OK.........So now I'm sad after researching this...................

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  • Wetcoaster
    Wetcoaster Posts: 1,788 Member
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    Look at the ingredients - the ingredients should really only be sweet cream and salt. And no, I'm not always the most healthy eater. I eat many things that don't fit the guidelines above. Those are just general rules and rules (of dieting) are meant to be broken. A lifestyle change should not be about strict, rigid rules. It should be taking the rules and bending them to fit your specific needs. I once overloaded on carbs I thought were healthy (Rice, Special K cereal, Bottled coffee drinks with Splenda, 100 Calorie Jello/Pudding, etc) until I didn't see weight loss, started gaining weight that I could not lose despite cutting calories, and developed a severe thyroid issue. I've felt that my body personally feels better when I eat Earth based foods. Lean meats, dairy, eggs, some fruit, and lots of vegetables have changed my sense of wellbeing very drastically. People say it's nearly impossible to lose weight with a thyroid issue...but in my case I met with a medical nutritionist and after making the changes I've told you about...I've seen weight loss after 2 years of battling my weight uphill with no results.

    Not sure where to begin
  • nicoiam69
    nicoiam69 Posts: 20 Member
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    I fully agree with the Nicole and linguisticat. I try to stick with whole foods as close to natural form as possible. I succeed **most** of the time! Occasionally I really crave a Coke or a cake and I'll have it, enjoy it, log it and not feel bad about it!
    I use butter and oil, whole eggs, nuts etc but in moderation. I would prefer to have less of a real, delicious food than lots of something fake. If you base your meals on lots of salad and vegetables then add in protein and seasonings you'll have delicious filing meals with no need for the fake extras.
  • trjjoy
    trjjoy Posts: 666 Member
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    Flavour your water with slices of cucumber. Or strawberries. Or something besides lemon. Make iced tea. Try to find Rooibos tea at a health store. Rooibos tea doesn't contain caffeine and you can drink it black (no sugar, no milk) all day long. As for coffee, make sure you drink only the best kind because then you won't need sweetener/sugar at all.
  • stevencloser
    stevencloser Posts: 8,911 Member
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    Wetcoaster wrote: »
    Look at the ingredients - the ingredients should really only be sweet cream and salt. And no, I'm not always the most healthy eater. I eat many things that don't fit the guidelines above. Those are just general rules and rules (of dieting) are meant to be broken. A lifestyle change should not be about strict, rigid rules. It should be taking the rules and bending them to fit your specific needs. I once overloaded on carbs I thought were healthy (Rice, Special K cereal, Bottled coffee drinks with Splenda, 100 Calorie Jello/Pudding, etc) until I didn't see weight loss, started gaining weight that I could not lose despite cutting calories, and developed a severe thyroid issue. I've felt that my body personally feels better when I eat Earth based foods. Lean meats, dairy, eggs, some fruit, and lots of vegetables have changed my sense of wellbeing very drastically. People say it's nearly impossible to lose weight with a thyroid issue...but in my case I met with a medical nutritionist and after making the changes I've told you about...I've seen weight loss after 2 years of battling my weight uphill with no results.

    Not sure where to begin

    Don't worry, I'm here.
  • stevencloser
    stevencloser Posts: 8,911 Member
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    heybales wrote: »
    Even if the artificials do spike your insulin - if that's all you had was a diet drink - there is nothing to store as fat.

    For that brief time insulin is up fat release is stopped, but body isn't fooled that bad and as soon as blood sugar drops a bit because you stopped using fat an main energy source and blood sugar was instead, insulin will drop right back down again.

    If drinking with food - well your food was going to increase insulin anyway. It's the nature of body preparing for some sugar coming in with sweet taste that can make it release insulin in preparation.

    So I'd remove that as factor. Whatever else you research and believe would be more useful.

    And be aware of the differences between when product with it is heated and not heated but kept cool. Some research will comment on that difference - but play off the heated info when the product you use might never be in that state, so the effect is immaterial.

    yes, this was one thing i read about.....how the insulin can cause fat storage, but also I read that our bodies don't know what to do with the unnatural chemicals, so it stores those chemicals as fat. Have u heard of that before?

    Also, can you explain your second paragraph somewhat, im kinda confused. Where u talk about blood sugar dropping? Thanks so much for your help.

    That's an... interesting thing you read there. If your body wouldn't know what to do with it, how would it know how to convert it to fat? Fat doesn't just appear out of thin air, your body has to process something to turn it into fat. You know, that whole energy equation thing that this website is all about with calorie counting and whatnot.

    Artificial sweeteners are many many times sweeter than sugar and thus only put into drinks in amounts of fractions of a single gram. That's why they're 0 calories, there's just not enough in there to be over the 5 calorie threshold of needing to be labelled. So if you convert 1 calorie of a sweetener into 1 calorie of fat (somehow, despite not knowing what to do with it), you end up with 0.111 repeating grams of fat.
    Is that seriously something you need to worry about? Nope.

    And all that aside, as you could probably already tell by the tone of my post, that's not even what happens.

    Artificial sweeteners do not spike your insulin.
    https://examine.com/faq/do-artificial-sweeteners-spike-insulin/

    And even if they did, without fat to store it can't do anything. Not even to speak of the fact insulin is an important hormone and nothing to be feared.

    Splenda is mostly not metabolizable by the body, which means most of it just passes through you, not get turned to fat. To be able to be turned to fat it would need to be metabolizable.
  • stevencloser
    stevencloser Posts: 8,911 Member
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    Look at the ingredients - the ingredients should really only be sweet cream and salt. And no, I'm not always the most healthy eater. I eat many things that don't fit the guidelines above. Those are just general rules and rules (of dieting) are meant to be broken. A lifestyle change should not be about strict, rigid rules. It should be taking the rules and bending them to fit your specific needs. I once overloaded on carbs I thought were healthy (Rice, Special K cereal, Bottled coffee drinks with Splenda, 100 Calorie Jello/Pudding, etc) until I didn't see weight loss, started gaining weight that I could not lose despite cutting calories, and developed a severe thyroid issue. I've felt that my body personally feels better when I eat Earth based foods. Lean meats, dairy, eggs, some fruit, and lots of vegetables have changed my sense of wellbeing very drastically. People say it's nearly impossible to lose weight with a thyroid issue...but in my case I met with a medical nutritionist and after making the changes I've told you about...I've seen weight loss after 2 years of battling my weight uphill with no results.

    You overate foods that taste good. That's why you stopped losing. It happens to the best. But cutting calories always works. That's one of the few absolutes that exist in weight loss. Cutting calories below what your body uses (which might be less than an average person if you have a thyroid issue), you'll lose weight (fat). Every time.

    I take it you went to a doctor because of your thyroid problems too?
  • stevencloser
    stevencloser Posts: 8,911 Member
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    heybales wrote: »
    Even if the artificials do spike your insulin - if that's all you had was a diet drink - there is nothing to store as fat.

    Also keep in mind that different foods take different amounts of time to digest and move from your stomach through your intestines etc. before completing the process. Nutrients are primarily absorbed in the small intestine so even though you may drink a diet Coke on an 'empty stomach' you food is likely still moving through your intestines. The best way to think about food is to eat things that are only 1 or two steps away from the Earth. If you can't walk outside and find it...or make it at home with ingredients found at the market...you probably shouldn't eat. If it's packaged and has got more than one or 2 steps of processing or more than 1 or 2 ingredients on the label that you can't pronounce....or if the ingredients are not 'whole food' ingredients...I would avoid it where you can.

    That's extremely arbitrary rules based on what?
  • stevencloser
    stevencloser Posts: 8,911 Member
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    Actually, I'm doubly sad bc this is the third time i've tried to type this lol. Anyway, I have done alittle reading on artificial sweeteners, specifically Splenda. There are several bad things it can possibly do to our bodies, but the two I'm upset about is reading that it can spike insulin levels and cause fat storage. I've read that foreign chemicals like sucralose (sp?) can do this. I thought I was doing great by substituting splenda sweetened tea for diet coke. It seems though, that it's all bad. That leaves..............plain ole water :( And I don't like lemon/lime in my water either, so I can't even flavor it. Basically, the info i've read is stating that our bodies don't know what to do with foreign chemicals so it stores it.

    What are your thoughts on splenda? Have y'all read these things too? And what am I gonna do about my no cal spray butter now? Its foreign chemicals should cause fat storage too? When I use the word, foreign, I'm talking about foreign to our bodies. What butter should I use???

    OP, I'd advise you to keep researching, but skip on blogs and websites that try to sell you things and stuff like that. Actual, cold, hard science attests to the safety of artificial sweeteners. The link I linked to above is a good start with many studies listed as sources.
  • beemerphile1
    beemerphile1 Posts: 1,710 Member
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    A lot of disagreement on the risks of artificial sweeteners. Due to this many companies are eliminating NutraSweet from their products.

    Whether bad or not, it is unnecessary to have in your diet and sugar is also unnecessary.

    I play it safe and use no artificial sweeteners and very little sugar. I stick with honey, maple syrup, sorghum, and Stevia but even then in limited quantities.
  • tcarroll120
    tcarroll120 Posts: 49 Member
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    Actually, I'm doubly sad bc this is the third time i've tried to type this lol. Anyway, I have done alittle reading on artificial sweeteners, specifically Splenda. There are several bad things it can possibly do to our bodies, but the two I'm upset about is reading that it can spike insulin levels and cause fat storage. I've read that foreign chemicals like sucralose (sp?) can do this. I thought I was doing great by substituting splenda sweetened tea for diet coke. It seems though, that it's all bad. That leaves..............plain ole water :( And I don't like lemon/lime in my water either, so I can't even flavor it. Basically, the info i've read is stating that our bodies don't know what to do with foreign chemicals so it stores it.

    What are your thoughts on splenda? Have y'all read these things too? And what am I gonna do about my no cal spray butter now? Its foreign chemicals should cause fat storage too? When I use the word, foreign, I'm talking about foreign to our bodies. What butter should I use???

    If you. Can do stevia its a natural alternatives to the bad stuff. Best bet is to get from the realth food store.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,988 Member
    edited January 2016
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    Actually, I'm doubly sad bc this is the third time i've tried to type this lol. Anyway, I have done a little reading on artificial sweeteners, specifically Splenda. There are several bad things it can possibly do to our bodies, but the two I'm upset about is reading that it can spike insulin levels and cause fat storage. I've read that foreign chemicals like sucralose (sp?) can do this. I thought I was doing great by substituting splenda sweetened tea for diet coke. It seems though, that it's all bad. That leaves..............plain ole water :( And I don't like lemon/lime in my water either, so I can't even flavor it. Basically, the info i've read is stating that our bodies don't know what to do with foreign chemicals so it stores it.

    What are your thoughts on splenda? Have y'all read these things too? And what am I gonna do about my no cal spray butter now? Its foreign chemicals should cause fat storage too? When I use the word, foreign, I'm talking about foreign to our bodies. What butter should I use???

    Even if the research was 100% conclusive that artificial sweeteners were safe, I still wouldn't use them because I think they taste nasty - all artificially and fake.

    Sounds like you are using bottled Splenda-sweetened tea? Try brewing your own, which is a lot cheaper anyway. I've gradually reduced the sugar in my tea to only 1/2 teaspoon per bag of black tea and drink green tea that's bagged with stevia. (I had less success when I try to add stevia on my own, but that was years and years ago and the stevia sold now may be more palatable.)

    1/2 teaspoon of sugar is only 8 calories. I use 1 to 1.5 t per day. I can afford that :)
  • kgirlhart
    kgirlhart Posts: 5,012 Member
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    I don't have any health issues, aside from being overweight. I do not use any artificial sweeteners. If I want something sweet, I use sugar. I also don't use margarine only butter and I use olive oil or canola oil. I'm sure I use some foreign things, but I try not to if possible. I like to flavor my water with cucumbers and mint or with berries. I also like lemon or lime, but since you don't you might try other fruits. And I always drink tea unsweetened or with mint.
  • lynn1982
    lynn1982 Posts: 1,439 Member
    edited January 2016
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    First of all, your "no cal spray butter" still has calories in it. It's just less than 5 calories for a half second spray. But have you ever sprayed it for half a second? No, I didn't think so.

    As far as splenda goes - I lost a ton of weight back in high school consuming mostly artificially sweetened products. (I also had an eating disorder, but I digress...) Your body is not going to put on fat if you're not consuming calories. It can't create fat out of nothing. That being said, I choose not to consume splenda or other artificial sweeteners currently because it triggers migraines for me. I lost 90 pounds without knowingly consuming a single artificial sweetener but I also drink a lot of water and black coffee.

    At the end of the day, it comes down to calories in, calories out. If splenda doesn't give you problems, then consume it. If you like the taste of regular pop, consume that, but fit it into yor calories.
  • catruledquilter
    catruledquilter Posts: 48 Member
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    heybales wrote: »
    Even if the artificials do spike your insulin - if that's all you had was a diet drink - there is nothing to store as fat.

    <snip> The best way to think about food is to eat things that are only 1 or two steps away from the Earth. If you can't walk outside and find it...or make it at home with ingredients found at the market...you probably shouldn't eat. If it's packaged and has got more than one or 2 steps of processing or more than 1 or 2 ingredients on the label that you can't pronounce....or if the ingredients are not 'whole food' ingredients...I would avoid it where you can.

    I agree with this statement 100%! I've been working on going predominantly paleo the past few weeks and I use the "less processing the better" approach.

    I do use butter on the rare occasions I have a potato...I opt for sweet potatoes and save those for a special treat.
  • Carlos_421
    Carlos_421 Posts: 5,132 Member
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    @stevencloser and @Wetcoaster glad you guys showed up.
    I'm too busy to spend time dispelling derp and woo by myself and this thread is so full of it I didn't know where to start.

    And up till know it's basically been left free to misinform.

    Ok, here goes:
    OP, what you read was a woo article written on a basis of misinformed fear and not on real scientific facts.

    Something being a "foreign chemical" doesn't make it bad for you. It doesn't make you store fat.
    Only a calorie surplus can make you store fat.

    Sure, fat metabolism may be temporarily affected by an insulin spike but it comes out in the wash at the end of the day because your body won't store energy it needs to use and it will have to pull it from fat if you aren't eating more than you burn.

    Also, almost everything spikes insulin.
    Carbs spike insulin.
    Protein spikes insulin (fact!)
    Regular coffee spikes insulin.
    Even some fats spike insulin.

    Every food in the world can be painted to cause fat gain and disease if enough spin is put on it.
    Unless, you have a medical condition to consider, just eat what you like and keep to your calorie goal.
  • lynn1982
    lynn1982 Posts: 1,439 Member
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    kgirlhart wrote: »
    I don't have any health issues, aside from being overweight. I do not use any artificial sweeteners. If I want something sweet, I use sugar. I also don't use margarine only butter and I use olive oil or canola oil. I'm sure I use some foreign things, but I try not to if possible. I like to flavor my water with cucumbers and mint or with berries. I also like lemon or lime, but since you don't you might try other fruits. And I always drink tea unsweetened or with mint.

    Out of curiosity, why do you use canola oil but not margarine?
  • anyaelizabeth1
    anyaelizabeth1 Posts: 2 Member
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    I have a similar issue. My solution is firstly to eat less sugar in general - the less sweet stuff you eat, the more sensitive you are to sugar, so the sweeter it tastes when you get some. Then drink either fruit juice or no-sugar squash diluted with sparkling water. It tastes just like Fanta, but I'm in control of how sweet it is and how much sweetener I'm consuming. I can choose which to use, (juice or squash) in which concentration, based on how many calories I've got to work with, when I last had something sweet, and how bad I am craving. I can also slowly reduce the ratio of squash or juice to the point where it's really just 99% water.

    Also, I find plain water is inexplicably nicer out of a sports cap bottle. Maybe it's a subconscious childhood thing.
  • stevencloser
    stevencloser Posts: 8,911 Member
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    Actually, I'm doubly sad bc this is the third time i've tried to type this lol. Anyway, I have done alittle reading on artificial sweeteners, specifically Splenda. There are several bad things it can possibly do to our bodies, but the two I'm upset about is reading that it can spike insulin levels and cause fat storage. I've read that foreign chemicals like sucralose (sp?) can do this. I thought I was doing great by substituting splenda sweetened tea for diet coke. It seems though, that it's all bad. That leaves..............plain ole water :( And I don't like lemon/lime in my water either, so I can't even flavor it. Basically, the info i've read is stating that our bodies don't know what to do with foreign chemicals so it stores it.

    What are your thoughts on splenda? Have y'all read these things too? And what am I gonna do about my no cal spray butter now? Its foreign chemicals should cause fat storage too? When I use the word, foreign, I'm talking about foreign to our bodies. What butter should I use???

    If you. Can do stevia its a natural alternatives to the bad stuff. Best bet is to get from the realth food store.

    You know what the funny thing is? Stevia is actually the least researched for safety of all artificial sweeteners.
  • catruledquilter
    catruledquilter Posts: 48 Member
    Options
    Actually, I'm doubly sad bc this is the third time i've tried to type this lol. Anyway, I have done alittle reading on artificial sweeteners, specifically Splenda. There are several bad things it can possibly do to our bodies, but the two I'm upset about is reading that it can spike insulin levels and cause fat storage. I've read that foreign chemicals like sucralose (sp?) can do this. I thought I was doing great by substituting splenda sweetened tea for diet coke. It seems though, that it's all bad. That leaves..............plain ole water :( And I don't like lemon/lime in my water either, so I can't even flavor it. Basically, the info i've read is stating that our bodies don't know what to do with foreign chemicals so it stores it.

    What are your thoughts on splenda? Have y'all read these things too? And what am I gonna do about my no cal spray butter now? Its foreign chemicals should cause fat storage too? When I use the word, foreign, I'm talking about foreign to our bodies. What butter should I use???

    I use a small amount of locally sourced, raw honey in my first cup of tea in the morning...after that, I switch to Stevia in the Raw. It doesn't take much. I keep a few packets with me to have handy if I meet someone for coffee/tea. I can easily drink iced tea without sweetening of any sort.

    Since you don't like lime/lemon in your water, try a bit of orange or cranberry or just about any fruit/pure fruit juice. I no longer consume soda of any sort. I can't stand the diet ones so I gave it up completely. For my "fizz fix" I get club soda and add a splash of orange juice or other 100% juice.

    With transitioning to a mostly paleo diet, I rarely eat potatoes. When I do, it's usually a baked sweet potato. I use butter. Organic is ideal but, if you aren't using butter often, it is not as important. For cooking, I use olive oil or avocado oil. You can buy an oil mister and use your own oil to make the spray for your pans. No mystery ingredients and no chemical propellants! The one I use is by Pampered Chef but there are others out there...just get one that is good quality (voice of experience...don't go cheap!).

    I'm going to our local dinner theater Saturday night. I'll relax my eating restrictions to a certain extent. I don't eat the bread and avoid dishes with grains (flour, rice, etc). As of now, I plan on splurging on a small dish of ice cream for dessert. I'm still debating the ice cream...I ate a small piece of dark chocolate last night and it seemed horribly sweet. I usually use fresh fruit for my sweet cravings. Apple slices with organic almond butter make a delightful snack.

    Good luck!!
  • upoffthemat
    upoffthemat Posts: 679 Member
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    lynn1982 wrote: »
    kgirlhart wrote: »
    I don't have any health issues, aside from being overweight. I do not use any artificial sweeteners. If I want something sweet, I use sugar. I also don't use margarine only butter and I use olive oil or canola oil. I'm sure I use some foreign things, but I try not to if possible. I like to flavor my water with cucumbers and mint or with berries. I also like lemon or lime, but since you don't you might try other fruits. And I always drink tea unsweetened or with mint.

    Out of curiosity, why do you use canola oil but not margarine?

    I know I avoid Margarine because of trans-fat. I try to avoid any trans-fat at all. I don't have a lot of dietary rules, but that is one of them.