thoughts/experience with artificial sweeteners?

2

Replies

  • averytds
    averytds Posts: 64 Member
    I hate every time they do a news story and I have to explain it to my DH again. It's not the artificial sweetener that's the problem, it's the "I was good saving all those calories by getting a diet soda, so it's okay if I get the super mega sized meal with a double dip sundae!" that's the problem. I switched DH's regular kool-aid to sugar-free months ago. He drinks a ton of the stuff and hasn't put on a single pound as a result. He's actually lost a little, though he doesn't know why.
  • hellsbells3272
    hellsbells3272 Posts: 128 Member
    If you really need to add sugar to tea or coffee I have a trick you can use to wean yourself off. If you take 2 spoons of sugar, start by having 1 3/4 spoons for a week. The following week 1 and 1/2 spoons. Then 1 and 1/4. Each week cut it down until you are on 1/4 spoon of sugar. You will be on that last 1/4 spoon for a while, maybe 3 or 4 weeks but then you will have to take the plunge and have none. Your taste buds won't notice a difference while you decrease and will end up picking up on the subtleties of flavours instead of heaps of sweet stuff.
  • gsgitu
    gsgitu Posts: 118 Member
    love me some artificial sweeteners. pass the splenda/sucralose/sweetnlow/aspartame please. i personally don't have any issues downing an insane amount of artificial sweeteners and still being able to eat at maintenance or a deficit. they have not affected me or my eating negatively. i have no science to prove or back up anything i just said.
  • calbadger
    calbadger Posts: 283 Member
    Here's one article. I believe that there are more readily available.

    http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/261179.php
  • AlyRoseNYC
    AlyRoseNYC Posts: 1,075 Member
    I get a weird aftertaste in most foods and drinks that are flavored with artificial sweeteners. I just use sugar and eat the "regular" versions of food/drinks.
  • 24lol25
    24lol25 Posts: 49
    Personally, I don't like the taste of diet pop, therefore I don't drink it often. Any other artificial sugars I'be had that were already in food, are too small to notice any thing. I do know that my teacher was drinking diet soda for a long time. After a while, she felt a lot of fatigue and back pain. When she decided to quit, all the symptoms went away and she felt normal. It's probably best to avoid any type if soda in general. Too much regular sugar is already bad, but artificial sugar tricks the body into thinking it's real sugar and is no better than actual sugar.
  • SummerRain43
    SummerRain43 Posts: 358
    I use Stevia in the Raw for my coffee and tea.....and I only ever occasionally have Diet Pepsi.....but I do drink the diet version when I want pop because I don't want the calories.....I know aspartame isn't good for me but I rarely have it so I'm not too concerned.....
  • emmy3111
    emmy3111 Posts: 482 Member
    I used to HAVE to have a pepsi every day... or two... or more. Have gotten myself away from that and only drink, at most, a couple of pops a week. For the last year or so, most of those have been diet drinks. I don't notice any adverse affects, and I find it easier to avoid, and don't have as many cravings for, the diet pop.
  • TheRealMarsupial12
    TheRealMarsupial12 Posts: 36
    Stevia is gross, but monk fruit sweetener is pretty good. I use the Skinny Girl brand liquid monk fruit.
  • swissbrit
    swissbrit Posts: 201
    I use to drink diet coke and use candrel in my coffee/tea I had really bad migraine's at least once a month that did not go away and was diagnosed with fibromyalgie........... I read an article on the net about Aspatame and decided to live without and have not looked back!!!!!!! No migraine's and I nearly never have symptoms of fibromyalgie unless I do something really, really stupid like getting very very cold :-( Last week I bought Fishermans Friends without looking at the label as I was in a real hurry the day after a migraine from hell yep you guessed it contained Aspartame never touching them again and wrote and told them so.

    Everyone is different but if you read up on it you will avoid it like the plague.
  • hopper602
    hopper602 Posts: 204 Member
    same here but my sweetener intake is limited to coffee and iced tea. I dont drink soda at all.
  • AbFabKat
    AbFabKat Posts: 16 Member
    I used to consume a lot of artificial sweeteners. I had very frequent headaches, frequent as in daily. I cut out the artificial sweeteners and the headaches stopped. Now fake stuff tastes like chemical soup so it's not tempting at all.
  • toxicat
    toxicat Posts: 79
    In my experience and from what I see happening all around - somehow our bodies still convert those artificial sweeteners to sugar (or something), it seems that no one benefits from diet soda for example, I know I didn't.

    I stopped consuming artificial sweeteners long ago because I noticed that it wrecks my blood sugar levels - I had a glucose tolerance test years ago that confirmed hypoglycemia so I am predisposed to trouble, but still...

    Is it just me or does anyone else feel that artificial sweeteners, most notably diet drinks, as a means to cutting calories and thereby losing weight is a complete farce?

    I think cutting them out is important and gives you more control over the things you eat, the energy you gain, and the weight you lose. They contain no nutritional value and only harm us, including sugar itself. I only use honey and grade B maple syrup, as well as Coconut Sugar, but all very sparingly. Too many people argue how bad artificial sweeteners are, but there's nothing to be argued. Why even consume them at all? Keep it simple, don't have them at all. I rarely need to sweeten anything. Sometimes I will use a ripe banana, depending what I am preparing. I am so happy to say that I am used to drinking black coffee and herbal tea without adding anything!!
  • Keliandra
    Keliandra Posts: 170 Member
    Is it just me or does anyone else feel that artificial sweeteners, most notably diet drinks, as a means to cutting calories and thereby losing weight is a complete farce?

    I just recently tried them while doing LCHF. Week 1, I stopped losing weight and my blood glucose rose about 12 points average. Week 2, I gained 1.4 pounts and my BG was up by an additional 14 points.

    I threw them all out. Either I eat sugar, or I do not eat sweets.
  • timmemin
    timmemin Posts: 72 Member
    All I can say is that I experienced terrible migraines when I consumed them. In the two years that I have limited their intake, maybe once a month, I have not had one migraine. The worst for me is aspartame so that means no "DIET" anything (Light Yoplait, Special K products, and diet soda are just a few that have it) for me but it is so worth it. Shockingly, I weigh less, feel fuller, and have not had a migraine since.:smile:
  • lisalsd1
    lisalsd1 Posts: 1,521 Member
    I cut HFC from foods that I buy. I just opted for foods that have sugar instead; ex. sauces. I lost 4 lbs in 4 weeks...and didn't change anything else. I mean, I know it isn't scientific...but in my experience, HFC is not the same as sugar.

    Also, I completely cut out all artificial sweeteners while I was pregnant with my first kid. So for 9 months, I didn't have a single diet drink, and I used to love Cherry Coke Zero. After I had my son, I bought a Cherry Coke Zero...took 1 sip and spit it out. It tasted corrosive...not sweet at all! I haven't had a diet drink in 6 years. Again not scientific, but diet drinks did screw up my taste buds.
  • Tanya949
    Tanya949 Posts: 606 Member
    Aspartame is my killer. I have been a diet Pepsi drinker for 20+ years. I just dropped to one can a day from 5-6. It gave me cravings for carbs and sweets big time. I had a ton of headaches, and when I tried to cut back they got even worse. Since cutting down to one diet drink a day (it's an addiction for me, maybe more mental than physical now), I have zero headaches, more energy, sleep better and don't crave/binge on carbs. It's nasty stuff, rarely or none is key.
  • serindipte
    serindipte Posts: 1,557 Member
    Recent research has shown that our body cannot easily differentiate between artificial sweeteners and more natural ones. Therefore whenever it detects sweetness, it secretes insulin. This will be satisfied by natural sweeteners, though at the cost of extra calories. In the case of diet drinks with food, the food should generally satisfy the insulin rush. The problem occurs when you have diet drinks by themselves. In this case, you have extra insulin in your system, which will encourage you to overeat the next time you have food.

    If this were the case, I would have died from insulin shock long, long ago. I used to drink upwards of 8 cans of Dt Dr Pepper a day and have never had an insulin reaction..hmm...

    Oh, I didn't gain any weight, either.

    Fast forward a bit and I actually did quit the sodas completely, diet or otherwise, for a year after having read all these scaremonger studies and had zero noticable health benefits. I started drinking them again, didn't gain weight from that, either...

    Know where I gained weight? Quitting smoking.. Now, THAT is a fattening endeavor! lol I quit cigarettes and gained 25 lbs in 2.5 months, wowzer.. so, now I'm working on losing that and the fat I was already carrying around... and I'm losing it all while drinking diet sodas.
  • peleroja
    peleroja Posts: 3,979 Member
    I've never had a problem with them, but I use them pretty moderately. I like a Coke Zero every couple of weeks and I put Splenda on the rare thing I need sugar in (bad, cheap coffee, mostly.) I've certainly never noticed the slightest detrimental effect from them and I think the doomsayers are being kind of silly, frankly.

    Sugar is bad in excess, too. So is fat and salt and a million other things that are not bad for you in appropriate quantities. You probably shouldn't drink eight Diet Cokes a day, but you also shouldn't have eight cups of orange juice, frankly.
  • OMGSugarOHNOS
    OMGSugarOHNOS Posts: 204 Member
    I cut HFC from foods that I buy. I just opted for foods that have sugar instead; ex. sauces. I lost 4 lbs in 4 weeks...and didn't change anything else. I mean, I know it isn't scientific...but in my experience, HFC is not the same as sugar.

    Also, I completely cut out all artificial sweeteners while I was pregnant with my first kid. So for 9 months, I didn't have a single diet drink, and I used to love Cherry Coke Zero. After I had my son, I bought a Cherry Coke Zero...took 1 sip and spit it out. It tasted corrosive...not sweet at all! I haven't had a diet drink in 6 years. Again not scientific, but diet drinks did screw up my taste buds.
    This person is on to something!

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