Artificial Sweeteners are Making Us Unhealthy!

Today, after waiting 2 months, I finally weighed myself again.  I lost 10 pounds.  In March, I hit a plateau and couldn’t figure out what was causing it.  I’ve finally narrowed it down.  I cut out ALL artificial sweeteners.  Which is not easy to do on a low carb diet.  All controlled carb products use artificial sweeteners.  In fact, Dr. Atkins in his many books even suggests using sucralose (Splenda) instead of other leading brands.  While I am an avid believer in the Atkin’s diet I have also tweaked it a bit for my family and I.  I’ll get into that at another time.

Prior to 2 months ago I tried everything.  I cut out alcohol completely, worked out more, worked out longer, combined different exercise by doing cardio and then strength training, started taking CoQ10, L-carnitine, more vitamin C, omega 3’s , and even going back on the induction phase of Atkins.  All that worked but I only saw a little difference.  I wanted more. 

So the only thing left to do was to cut out artificial sweeteners.  This was really the only thing left to do that I hadn’t tried.  So this morning, to my dismay I might add, I realized it worked.    I, myself, was a big fan of Splenda.  I would put at least 4 TBL of it in each cup of coffee I drank.  I knew this wasn’t healthy but I wanted my sweet, yummy, delicious coffee!  Frank would constantly give me a hard time telling me I’m a disgrace to coffee drinkers everywhere!  But hey – at least I was getting my morning jolt!  I didn’t use Splenda for anything else. 

But to ask me to give up my coffee, UGH, that was the last thing I wanted to try.  The headache that sets in 24 hours to your exact last cup of coffee, the lethargic feeling you have for the next 2 days along with that wonderful headache,  oh and the evident lack of energy to even muster the strength to get ready and go about your day.  BLAH!

But it was worth it for me.  Believe me, I am not knocking coffee, nor caffeine in any way.  I love it.  But unfortunately for me, I cannot drink coffee black.  The thought alone makes me cringe.  Might as well just go outside and lick the asphalt street instead!  That sounds just as appealing.

What are these “artificial sweeteners”?  What are they made of?  We don’t know.  The manufacturing companies don’t want us to know either.  They are foreign.  And even our own bodies know it.  That’s why it was holding me back – our bodies store this ’substance’ because it doesn’t know what to do with it!  Where does it get stored?  In our bellies.

While researching this particular sweetener, I found that Splenda is actually a chemically modified substance where chlorine is added to the already chemical structure, making it more similar to a pesticide than something we should be ingesting.  Their commercials conveniently forget to mention that part.

Artificial sweeteners are not healthy at all.  In fact, they can be worse than sugar and corn syrup.   It actually made me crave sweet things.  Whereas, if I were eating right I wouldn’t be craving sweets at all.  The battle between artificial sweeteners and regular sugar is a battle of two wrongs.  And we all know that two wrongs don’t make a right.

Also, while researching, I stumbled on a website by a guy who is pretty knowledgeable and gives a lot of free information.  Check out his website for some other tips and tricks.  He’s actually against the strict low carb diet but has some valuable information about working out and the foods we should be eating to get the best results.

Let’s get back to basics people!  Eat fresh veggies, fruit and meat (all organic whenever you can), don’t eat ANY processed food, and take your vitamins!  Avoid the inner aisles of the grocery stores and adjust your favorite meals to be more healthy.  For all you people that say you can’t do low carb because you can’t do a diet where you can’t eat bread and pasta I have news for you:  I eat bread and pasta!  The low carb kind and I don’t eat it all the time, just once a week.  All the favorite appetizers and yummy casseroles that I thought were a thing of the past are now being enjoyed again by the whole family.

After doing low carb for a very long time, I have noticed that if all my spoons are clean and still in the drawer then I am eating healthy.  (I used to only need a spoon to stir my Splenda into my coffee!)   

If we feed ourselves and our children natural and fresh food we might actually see these modern day dilemmas such as autism, child obesity and minor problems such as food allergies disappear and become a thing of the past.  We all need to re-evaluate our diets, no matter what diet we choose.