomes sweet nectar. So then, producers will often heat the inulin-rich juice to about 72 degrees Celsius (or 161 degrees Fahrenheit).

This heat level is for making light agave nectars. But when making raw agave nectar, producers use lower heat and the process would be much slower. They will warm the juice slowly under low heat. The process takes nearly two times as long in duration.

When you heat inulin, it becomes sweet because it becomes fructose. Fructose is a simple sugar that metabolizes slowly. You can often find it in veggies and fruits. After heating the juice, it becomes sweet, but that’s not the end of the process.

Producers will proceed to filter the juice after hydrolysis. This filtering process determines the nectar’s color and flavor.

We have talked about two types of organic agave – the light variety and the raw variety. Light Blue Agave would enhance your food’s natural flavor. Raw Blue Agave, on the other hand, will impart a rich and complex sweetness to your food.

Whether Raw or Light, we get the same result. Your sweetener will be sweet with a low GI. This sweetener is perfect for your baking recipes, beverages, table-top use, and fresh fruit.

Is This Sweetener Indeed Healthier for Diabetes?

The reason why lots of people believe that Agave nectar is healthier is its low GI. But experts have warned that GI is not the sole determining factor of a food’s healthfulness when it comes to managing diabetes.

Come to think of it, the GI of ice cream is lower than that of watermelon. But that doesn’t mean that Ice creams are healthier than watermelons.

Experts did a study in 2014 where they had people in 4 groups with different diets. The first group ate high-carb, high-GI foods while the second group ate high-carb, low-GI foods. The other two groups ate low-carb groups with varying GI levels. One ate low-carb, high-GI foods while the other ate low-carb, low-GI foods.

For the two high-carb groups, the people who ate high-GI foods had lower insulin sensitivity and higher LDL levels than those who ate low-GI foods. But for the low-carb groups, GI ranking made no difference to the insulin sensitivity. It did not also affect their blood pressure.

The findings of this study seem to suggest that limiting your overall carbs is an important factor for managing diabetes. The twist is that Agave has more fructose (carbs) than regular sugar. But it also has a low GI.

This means that agave will increase your blood sugar levels more slowly. However, it will keep your blood sugar higher for longer. So while agave is a little better than regular sugar, it doesn’t mean it is healthy.

If you are managing diabetes, it would be better to reduce your overall sugar intake. Switching from a sugar type to another will not help much.

Conclusion

Agave is a better alternative to regular sugar. It is more natural and less harmful, but it has quite some downsides too. The most important downside is its fructose content. Experts say men should not eat more than 150 calories of sugar (including fructose) daily while women should eat no more than 100 calories. So you should watch your intake even if you’re using organic agave.

The process of making organic blue agave involves planting, harvesting, milling, juicing, heating, and filtering. The FDA recognizes this process to be generally safe.

Have you considered liquid stevia drops as a natural sweetener? Fun Fact: South Americans have been using stevia for 1500+ years and call it “sweet herb.” Stevia is a natural plant that can undergo a wide range of processing. They include products made from whole stevia leaves and ones with stevia extract that are combined with other sweeteners. In terms of nutrition facts, some stevia products have zero calories/carbs so they can be a good choice for people on low-carb diets like Keto or Atkins. Today many consumers are looking for sweeteners that will prevent health conditions of white sugar like blood sugar spikes, weight gain, and tooth decay.

The sweetener market has a global value of over $13 billion (2017). When picking one you have several options including traditional options like sugar, honey, and syrups. However, many consumers are now looking for low-carb options due to the popularity of diet programs like the ketogenic diet. That helps to explain the popularity of natural sweeteners like stevia, monk fruit, and sugar alcohols. While artificial sweeteners like NutraSweet are low-calorie/carb they’re not really “healthy” due to the high processing and human-made ingredients that are added. That’s why low-carb natural sweeteners have been trending in recent years.

What in the World Is Stevia?

Stevia is a zero-calorie sweetener that’s made from leaves of the Stevia rebaudiana plant. It became widely used in other world regions during the 1700s. That’s when Europeans started bringing large amounts to the continent.

The sweet plant’s popularity spiked in the early 1900s in many markets. However, over the next century, various groups around the world debated about the nutritional value of stevia. Some people argued it causes health issues, while fans argued it was a natural sugar replacement.

The stevia plant grows naturally in South America in countries like Brazil. In fact, Native Americans have been consuming the food for 1500+ years as foods like teas. The leaves are so sweet they’re often known as “sugarleaf” or a “sweetleaf.”

Then during the 1930s French chemists found the chemical compound in stevia leaves that produce their sweetness. Sometimes the plants are ground up into a powder/syrup form. Other times the sweet chemical compound is removed to make an extract.   

When picking a stevia product one issue is the amount of processing that’s been done. For example, the US Food & Drug Administration only classifies highly-pure “steviol glycosides” to be safe for humans to consume.

In fact, the FDA hasn’t approved stevia leaves or extracts as a safe food additive. This helps to explain why stevia is less known than other sweeteners on the market. These forms can’t be marketed in the USA as sweeteners.

Health experts don’t consider stevia used to add flavor/sweetness to food as a possible health risk. Meanwhile, the FDA reports that only up to 4mg/kg of body weight is a safe amount of stevia glycosides to consume.

Many studies have found various possible side-effects from stevia. However, the majority were animal studies so it’s unclear if stevia products cause the same possible side-effects for humans.

Some of the possible risks/side-effects include:

• Low blood pressure
• Digestion issues (vomiting, nausea, cramping, bloating, etc.)
• Kidney damage
• Low blood sugar

What Are Liquid Stevia Drops?

This a liquid sweetener that includes ingredients like stevia leaf extract, purified water, and other ingredients. When selecting a product it’s important to pick one that contains no artificial ingredients. The reason is they can lower the nutritional value of the sweetener.

You can find liquid stevia drops products that contain no calories, carbs, and sugars. This is critical if you’re on a low-calorie or low-carb diet. Some of the main issues with white sugar are it can cause blood sugar spikes and weight gain.

All sugars are highly-processed from sugarcane juice. Fun Fact: One cup of white sugar has 200g of carbs. That’s 4x what’s allowed in one day on Keto/Atkins. A low-calorie/carb sweetener stevia is a practical alternative. Since it has no calories, it also has no carbs or sugars.

One of the main issues with sugars is they turn to fat. So besides causing blood sugar spikes, this helps to explain why a high-sugar diet can also cause weight gain and obesity. Today many people are going on low/no-sugar diets to avoid all sugars including white granules, maple sugar, and honey.

Liquid stevia drops are usually sold in small glass/plastic bottles. Besides stevia leaf extract, other common ingredients include purified water, natural flavors, and dietary fiber. These add nutritional value to the product.

It’s important to watch out for artificial additives in stevia drops. They include ones like colors, flavors, and preservatives. These ingredients can decrease the nutritional value of the stevia sweetener. That’s definitely something you’ll want to avoid.  

When picking a stevia drop product it’s important to go with ones that are minimally processed and contain no artificial ingredients. This can help to boost the nutritional value.

It’s worth noting that stevia has been used throughout regions like South America and Asia without negative results. It’s possible any health risks found in past studies were related to highly-processed stevia instead of natural forms.

Possible Health Benefits of Stevia

Blood Pressure

High blood pressure affects about one-quarter of the entire world. Various studies show that stevia might be effective for lowering blood pressure. One study showed that taking a stevia supplement 3x daily for a year produced a big drop in blood pressure among hypertension patients.

More research is needed. However, there seems to be some solid evidence that stevia products might help to lower blood pressure. The key is to go with minimally-processed products to get the best results.

Super-Sweet

Stevia can be up to 300x sweeter versus sugar. As a result, you’ll just need a small amount like liquid stevia, which can save you big bucks when sweetening drinks, breakfast cereals, and baked goods. One of the main reasons sugar is so high-carb is that a lot is needed to sweeten foods.

Natural Plant

The key is to go with stevia extracts that are minimally processed. This allows you to experience the benefits of the natural plant minus the health risks of artificial ingredients. Consider that stevia has been used safely for hundreds of years in the Americas.

Tooth-Friendly

Sugar causes tooth decay due to bacteria buildup in teeth. Stevia and other options like sugar alcohols are tooth-friendly. These options are lower-calorie and sweet yet don’t produce the same effects of cane sugar. This helps to explain why options like xylitol are used in sugar-free gum, mints, and mouthwash.

Blood Sugar

If you have insulin resistance, prediabetes, or diabetes then it’s important to keep your blood sugar levels in check. Studies show that extracts made from stevia leaves might help to control insulin and blood sugar.

Studies show that high blood sugar levels increase the risk of type-2 diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Diabetes rates throughout the world are spiking so it’s one of the main reasons to ditch sugar and go with liquid stevia drops.