Artifical sweetener

[firespirit]

Not sure if this is more appropriate here or in the weight loss section. We saw a news cast on this yesterday. But to sum it up, some scientists did some studies and now think artificial sweetners may contribute to weight gain...


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-dietsoda11feb11,1,4931613.story?track=rss (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-dietsoda11feb11,1,4931613.story?track=rss)

[WebLady]

hmmmm ... interesting

[SerendipityCrafts]

If you wait long enough and they will find something wrong with most anything "artificial" :)

Just look at what they found out about sacharin and margarine.

[TangoWedding]

Absolutely! Not only that, but it's got a lot of cancer-causing agents as well. "Artificial sweetener" is a dirty word in the hospital I work in (cancer hospital). They don't serve ANYTHING with it in it.

If you want a natural sweetener and not sugar, try stevia. It's sweeter than sugar and not chemically altered at all. It comes from the stevia plant. You can find it in most health food stores.

:happy:

[SerendipityCrafts]

Absolutely! Not only that, but it's got a lot of cancer-causing agents as well. "Artificial sweetener" is a dirty word in the hospital I work in (cancer hospital). They don't serve ANYTHING with it in it.


Sounds like what the hospital dietician had to say about margarine. He said it's butter for him or nothing.

I haven't bought margarine since I talked with this guy but we use less butter than what I was using in margarine. I butter bread and bake with it, but I don't cook with it.

[KMS]

Yep, there has been a crazy spike in the amount of artifical sweeteners that diabetics are consuming and the health community is like "woah". The last thing that a diabetic needs is to gain weight and increase their problems. People jump on the bandwagon too soon.

I try so hard to stay away from artificial anything. We don't even clean with general cleaning products in our house. I'm trying to ween myself off of general cosmetics too.

I give two thumbs up to Stevia as well. I carry the little green packets around with me everywhere!

[saltyveruca]

Yep, I've heard this in the past. I use Sugar in the Raw packets, and I really like Madhava's Agave Nectar, which is like a honey replacement (I use it in tea).

[TangoWedding]

I really like Madhava's Agave Nectar


I've heard that's good too. That gets the thumbs up from our doctors, too. :hare:

[lizzy]

Like most of the girls on the post, I too echo the sentiment that it usually seems to turn out that "artificial" doesn't get such a good wrap in the end.
As someone else noted, I also like to use the agave honey stuff. It is quite good.
I will admit, I am not perfect. I drink a diet soda on the occasion and use splenda sparingly to keep away from real sugar. But it sure seems that just sticking with the real thing is usually the way to go.
Now this is definitely swaying into weight loss, but appropriate for the thread. Years back I tried dieting by eating all low fat stuff. This was in college and did include lots of low fat tv dinners, but honestly I gained weight eating all this stuff. Finally my mother convinced me to take a bit more time and try eating more fresh produce and proteins. Took more dedication, but did the trick.
That being said I am a firm believer that eating natural food is better for our health. Currently, I am trying to figure out how to get away from diet sodas all together. If anyone has any recommendations would love to hear!

[saltyveruca]

I've heard that's good too. That gets the thumbs up from our doctors, too. :hare:

Yeah, I can't say enough good things about it. It used to be hard to find in Texas, so whenever we went to Colorado I'd smuggle like 3 across state lines for me, my mom, and my future mother in law. Of course, after our last trip I discovered that the Whole Foods 5 minutes from me has it now. :bblol:

[firespirit]

Hmm I don't have any tips to get away from diet soda. I can't stand the taste of them. I can't even stand the taste of splenda, I know they say it's supposed to taste the same, but it just doesn't to me.

It might depend on what your looking for. For caffeine, I drink a lot of unsweetend tea. For carbonation I'll mix 100% fruit juice with perrier. (It still has sugar, but at least if it's all juice it's a natural sugar).

[KMS]

Mixing Perrier w/ juice is a great tip to me. I like to add a pomegranate- blueberry juice (2 nutritional powerhouses!) to water if I'm sick of plain water. Which happens every once in a while since it's really all that I drink.

[Parhelion]

I've never been a fan of artificial sweeteners. I found out the hard way what aspartame can do to a person after babysitting for a pair of kids whose mother used nothing but NutraSweet. After watching those girls for a few months I started getting head-ripping migraines. It took a few months to figure out just what was causing them...but when we found out I swore off 'diet' anything from then on.

That stuff is scary.

[PGDesigns]

Mixing Perrier w/ juice is a great tip to me. I like to add a pomegranate- blueberry juice (2 nutritional powerhouses!) to water if I'm sick of plain water. Which happens every once in a while since it's really all that I drink.

I love pomegranate and blueberry juices and now acai. (A little OT, but FH is now a distributor for Mona Vie, which has really turned me on to acai, too.)

[KMS]

I love pomegranate and blueberry juices and now acai. (A little OT, but FH is now a distributor for Mona Vie, which has really turned me on to acai, too.)

Oh yes, acai! I forgot that one. We get that every once in a while as well. That stuff is good...strong but good.