Artificial Sweetners

poison. You can't get animals to eat/drink it. Ants won't come to it if spilled on a sidewalk. When sugar is an energy source, the preferred source by your body, and the only one your brain can use, why would you substitute? That's like running a gasoline powered car on diesel.

Can't and won't do it!!!!!!! Rather do without sugar altogether.

poison. You can't get animals to eat/drink it. Ants won't come to it if spilled on a sidewalk. When sugar is an energy source, the preferred source by your body, and the only one your brain can use, why would you substitute? That's like running a gasoline powered car on diesel.

^^^^this

I've gotten away from them, and now use plain white sugar, brown sugar, or honey in most things. I also have a bottle of agave but haven't used it. The calories aren't that bad when I'm only having 1 cup of coffee on the weekends, and maybe a few cups of tea during the week.

Stay away from them. If you must substitute your sugar, use Stevia/Truvia. Here's my views on fake sugar.

One of the major functions of your liver is breaking down all foods you consume into their chemical substances.

During this process the the liver filters out everything other than the nutrients your body needs. One part of what makes this process possible is bile, which the liver produces for this purpose. The job of bile is to break down fats and process the fats your body needs to assimilate fat-soluble vitamins.

But what happens if your liver is so overwhelmed with toxins (everything your liver does not recognize as a NATURAL NUTRIENT it considers a toxin and attempts to filter out)? Your liver is too busy filtering out these toxins and cannot do an effective job processing the nutrients and fats your body needs, thus causing weight gain or the inability to lose weight!
Another side effect of artificial sweeteners is an increase in appetite.

I'm not going to bore you with the chemical details here, but in simplified terms, when the sweet substance is consumed it triggers the brain to think that nutrition for the body has appeared and needs to be processed. However, since artificial sweeteners are not recognized as nutrients, the brain receives another message, which is that more nutrients are needed to break down the waste and you stay hungry, thus eat more. I'm sure you can see where this ends up in terms of you trying to lose weight.

Another one of the side effects of artificial sweeteners is an increase in the desire for sweet food. Artificial sweeteners are several hundred times sweeter than sugar itself, thus promoting a "sweet tooth" effect, resulting in sugar cravings. This is another dangerous territory if you are trying to maintain a healthy meal plan.

POISON!!! Artificial sweeteners are so bad for you! It's safer just to have sugar! Personally, I don't eat any sugar. Instead, I find sweetness in fruit and sometimes if I need something a little extra, I'll use Stevia. But not the Stevia they sell at grocery stores, because that still has crap in it. I buy the SweetLeaf brand. It comes in lots of different flavors too.

I, along with a LOT of people I know personally- have BAD reactions to Nutrasweet (aspartame)
and Splenda (sucralose)......for me, *instant migraine* and *loose stools*, respectively.

NOT worth it.

bettter to log a *few carbs* and NO calories and go with a NATURAL plant sweetener
such as Stevia- MY personal favorite.

and BTW, if you're concerned about chemically engineered sweeteners- watch out for HighFructoseCornSyrup-
many manufacturers offer a variety of their food products WITHOUT it.
just my extra 2 cents' worth

Aspartame has been great for me. Replaced the sugar from my 10-12 cups of tea a day, and have never felt better!

I have no problem with them. People say poison, but then again....anything we do can be considered bad for us if we do it too much. I'm sticking with the everything in moderation.

If someone has a fear of using real sugar because of the calories, then I think there may be a problem there....but using it to flavor coffee or tea or something here and there...no biggie in my opinion.

I use Splenda all the time, but after reading these posts with the information you've all given, I'm determined to change that. I have heard about it tricking you into thinking it's the real thing but in the end making you crave more sugar. I've always had a sweet tooth, it's been my downfall with my weight problems. It could be because I've replaced Splenda for sugar in anything that I would have otherwise sweetened. I have Stevia, and I have Truvia - don't care a lot for them, but for my coffee I'm sure I could do without. Thanks for all the information everyone!

♥