The TRUTH About Artificial Sweeteners

I’m reading that a lot of people use Stevia…..well I tried it years ago and I thought it had a horrible after taste!

Hey Joel…now you’ve done it! You’ve really opened up a huge can of worms. LOL
I love it!!! :)

Artificial sweeteners might help some avoid problems with sugar, like diabetics, but I’ll stick to sugar or xyletol. Every artificial sweetener I have ever tasted seems bitter to me, so I don’t use them at all.

Watch the documentary “Aspartame – Sweet Misery, A Poisoned World” and then come back and tell me there’s a lack of data to back it up.

I’ve used Splenda in the past for baking but it has an addictive quality to me that makes me want to eat more. I’ve heard that Stevia is good but I live in China and don’t have access to it. What about drinks like Fresca? Or sugar free yogurt with the phenly…
In my Chinese sugar-free yogurt, Xylitol is substituted for sugar. I love the taste but have recently had stomach troubles after eating it. I’m wondering if regular consumption has a negative effect.

Yes I occasionally drink diet sodas and diet green tea because I like being able to drink something guilt free that isn’t laden with sugar and also because high amounts of sugar seems to trigger hot flashes and I prefer to keep them at a minimum. I mostly use Splenda .

Aspartame does not seem to bother me , although not good for anything that is high temp , Splenda has after taste I don’t like but can tolerate but can use with high temp. The xxxol sugars cause me gas. Stevia tastes OK in small amount but
it seems to cause me to get too hyper. The worst one is ACEsulfame potasssium
it makes me nausous, bad aftertaste, general sick feeling. Unfortunatly they put it in almost everything sugar -free

Okay. Here’s my input. It’s better to eat and drink natural. No chemicals like are in diet sodas. I have read many reports that it causes brain cancer and since my first husband Bob died from brain cancer I will not touch that artificial sweetner. He didn’t drink diet sodas but worked with radiation and I’m sure that is what caused his brain tumor that killed him in 3 weeks. Pure water is the best drink there is. I live on a farm in WV and have mountain Spring Water to drink.

Hi Joel,

I try to drink water each day for as long as I can sometimes that is all day. But sometimes I just gotta have a diet coke or some other diet soda. If tea has a good taste I have gotten used to drinking iced tea with no sweetner but still prefer a sweetner when it is hot tea I am drinking.

I think like most things moderation is the key. I have never tried Stevia but I have thought about it. It does seem to be a bit pricey.

Looking forward to what you have to share.

Thanks,

Diane

How true is that artificial sweeteners can cause an insulin spike? I mean, the sweetener by itself, without considering the “carrier”. I can’t remember the source right now, but I read somewhere that they cause the body to produce insulin just like “Pavlov’s dogs”. I just don’t believe it, it’s kind of nonesense, but I’m worried since, even though I’m lean, I suffer from hereditary insulin resistance. Anyway, I try to take no more than 2 packets daily (in addition of the sweeteners from my protein powders). I preffer Splenda, but only because of the flavor.

By the way, why aren’t sweetener PILLS available everywhere? I used to get this presentation of Splenda in France. Its “carriers” were lactose and glycine, rather than dextrose-maltodextrin. They contained 0.2 grams of carbs as opposed to 0.8 from packets; in addition these carbs came from lactose. At least, in Mexico, they don’t sell the pill presentation, I don’t know if it’s the same in the U.S.A.

Finally, could you, someday, make a post about these, supposedly, insulinogenic substances?:
-Soy sauce
-Protein hydrolysate (as a food additive)
-Vegetal stock (again, as a food additive)
and mainly -Monosodium Glutamate

I try to avoid these ingredients as the plague (specially MSG), but I don’t kow how harmful they really are if I’m insulin resistant.

Thank you!

i use diet “soda” (you guys call it) as a treat without really cheating…i’d like to know whether i’m tricking my body or harming m body as if i was drinking regular soda

Please help clear up the confusion! I thought sweeteners were bad for a while and then tried “natural” sugars – bad move – very addicitive! I thought Splenda was better but many say it is bad – chlorine addition. Now trying xylitol.

I do not use artificial sweeteners because I was told it’s not good for me, it may be cancerous. I was also told that natural sweeteners can get me o best. So I am impatiently waiting for your findings.

would LOVE to see your articles on this…

For case studies based on “research” you only have to google it for the wiki page on all these artificial sweeteners, and there is research saying bad things and then others canceling them out (probably company’s buying doctors off like the cigarette company’s did along time ago) but even if thats not true there is still not 100% proof it IS not bad for you, not 100% that it IS but why take that risk? I’m sure not going to take a gamble on my life.

I believe it’s great that people can make up their own mind after seeing “both sides of the coin”. You should never lead your life based on what other people do or don’t do. You have to make sure you have ALL the information, so that you make the best decision for your self/body.

Personally, I do not like the taste of aspartame or other artificial sweeteners. I tend to just use the “natural” sweeteners. i.e. brown sugar, succanat. In MODERATION, of course. As it is, I am not a soda drinker at all and I drink coffee once in a while.

You are doing a great job at getting people to think about subjects that it seems they had already decided on just because they heard or read something telling them “it’s bad for you”.

Thanks for your input.

yes, give me your side. I drink at leats 1 to 2 coke zero a day. I heard numerous debates and articles. No conclusive answers.

Joel,

I have used Splenda in my coffee for years. Last year I started developing a third arm from it!! Its actually pretty cool cause I can bench press more now.

Just joking, but some people take this stuff a little to seriously. Sure if I sit down every day and eat a pound of Splenda something bad will probably happen. But I (and most normal people) do not that!

If you really want to transform your body, eat a little less (portion control), eat more natural healthy foods (lean meats, veggies, etc) and exercise.

A couple packets of processed sugar in your coffee in the morning or a slice of birthday cake once in a blue moon is not going to kill you (well unless you’re allergic to eggs).

I used to drink diet soda, but I quit when I had my pilots license and was experiencing vertigo while flying. Normally vertigo is caused from looking through the spinning prop, but the airplanes I was flying were all pusher props, the prop is behind you. I mentioned this to my father, he asked everyone in his flying club, none of them use any artificial sweetener of any kind because of this same reason. I stopped drinking all soda, and only use stevia when I crave something sweet. I had a sip of regular coke about a year ago, it made my teeth hurt and I almost puked, I can’t believe I used to drink something that sweet almost everyday. America is addicted to sugar, the idea of artificial sweeteners, make as much sense as chocolate flavoured “diet” or “meal replacement bars”, Gee maybe I can lose some weight by replacing my breakfast and lunch with low calorie chocolate bars. We need to lose our taste for sweet. As for splenda, as I understand the process they use to make it is they do something with the sugar molecule, then add chlorine. Sodium is not bad for you in small amounts, it is a mineral that you need. Sodium Chloride (Sodium + Chlorine = table salt) is bad for you. I can’t see how sugar + Chlorine could be good for you. Looking forward to seeing what information you have available.

I’d really like to hear your personal opinion on the matter there’s a lot of ideas that support both the safety and the dangers of artificial sweeteners. It’d be nice to have a compilation of all the actual research and wade through the garbage to reach a real verdict.

As a trained scientist I never gave much credence to the stories about the health dangers of artificial sweetners, particularly because there is little credible research in the area and its largely inconsistent.
However my opinion changed when i witnessed first hand the side effects of aspartame. My father has had diabetes for nearly 40 years and used to use a lot of artificial sweetners. 15 years ago he had a severe brain hemorrhage, but survived. My mother convinced herself that it was partially caused by the sweetners, and so didn’t let him touch them. I thought she was being paranoid. As a consequence of his brain injury he developed epilepsy. But it wasn’t severe and had maybe one seizure a year. Then a couple of years ago, almost overnight, his seizures increased to several an hour. His epilepsy medication was increased, decreased, and changed, all to no effect. After a couple of weeks we learned that he had come across a pack of ‘equal’ tablets and had been secretly taking them. Once he stopped taking the sweetner, the seizures stopped immediately!

My view on sweetners has not-suprisingly changed since this episode. I realise this one case does not consitute scientific research, but its difficult to ignore the thousands of anecdotal stories that mirror mine.

My take on sweetners today is that while I don’t think they are particularly safe, I don’t think they will outright cause cancer and other side effects. Just like some preservatives and even foods, some people are more sensitive or intolerant of these agents. And the effects are sometimes not immediately apparent. I would recommend people steer clear of aspartame as this agent seems to be associated with the worst adverse events. Splenda, or sucralose, seems to be much better. But the best option is to use Stevia, which is not synthetically produced.

I personally avoid artificial sweetners altogether. I don’t eat a lot of sweets, but if i get a craving I just eat the real stuff!

Originally Posted By Mike GJoel,

I have used Splenda in my coffee for years. Last year I started developing a third arm from it!! Its actually pretty cool cause I can bench press more now.

Just joking, but some people take this stuff a little to seriously. Sure if I sit down every day and eat a pound of Splenda something bad will probably happen. But I (and most normal people) do not that!

If you really want to transform your body, eat a little less (portion control), eat more natural healthy foods (lean meats, veggies, etc) and exercise.

A couple packets of processed sugar in your coffee in the morning or a slice of birthday cake once in a blue moon is not going to kill you (well unless you’re allergic to eggs).

Ditto! Very well said and funny to boot! :)

Hello All: I am a type 2 diabetic. I do the substitue sugar and love diet coke. I found an artifical sugar with out the apartene stuff. I don’t drink too many diet cokes, but I do love the crystal lite powder you pour in your water. And good old tap water works for me. I just say a prayer over every thing I eat and drink and go about my business. I am not depended on EVERY THING people write about. I even use Stevia…We must all make a choice of what is better for ourselves. I read and decide for myself.

I am a believer that the original is still the best… sugar, butter, etc.
For me, nutrasweet is evil. I started drinking diet soft drinks several years ago.
After a few months, I realized that the nutrasweet was effecting my memory.
Common words would be lost to me…. very embarrassing trying to have a conversation and you can’t remember simple words….. Once I made the connection, I stop drinking the diet drinks to test the theory…. My memory came back and I know longer stop in mid-sentence trying to remember what an object is called…..
Now, When I want a soft drink, I have my “Fat” Coke. No more diet drinks for me… Give me real sugar or nothing at all!