artificial sweetners???

As you may know, I've been following Bob Harper's advice in his new book The Skinny Rules. He advocates cutting out ALL artificial sweeteners. Alone, they won't cause you to gain weight because they are calorie-free. However, he says (and I've grown to agree with him though I wanted to throw the book in the trash when I read I needed to eliminate diet soda) they condition you to expect (and CRAVE) sweetness far more than you would naturally. What's worse, artificial sweeteners are actually much sweeter than natural sugar, so we actually begin to crave "hyper-sweetness" when we eat them. I think it's those intense cravings that are the worst for you weight-loss efforts; eventually you give in. If you cut out the artificial stuff I can tell you from experience your cravings will diminish and you'll find the restricted calories a lot easier to deal with. You will also begin to be satisfied with simpler, natural foods like berries to sweeten your food.

All that being said, I do have a diet soda like once a week now because I do miss it. I just treat it like a luxury. Same goes for sweetened coffee. I used to infuse my coffee with sugar-free creamer. Now I do black coffee and add creamer only on special occasions. Sparkling water is great if you need something besides plain water. Also, if funds allow, Bob did say buying one of those Soda Stream machines helped him cut out soda. Just squeeze in a bit of citrus fruit or muddle berries in the bottom instead of adding the syrup that comes with the machine.

I have never been a soda/pop drinker, so I didn't have that hurdle to jump. I did switch to artificial sweetener in my coffee (that's the only place I use it). I have no doubt that there's some questionable content in some of the artificial sweeteners since sweet & low makes me incredibly irritable and cranky. However, my coffee caloric intake has dropped from around 600 cal a day to 80. So until my 3rd eye starts to grow, I'll keep using the artificial sweetener (just not sweet & low).