The TRUTH About Artificial Sweeteners

Originally Posted By Wende SharrockI started the Cheat your way thin diet three weeks ago, at the same time I began taking liquid mineral which are sweetened with Fructose. And I purchased some protein powder drink mix sweetened with Fructose.
I lost 6 lbs the first two weeks, but I began having swollen joints, pain in my knees and a strange lump started growing on the inside of my right knee.
So I went to see my MD about the pain that was keeping me awake at night. She said I have (Suddenly) arthritis. She X-rayed my knee and said there is not much can be done for arthritis but pain pills, specialists, etc.

I didn�t like that answer.
I went home and looked it up on the internet. According to my symptoms it is Rheumatoid arthritis and it is an autoimmune disease.
So that sounded to me like something was compromising my immune system that had not been doing so before.

I talked to my elders and friends. They commiserated.
Then one friend mentioned that her sister had the same symptoms in 9th grade and had been diagnosed with Rheumatoid arthritis. She discovered that it was being caused by her coffee sweetener: sucrose which she was also putting on her yogurt, in her home made desserts etc.
When she stopped taking it she went back to normal.
I emailed a friend and he said a friend of his had a similar experience but didn�t figure it out quick enough and ended up with MS and is now in a wheel chair.
I went home, looked at my liquid minerals, my protein powder, and I put them aside.
Since then (two days ago) I have gone to a Native American sweat lodge, drunk copious quantities of water, and now the symptoms (pain in joints, hips and knees) is gone, My finger joints ~ alas have not shrunk much but the pain is gone.

I found out that my supposed arthritis (my autoimmune disease) is caused by a chemically induced poison I was ingesting multiple times daily. I had heard that artificial sweeteners were poison and that using them to diet would have the opposite effect (produce hormones that make you feel hungrey) but I didn’t want to believe it was true for all of them ~ although I went through the splitting head aches of asperitime and that ilk and stopped using sucrose, I didn’t want to think it was true for fructose ~ which after all, they said it was made of fruit Go figger.
anyway,
It got me thinking about the ills we as a people are going through at younger and younger ages.
Maybe we all need to go see a good healer and get muscle testing done on all the things we are eating.
Or maybe we need to get back to that ole time religion. . . . . making ALL our own foods, growing as much as we can and not get taken in by the food industry that is only trying to make money from us and does not have our health and well being in mind at all.
Maybe we could stop every ill from depression to diabetes with home made everything. And lightening up on sugar of all kinds.
I feel so much better today, without the fructose.
Anyway, I wish I could tell everyone the pain that I went through to learn this truth and the wondrous magic of getting better by simply adjusting my diet.
That said I wish to put in a disclaimer: EVERYONE�S BODY IS DIFFERENT. The same things don�t exactly happen to everyone. And you must remember, I am 65 years old and have already noticed that milk products have a similar effect on me
Wende

Wende,

Just to clarify something for you, sucrose and fructose are not “artificial sweeteners.” Sucrose is sugar, plain old table sugar. Fructose is the natural sugar that occurs in fruit. Are you able to use regular sugar in foods or drinks without it having a similar effect? Can you eat fruit without that effect? If so, then I suggest the issues you may have had with those products were not due to the sugars at all, but rather, some other component of those products.

Kind regards,
Chad

@anne –

Try Xilitol. It really tastes like sugar :) Use in moderation, as it may cause gas/flatulence with some people if taken in excess. It is a natural product and does not spike glucose levels like other sugars do.

@Darrell –

Yes you will see all kinds of information trying to discredit products that are making companies BILLIONS of dollars. They don’t care about your health — only the almighty dollar!

Remember… it is not a natural product. It is based with a chemicals. You decide.

Like I said in my personal comment at the end of my post that said: If you have any doubt as to whether or not Artificial sweeteners are safe or dangerous, YOU MUST ASK YOURSELF THIS: “Do I want to take a chance on my health if there is the slightest chance that it could be harmful?”

@Leslie – @Joel Marion –

Joel make not agree with you… but I do.

So is plain sugar good or bad? brown sugar? What? Are sugar free drinks like Crystal Lite good or bad?

Joel it’s an interesting topic, I drink coffee every day & my sweetener of choice is “Splenda”. Should I be worried? should I stop using sweeteners period…Please keep me posted…Thanks

Miguel

How sad I was to hear your comments on artifical sweetners today.
I am a pharmacist, board certified nutritionist, a clinical researcher and one
of those published authors you referenced. Let me tell you that any study can
be made to prove anything. And some peer reviewed journals are nothing more than hanging out with your buddies slapping each other on the back. Nutrisweet is a neurotoxin for your body! Period. Try looking up Sweetpoison.com or mercola.com/aspartame We all get exposed daily to toxic chemicals and our body fights to clean us up. Why knowly put poison in your body? Try a Stevia drops or an new stevia product called Truvia if you want a change of taste. Stevia is an herb that is 600x sweeter than sugar. Like Vitamin water 10 or White capped Sobe. Better yet squeeze some lemon or lime in your water and increase your bodies alkalinity!
I am not purist you want to drink artificial sweetners then go ahead but don’t fool yourself into thinking that a little posion is safe. It is what it is, it is alittle poison. Best wishes to all just keeping it real!

I drink diet soda a few times a week. Cut down from several a day! Yes, I would like more info – it seems there’s a lot of opinion on the dangers of this stuff but I want to know what the research says.

@Joel Marion – Don’t take my comment that seriously! You seemed kinda irritable in your call regarding my comment. I was just making note how you differ so much on this area.

I hope you aren’t taking me too seriously! I was just noting how differently you and Mike felt on the issue. @Joel Marion –

hi there,

I don’y know whether artificial sweetners are good for u or not but i DO know that when i was taking artificial sweetners in my diet (equal) my cravings for sweet used t drive me to binging on sweets ever so often. Now, I simply take 1 cup of sweet tea daily (normal sugar) n believe i can easily not eat sweets/chocolates for days together!!

I found a comment here that says that daily dose of asparateme etc is less than 5% of what is required to cause any harm. Pls make the same allowances for everything in life: esp nuclear power where YEARLY dose of radioactivity is NOT EVEN 2% of the required that causes cancer!!!!

Hey Joel
First it was cool meeting ya at that seminar. I am one of the fitness guys but not one that was staring. Anyways this post was very informative and even though this is my first time on your blog now that you have dispelled a myth even i wasn’t aware of I will be back to learn more. Keep up the great work

Yes. I’ve certainly read enough information to convince ME that they are bad for us – even carcinogenic. Even if I hadn’t, I would be inclined to avoid them on the grounds that they are artificial. If it ain’t natural, it ain’t good in my book.

That said, we must all choose for ourselves where we want to draw the line as far as being healthy goes. I know I feel better when I stick to a healthy diet, but that doesn’t mean that I never go out and eat cake or have a few beers. Most of our socialising involves food and drink and we’d have a pretty miserable life if we didn’t go out and have fun sometimes.

Hi Joel,

I drink regular coca cola – I figure that artificial sweetners are manmade chemicals and that the body has no idea what to do with this toxic stuff and it will eventually kill you. I feel natural is always better. (that being said i’m sure coke is not the best anyway). But as for research to support the use of artificial sweetners, I would like to see who is paying for the research!!!!!!.

P.S. I have emailed you several times and have not received a response… that was back in May 5/08 and again this week.

For the past four years I have been using stevita and I use a LOT of it- 2,000 packets got within a week. I am not dead yet. Before that I went through Splenda the same way. In fact, I have been using artificial sweeteners since I was 8 and nothing bad so far. It went fro sweet and low to equal to sucralose to splenda to stevita. Righ now because of money I had to go back to splenda because it’s the cheapest. I love sweet. I always did and I always will. If it kllls me I can say life was short but sweet. I enjoy it as best as I can.

I don’t use artificial sweetner for two reasons – first and foremost because they taste horrible and second because they only go in food I don’t eat anyway. No need for sweetner, artificial or otherwise, in protein, fresh fruit and veg, or nuts and seeds. I lost 106# five years ago cutting out bread, rice, pasta and potatoes and sugared food and have kept it off.

Stevia – it has been around for thousands of years and nobody has yet to prove any adverse effects. It can have many benefits and is very sweet! Don’t bother getting the expensive packets of “white” stevia or the liquid extracts. The powered leaf is cheap and can be purchased in bulk at about any health food store, or eve the spice section at Fred Meyer!

Please do tell. Obviously, evident from the above posts, there is much talk and disagreement on this subject.

A difficult, but recurring question, is, how do we lay-people know whose information we should trust? It seems you are going to post why it is okay to uses artificial sweeteners, while others will vehemently oppose that stance and cite resources supporting their position.

Hi Joel.

Yes, I drink diet sodas frequently and eat several diet/light/no sugar added foods (usually made with aspartame/Splenda, etc.). I don’t drink coffee, but my husband does. I recently got him to switch from Splenda to Stevia in his coffee. However, everything else usually has the above named pseudo-sugar sources.

I have a lot of the symptoms some people are saying are caused by aspartame poisoning, so please enlighten. I have chronic insomnia, IBS, frequent aches/pains, symptoms of chronic fatigue, etc.

Thanks.

I do drink a diet pop once a week. First of all, I have “heard” a lot of stuff about artificial sweeteners, and also read a book titled, “Excitotoxins”, can’t remember the author. The artificial sweeteners overexcite our brain cells and they die. Diet pop is also bad because I’ve “heard” the carbonation is not good for our bones.

I agree with some of the other posts. It’s artificial – stay away from it.

I keep Stevia and Truvia on hand for that rare time when I want to sweeten a beverage. A couple of times a year if I am cold or really tired (or both), I’ll add real sugar to my coffee for a quick jolt. Otherwise, sugar in any form is not my thing. Ordinarily I drink water or brew a pot of tea through Mr. Coffee using three green tea bags and three Hisbiscus or Ginger tea bags. Get the benefit of green tea but masks the oh-too-grassy taste. A pot of coffee in the morning and a pot of tea at night.

I take organic sugar or organic molasses in my coffee.most of my sugar intake is from fruits

I’m convinced stevia has absolutely no negative effects. Spenda, even, is just a modified sugar molecule with no nutritive value. Saying that it’s bad for you because it contains chlorine is as stupid as saying that salt is bad for you for the same reason.

Let me know what you think, Joel.

I’ve seen some aspartame claims and I try to stay away from it, but that’s about it. I use splenda whenever I want.

Hi Joel,
I’ve heard good and bad things about artificial sweetner and am not sure what to believe. More info would be great.

I currently use a combination of Splenda and Truvia. I drink Coke Zero maybe once a month so I am not too worried about the “effects” of diet soda. But PLEASE don’t take my Splenda or Truvia away or I couldn’t get through my morning tea.

I read an article a few months ago about the evils of artifical sweetners and it actually only had bad things to say about Sweet N Low and Equal. It said there were little to no adverse findings against Splenda and it was too early to judge Truvia/Stevia. So, I think I will continue to drink my tea with my fake sweetners, it beats 16 calories per tsp.