I am very much against artificial sweeteners however a few years ago I used to consume far to much of them.
A drink I used to drink often in college was Crystal Light, that stuff is chalk full of artificial sweeteners and the fact that I would have at least one or 2 packets a day didn’t make it any better.
I used to consume a lot of low fat, low carb, fat free you name it as long as it said low or free I was on it. Those contained a whole lotta artificial sweeteners!
I slowly started to learn that all those artificial sweeteners weren’t good for me and I cut them out of my diet, now I do all that I can to avoid artificial sweeteners, I will admit I have been known to have a diet snapple every once and a while but I am really trying to stay away from them.
Currently there are 5 FDA approved artificial sweeteners.
1) Aspartame- in NutraSweet and Equal
2) Saccahrin- in Sweer’n Low
3) Sucralose- in Splenda
4) Acesulfame K- produced by a German company and is used widely in different foods and beverages
5) Neotame- produced by the NutraSweet company
It has been tested that artificial sweeteners could cause cancer. The Center for Science in the Public Interest cautions everyone to avoid aspartame, sacchrin and acesulfame K because they are unsafe consumed in large amounts.
Aspartame has become of huge concern because it contains phenylalanine, aspartic acid and methanol which are all neurotoxins. There are many symptoms that have been associated with the consumption of aspartame just a few are headaches, nausea, memory loss, anxiety attacks, fatigue, chest pains, muscle cramps, PMS, increases appetite, menstrual irregularities, mood changes.
These are just a few on the list and several of the ones I listed above I experienced when consuming things that contained aspartame. The good news is that these symptoms are easily cured just by consuming less or no aspartame.
What are your thoughts on artificial sweeteners?
Do you consume a lot of them?
I'm Kaitlin a 25 year old health coach with a passion for all things food and fitness related. I love to cook and bake, I am all about healthy recipes and definitely guilty pleasures here and there. My goal is to give women guidance to healthier nutrition that will ultimately help lead to a stronger sense of self.
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I wish I could get off of artificial sweeteners. Any tips?
my best advice is to slowly cut things out, for example you drink 3 diet cokes a day, try to make it 2 for a few weeks and then make it 1 for a few weeks. If your using sugar just stick to the regular stuff, it ends up being better for you in the long run and if you are baking and it calls for sugar I almost always just half the amount the recipe calls for.