Artificial sweeteners YUCK

dododo123
dododo123 Posts: 105 Member
edited November 2024 in Food and Nutrition
What do you think of artificial sweeteners? I always think that there is no cheating anything. A diet requires you to lower your calories to lose weight. By using an artificial sweetener or diet drinks/foods that have artificial sweeteners, I feel like I am just trying to cheat myself. There has to be a trade-off, no? A health issue most likely. Less detrimental is that I am not changing the way I think about nutrition, therefore I am learning nothing from this dieting experience and as soon as I stop dieting, I will go back to the wrong ways of doing things.

Your opinions?

Replies

  • angeedee
    angeedee Posts: 16 Member
    I've had a hard time with the artificial sweetener bandwagon basically since it started. Anytime I eat anything with any sort of artificial sweetener I get a headache. This is my sign to stay away from it. I feel like people that use it lose weight so much faster - but also give less up. I feel that this shows me I need to commit more and give more up in moderation. I also think it will be healthier for me in the long run. I'm not really substituting - I'm altering.
  • JayBeeGo
    JayBeeGo Posts: 33 Member
    If like me you have a sweet tooth then it's a problem.

    I believe the consensus is that artificial sweeteners in moderation are not known to have any significant health issues although inevitably some will have an adverse reaction of varying degree.
    Avoiding them is inevitably desirable if you can, but in the absence of any adverse reaction, it is likely that other things we consume/expose ourselves to could be as much of a risk or more so - some are certainly in that category.

    In an ideal world we fight the sweet tooth and obviously do without sweeteners.
    I'll live with the possibility of some potential downside in the use of sweeteners rather than the known risk of adding refined sugar. For me, with advancing years, I know it has to be one or the other since I'm not going to defeat my sweet tooth now.
    I don't regard sweeteners as cheating more as an alternative.

    As far as diet is concerned I suggest you consider diet as healthy balanced nutrition and lifestyle and not a short term way of losing weight. If you fall into what I regard as that trap, your weight and potentially your health, is likely to yo-yo as you lose weight, put it on again and then try another fad 'diet' and repeat the cycle until you win or more likely give up.

    Exercise helps keep the weight under control but that requires time and willpower. I'll have to try it myself one day :smile:
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