Splenda..?

myfitnessnmhoy

Also something I have been wanting to do.. I feel like maybe if I cut out sweet maybe I wont crave it so much..?

I can't tell you it will for you, but I can tell you it did for me. The box of donuts that sat in the conference room right next to my cubicle, that I could smell all morning, that is currently in the trash can People's Exhibit "A".

Three months ago, I could NEVER, EVER have considered that. I'd have been on that box of donuts so fast I'd probably have ingested cardboard in the process.

I owe a good portion of that to balancing out my formerly carb-heavy diet to something a little better about fats and proteins, but there's also a little "I love the smell of sweet things, and oh how I adore them, but I can control it a lot better now"... because I simply don't expect every meal to have something "sweet" in it.

My wife brought home a slice of Red Velvet from the Cheesecake Factory. We ate at a restaurant with a clear view of the Cheesecake Factory, and decided on a "take-home dessert". I went in, looked at the shelves, and thought, "gee, if they only had a small portion, but they don't" and decided not to buy anything.

My wife offered me half her slice when she got home, and I did enjoy about two bites, but ended up putting the rest in the fridge for my wife to enjoy the next day. Two bites was enough "sweet" to satisfy me.

I will warn you - the conversion was not easy. Oh, how I craved my sweet things, and the first few days were HARD. Then it got a little easier. Then a little easier. Then, suddenly, I was at a birthday party for one of my daughter's friends, looking at a plate of cake and ice cream that had just been offered to me, and said "Honestly, this does not tempt me as it once did."

Which is not to say I'm anti-sugar. I ate most of the ice cream, and a teeny bit of the cake (c'mon, chocolate cake!). But that was more than enough to satisfy my sweet tooth. The rest got thrown away. Three months ago, I'd be licking the plate and looking for more. There I was, throwing away cake and ice cream because I had eaten enough of it to be happy.

I still LOVES me my sweets, but they can be rarely-enjoyed special things, all the tastier and more special for being rare joys.

mtaylor1980

How bad is it for you?
And what zero or extremely low cal sweeteners can I use?

The sky-is-falling brigade will be here soon. But the answer to your first question? It isn't bad for you, most likely. Only a small portion of the population have real adverse effects. The second? Use whichever you prefer. They all have the same health risks of zero. (Again, for the majority.)

Wrong. It is VERY bad for you.

Mmmm ... not so much.

Wow. So since when is an ARTIFICIAL sweetner good for you? Yup, did a college research project on Splenda, did my research, and also was effected by it.

maybe you have some evidence to back up that claim that it is bad for you? or good for you? personally i love it, and i believe everything this ok to have with moderation but that just me IMO

Even though it may still be undecided if Splenda is bad for you healthwise, stevia is still a better option. Fake sugars have been known in some cases to cause weight gain, even though it is 0 calories. Long story short. the taste makes the brain expect calories to follow, so it triggers the body to crave more sugar. There was also something about a decrease in basal metabolic rate, but I don't understand all that, so I wont attempt to get into that.
Also, I should note- I have read this on NUMEROUS, reputable nutritionist sites, books, etc....I really did my research when I was first trying to get healthy. Everyone is saying to try and stay away from all of the artificial sweeteners......Sure everything is okay in moderation, but if you are using a lot of Splenda in a day (coffees, tea, cereal, whatever) it will mess with your body.

Crystal_LeeDee

I won't touch the stuff...but to each their own.

xobron

stevia is good it's more natural than splenda. splenda tastes too much of chemicals for me but maybe thats just in my mind