Anybody else given up artificial sweeteners?

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  • SunofaBeach14
    SunofaBeach14 Posts: 4,932 Member
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    The weight of the evidence that I've seen indicates that they're safe. If you really want to be safer then don't get a motor vehicle, make sure that you maintain a healthy body fat percentage, don't drink alcohol to excess, and if you have children under 4 make sure they know how to swim.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,139 Member
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    Hey - Another reason to give up artificial sweetners is new research that says they make you hungrier! I gave them up when I lost 20 pounds a few years ago. At first I missed diet coke - now not at all! I try to use honey in my tea. My mantra is "eat real food"! If I can give up diet coke - anyone can - good luck!

    links to said research?

    Here is what I found about artificial sweeteners and weight gain/loss.

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2892765/

    thanks, I will take a look ..

    skimmed it and it appears to be a study of studies so not sure how relevant it would be…

    Also, they compared BMI, which IMO is a garbage stat…My BMI says I am "obese" but am 12% body fat…LOL
  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,399 Member
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    I too gave up artificial sweetners a year ago when I started MFP. They were something I used alot, and have always had my doubts about long term effects. I didn't want to add alot of regular white sugar, so I try to do without. When I can't, I use honey. I have a cappucino or mug of coffee with skim milk twice a day. That I can usually enjoy without sweetening. I've switched to fruit teas because I can drink them plain. I cannot say I noticed a difference cutting out artificial sweetners---good or bad. It just gives me peace of mind. I've never been a diet soda guzzler. You don't want to touch that on here--people get defensive.
  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,399 Member
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    The weight of the evidence that I've seen indicates that they're safe. If you really want to be safer then don't get a motor vehicle, make sure that you maintain a healthy body fat percentage, don't drink alcohol to excess, and if you have children under 4 make sure they know how to swim.

    Done all this. Surprised?
  • poohbah4
    poohbah4 Posts: 127
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    I've never used them. I hate the after-taste. I swore off sodas altogether, rather than going to diet sodas. :noway:
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
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    the only artifical sweetener I have is in my diet coke but that is cause I prefer it to reg coke...

    When I don't use sugar I use xylatol..naturally occuring sugar from trees...same as sugar just let calories.
  • Mr_Starr
    Mr_Starr Posts: 139 Member
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    I personally gave up all artificial sweeteners years ago because they made me hungry.

    I am one of those people that find artificial sweeteners seriously make me more hungry. I was gaining weight year after year and switched to artificial sweeteners in an effort to stop gaining weight. Instead my weight started going up even faster! So during the next six months i kept track of what i ate in a log book and also noted when i was hungry (this was days before smart phones so it was much more difficult). I found during those weeks i was using artificial sweeteners I was a lot more ravenous. I snacked more and always seemed to go back for seconds.

    So I just decided to quit Soda and sweet drinks altogether. In the next year after I slowly lost 20 lbs and stayed at that weight for years. Though now i am working on getting back to a more healthy weight.

    The good thing is after a few months my craving for constant sweets went away.

    I should have also known better. In my youth when I worked as a bartender at a Pizza place, I always thought it odd that the fat folks would always order huge pizzas with lots of toppings... with large diet sodas. And the fit folk would order smaller pizzas with fewer topping and order small sodas (with sugar).


    ...and in response to some of the others comments.... as for aspartame I have a few friends with horror stories. Yes i had a one friend that had seizures, others had some other reactions but harder to prove, but the worse was a friend who reacted with a change to his personality. He went from a mild mannered introvert to a foul mouthed angry jerk. Luckily it was caught in time before it completely destroyed his life.
  • Tanya949
    Tanya949 Posts: 606 Member
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    Up until very recently (last month) I've been a 5-6 can per day diet Pepsi addict. For over 20 years I've been downing the horrible crap that is aspartame. It gave me headaches, carb cravings, and sore joints. Since cutting down to one can per day all those symptoms have disappeared. I hope to get down to 2 cans per week, moderation is OK, but drinking it all the time was taking a horrible toll on my body. A few of the others in flavoured yogurt and such, don't seem to have the same effect on me as aspartame. And I had a food intolerance test done last year. Guess what one of my severe intolerances was... yep, aspartame.
  • ChrissyC1985
    ChrissyC1985 Posts: 406 Member
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    I have been a coca cola/pepsi addict for years, particularly the diet stuff. recently made the switch to flavoured waters to ween myself off. I had a glass of regular pepsi the other day as the boyfriend had bought some and i really didn't enjoy it as much as i thought, I prefer the flavoured waters. massive victory for me there. have real sugar in my tea/coffee rather than sweeteners.
  • kar328
    kar328 Posts: 4,150 Member
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    I recently gave up my one 16 oz Diet Sprite a day, due to reading a lot about aspartame. It was the one year anniversary of my giving up my regular Coke/Pepsi habit due to the excessive amounts I was drinking (4-5 16 oz bottles/day, then had cut down to 1-2). I'm slowly acclimating to seltzers that just have natural flavoring. I also have a Soda Stream so I use that to make the same seltzers. Can't honestly say I notice a difference after no aspartame for the past three weeks or so, but I'm not craving the Diet Sprites so it's fine with me.

    I never used artificial sweeteners in my coffee, I was using excessive amounts of sugar but gradually decreased it and stopped altogether almost two years ago. Now it's just with almond or skim milk. I'd rather have all those extra calories to use in real food.
  • catsandtats
    catsandtats Posts: 29 Member
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    I gave up all artificial sweeteners because, in my experience, they did nothing to actually help me curb my cravings for sweets. My penchant for cookies was the real problem! My sugar cravings toned down quite a bit once I just limited all sweet treats regardless of how they are sweetened. Now, I find the taste of artificial sweeteners ("natural" or not) as well as high fructose corn syrup just way "off the mark" and not all that enjoyable. So, now I tend to just have a little bit of a treat sweetened with sugar if/when my macros allow it.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 9,925 Member
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    On occasion and not knowingly I've consumed artificial sweeteners and always tastes of desperation.:smile:
  • FP4HSharon
    FP4HSharon Posts: 664 Member
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    All of them will give me a migraine within 20 min of consumption, which is really bad for the ones where I can't taste the difference.
  • liznotyet
    liznotyet Posts: 402 Member
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    I smoked cigarettes for 20 years, and I drank diet colas for 30 years. I lost my cravings for cigarettes within a year or so of quitting smoking, but my cola craving stayed with me for years. Overall I feel much better since I stopped drinking them 5+ years ago. Used to have a lot of aches and pains, not anymore. In December I quit the last of it giving up saccharin for my coffee. It has been much easier to maintain energy and mood without the sweet spikes/rushes/lulls. Disassociating caffeine from sweetness has also reduced the cola cravings FINaLLY!!
  • Kenazwa
    Kenazwa Posts: 278 Member
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    Aspartame gives me headaches, so diet soda has always been a once in awhile thing. I might have another one some time in the future, but really - I'd rather brew some really great tea and drink that.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 8,998 Member
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    No I am not giving up artificial sweeteners - cant say I use them a lot, only in diet coke or pepsi max - I have a few glasses of same per week.

    Coffee I have unsweetened, no sugar, no sweetener, just a small amount of low fat milk.

    This is working fine for me, no plans to change.
  • willdob3
    willdob3 Posts: 640 Member
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    I gave up artificial sweeteners a few years ago. I had no problems stopping. No withdrawal at all.
  • swissbrit
    swissbrit Posts: 201
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    I had all the symptoms of Fibromyalgie and suffered really really bad migraines as in the doctor would come to my home and inject codine and valium they were that bad, I stopped using any artificial sweetners and since then I only have bouts of the Fibromyalgie symtoms if I get really really cold and hardly ever have a migraine and if I do I am able to use normal meds to cope with it.

    I have eaten something with sweetners by mistake and within 2 days I am dying with a migraine so read all lables now
  • Amandawith3kids
    Amandawith3kids Posts: 367 Member
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    l limit it. i use one packet of splenda a day in my coffee, and i dont eat much else that has it. sometimes i'll have a yogurt with it in, or some crystal light, but i tend to stay away from "food" that is made in a lab. not 100% clean, but i do what i can.

    you can pry my cool whip out of my cold, dead hands though. :D
  • tmaryam
    tmaryam Posts: 289 Member
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    Fellow RN checking in! (Critical care, neuroscience ICU, but now going into Case Management whoot!) I use Splenda in my tea, I can't stand any other artificial sweetener. Splenda is the only one you can cook with, I believe, and it doesn't have a bad aftertaste or taste sickeningly sweet like the others. BUT I think it does flare up my allergies because my lips always turn bright red and swell. I know I should nix it, but let me get to a happy place with my fitness goals and then I'll slowly go back to real raw sugar.

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