monkfruit

I was all excited to try monkfruit as a sweetener; my buddy Tom had been singing its praises. I'd heard of monkfruit before Tom mentioned it, but I didn't know much about it. Wikipedia notes the original Chinese designation comes from Chinese Buddhism and translates to something like "arhat fruit." An arhat is an enlightened being who is something like the spiritual ideal of Theravada/Hinayana Buddhism. 

Anyway, I just got my package of monkfruit sweetener from iHerb... and it's basically just like erythritol. Like erythritol, monkfruit sweetener is essentially a sugar alcohol, which means it confers that "cool" feeling on the tongue that you get when you eat, say, mint. I thought monkfruit would be different, more like Splenda or stevia, but now it feels as if I simply bought myself more erythritol. What's the point? At least it doesn't affect your blood-sugar levels (another property it shares with erythritol). Everything I do now comes back to blood pressure and blood sugar.

I tried making a keto smoothie with monkfruit sweetener, ice, diet Chilsung Cider, and blueberries, but my tiny food processor wasn't up to the task, and neither was my blender, which sucks and needs to be changed. No more smoothies for a while. I'll have to switch to chocolate avocado pudding and chia pudding. Chia seeds are on the way from iHerb, and at this point, I've got plenty of keto-friendly sweetener.