The TRUTH About Artificial Sweeteners

Joel,
Stay away from that stuff! Here’s why:

I went to the doc cause my lips, mouth, fingers and toes were getting numb and I was getting ‘mentally’ slowed down. I thought I had a B12 deficiency. But they checked my levels and they were fine. My doc then asked about my lifestyle. He stopped me mid way and asked me “do you use artificial sweeteners”? I was like ‘yeah I use Equal”. He was like “That’s it!. No wonder. If I had my way ALL those things would be off the market. They say they are safe. But I have a bunch of patients with the same symptoms and the only thing you guys have in common is that you all use artificial sweeteners”. When I went home, I tossed mine right away.
I can tell you that since I stopped using them, my clarity is back AND the numbness I was feeling is greatly reduced. I do not use ANYTHING that has an artificial sweetener in it. That freaked me out!

Sorry that posted twice. Having technical difficulties lol

I’ve never had any issues with Aspartame or Splenda, and I’ve never seen any evidence (studies or otherwise) against them that didn’t come from some organization with an agenda.

I don’t use sugar or sweeteners. Mostly because I don’t have a sweet tooth and I get most of the sugar I crave from homemade juice which is almost addictive.

I will say that I’ve heard many times that…
1. Artificial sweeteners are very unhealthy
2. Artifical sweeteners cause you to crave sugar more than sugar does

I have no idea if either is true but I’ve seen these claims in a lot of articles… true or not

I heard a lecture from a woman at a nutrition seminar at York College of PA and she suggested from her research the possibility that splenda and other sweetners may accumulate in the brain like mercury from tuna.

I drink a mug of coffee each day and wondering which was better – milk and sugar or creamer and sweetner – I put together the following analysis based on how i like my coffee

2% Milk
(per Tbsp.)
0.3g fat
0.7g carb
0.5g prot
7.6 cal

Pure Cane Sugar – white sugar
(per tsp.)
0.0g fat
4.2g carb
0.0g prot
16.0 cal

GV Sugar Free French Vanilla Creamer
(per tsp.)
0.5g fat
1.3g carb
0.0g prot
10.0 cal
contains: maltodextrin, Aspartame and Acesulfame Potassium

GV Calorie Free Sweetner (blue packet)
(1 packet)
0.0g fat
less than 1g total carb
0.0g prot
0.0 cal
contains: dextrin, maltodextrin and Aspartame

Coffee – black
(1 Mug – 270.0g)
0.0g fat
0.0g carb
0.0g prot
5 cal

14oz. Coffee made with 2 Tbsp. 2% milk and 1 tsp. sugar
calories = 1(5.0) + 2(7.6) + 1(16.0) = 36.2 calories
fat = 1(0.0) + 2(0.3) + 1(0.0) = 0.6g fat
carb = 1(0.0) + 2(0.7) + 1(0.0) = 1.4g carb
prot = 1(0.0) + 2(0.5) + 1(0.0) = 1.0g prot

14oz. coffee made with 3 tsp. creamer and 1 packet sweetner
calories = 3(10.0) + 1(0.0) = 30 calories
fat = 3(0.5) + 1(0.0) = 1.5g fat
carb = 3(1.3) + 1(0.0) = 3.9g carb
prot = 3(0.0) + 1(0.0) = 0.0g prot

Conclusions:
The coffee with milk and sugar has a whopping 6.2 more calories!! :-D
but seriuosly – it is lower in fat, lower in carbs and higher in protein
compared to the coffee made with creamer and sweetner

so – is the sweetner bad? is the sugar bad? or is it just that
people over-consume!!! FOOD for thought? or THINK about your food?

I simply do not like the taste or after taste of the artificial stuff…if I am going to have some sugar give me the real thing.

Will you please get us alist of the “Lab” names of artificial sweetners that would be listed in the ingredients and considered a “no-no” on products. For example, the product label does not say “Splenda” but the ingredients lists sucralose.

Nothing tastes better than my Tim Horton’s double double with sweetener but I am trying to cut out the Splenda in my life. It is a difficult task as OMG they are in everything!!! I am currently using Stevia but find that it has a bitter aftertaste. Xylitol sounds interesting. Anyone out there tried it??

I would deff. like to hear about this. I love me some water, but I need a diet soda every once in a while to. It just helps to mix everything up. I would never taint my sacred black coffee though.

Well, how about this? When my son was a toddler he suffered a severe reaction to something. What was it? He was allergic to aspartame!!!
Years later, after marrying my third husband, he was rushed to the emergency room from work one night with what they thought was a heart attack. What was it? A severe allergic reaction to aspartame which did, in fact, almost cause his death due to heart failure.
And yes…me, too!
Even my 14 year old daughter has an irregular and rapid heartbeat after consuming the stuff!!!
We have had 4 different physicians tell us–GP, Internist, heart surgeon, and pediatrician–this stuff can be deadly!!! It is a CHEMICAL. And as a matter of fact, the chemical plant that makes the stuff is just a few miles from my home. I have been to that plant and they have some of the most toxic and deadly chemicals known to man in that place!!!! They use these chemicals to turn sugar–which is a natural sweetener–into another CHEMICAL.
ENJOY!!! :)

researchers at Purdue University found that when animals were fed yogurt with saccharin they later consumed more calories, gained more weight, and put on more body fat than animals that were fed yogurt sweetened with glucose, a natural sugar with the same number of calories – fifteen per teaspoon – as table sugar. the Purdue study also found that as the animals continued to eat the artificial sweeteners, their metabolism started to “forget” that most sweet things DO have a lot of calories. SCARY! So there’s a good chance that when you finally do break down and have that chocolate-glazed doughnut, your body thinks, “no big deal”, and doesn’t bother burning up the calories because the SWEETNESS DOESN’T MEAN ANYTHING.

one more plausible explanation why artificial sweeteners make us fat might be the fact that aspartame, also known as NutraSweet, is an excitotoxin, a chemical that may cause permanent damage to our brain’s appetite center. and the earlier these neural changes begin, the worse it is. A study at the University of Alberta, Canada, found that baby rats that ate more diet foods in their childhood had a greater chance of becoming obese later in life. Researchers called it “taste-conditioning process” – we might call it the “Diet Soda (or artificial sweetener) Backlash”…

@Alex –

Splenda is made from CHLORINE – do you want THAT in your body?? ;)

Wait a minute, just because you had a reaction to a certain “chemical” doesn’t mean that the “chemical” is bad. Wouldn’t that just mean that you have a physical side effect of using that “chemical” Some people have side effects to tylenol…that doesn’t mean that tylenol is bad for people. Some people have allergic reactions to “organic” carrots…are “organic” carrots bad?

Sorry, I don’t mean to start a flame war on your site Joel, its just that some of these comments are not very thought out. even mine.

What about Stevia? This was mentioned to me by a homeopathist. It is VERY sweet but any pertinent information would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Fom Wikipedia…

The artificial sweetener aspartame has been the subject of controversy regarding its safety since its initial approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1974.[21][22] Some scientific studies, combined with allegations of conflicts of interest in the sweetener’s FDA approval process, have been the focus of vocal activism, conspiracy theories and hoaxes regarding postulated risks of aspartame.[23][24]

A 2007 safety evaluation found that the weight of existing scientific evidence indicates that aspartame is safe at current levels of consumption as a non-nutritive sweetener.[25] The sources and claims of many alleged aspartame dangers and conspiracies have been the subject of critical examination. In 1987, the U.S. Government Accountability Office concluded that the food additive approval process had been followed for aspartame.[21][26] Based on government research reviews and recommendations from advisory bodies such as the European Commission’s Scientific Committee on Food and the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives, aspartame has been found to be safe for human consumption by more than ninety countries worldwide.[27][28] In 1999, FDA scientists described the safety of aspartame as “clear cut” and stated that the product is “one of the most thoroughly tested and studied food additives the agency has ever approved.”[29]