Artificial Sweeteners

[Manhattan]

Hi Girls!

Just wondering what your thoughts on sugar and sweeteners are? Which is the best alternative: Real Sugar, Equal or Splenda? I try to eat as low GI as possible, and read somewhere that sweetener has exactly the same effect on insulin levels as sugar. And are there any side effects of having too much sweetener in your diet (yes I'll admit, I've a sweet tooth to boot )

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

x

[chris]

Hi
My experience with sweeteners is not good. I have been on soooooo many diets and have found that natural is best for your body as the sweeteners can have bad side effects on your body, I don't even drink diet dinks.

I use raw sugar at home, by memory it even has low cal compaired to white sugar but not sure how it rates with GI.

Check it out on google Aspartain (sp??) and all the others and their side effects. It is not good.

Take care
Chris

[butterfly_warrior]

Manhattan, you may want to look into stevia...

BW

[melbel]

beat me to it BW......have a squizzy at stevia.....you will probably only find in health food stores...it is the only sweetener my naturopath recommend for rying to conceive etc....failing that she said honey, then organic raw sugar. She would rather I eat real as in raw sugar than artificial sweeteners...they are really quite bad for you and if you have never used them before can make your gut very unhappy.

[Junglemum]

i wouldnt touch artificial sweetners with a 10 foot barge pole!
There are studies, (yes they are mainly in rats, but still) linking them to Cancer when taken in high doses. I think the best thing is the real thing, in moderation of course.

This Stevia the girls speak of sounds interesting, i might go check it out.

[LimeSlice]

if you google for aspartame you should find wealth of info...also check out the actual numbers for the various sweetener and google them.
Apartame
Has both pos and neg of some common sweeteners
National Cancer Institute (US) informative, but not conclusive.
Green Facts cited as 'unbiased'

You will be shocked at the negative impact these artificial sweeteners can have on your body!!
Saccharin and Splenda are not good!
You are much better off eating real sugar than artificial. I wouldn't feed them to my worst enemy,but that is just me.

HTH

[Rouge]

For me I prefer Splenda to Equal, I've also tried Xylitol (although it is more like sugar, it has more of a bitey taste). I did like "Just like Sugar" but they lost their factory in the fires

For me I've had sweeteners most of my life (due to my mother having Type 1 Diabetes). Sugars and me do NOT mix due to PCOS. So its either I have sweeteners or I die from obesity related health issues. My mother has been having sweeteners ALL her life and no dire side effects either. So basically until I see some rock hard evidence, I'd rather be healthier weight wise and take the risk

[Bengal]

You wouldnt beleive it ! I bought Equal yesterday to take for the first time, as I have put on a few k's ttc.. I will read away at the link above

Thanks girls

[paradise lost]

LOL Cai i'm off sugar for lent and sweeteners because they give me headaches and no obesity just yet!

I've just ordered some Stevia. I am curious...

Bx

[Rouge]

Thats great if you can avoid sugar altogether... I however am not that great.

Each to their own, really.

[Nai]

My naturopath suggested no artificial sweetners as they mess with your body and hormal balances. I lost more weight without them than with them - having said that I did watch what I was eating with sugar in it. I just ate a small amount when I had the urge but it wasn't a lot and I did use honey on the odd occasion too.

Generally natural is better than artificial - it just has to be in moderation.

[Manhattan]

Thanks for all of your responses

BW and MB, will definitely drop into a health food store next time I'm out to grab some stevia. TBH I have never heard of it, so I am very thankful for your replies.

Niliac, I hear you about sugar and PCOS not mixing! I'm trying to get my sweet tooth under control (have even given up sweets for Lent!), and I don't really add sugar to anything except tea and coffee.

I am seeing a new TCM Dr on monday, so will also have a chat to her about it. On my health questionnaire I sorta downplayed the extent of my lolly gobbling

Thanks again to all x

[Kitt3n]

if you google for aspartame you should find wealth of info...also check out the actual numbers for the various sweetener and google them.
Apartame
Has both pos and neg of some common sweeteners
National Cancer Institute (US) informative, but not conclusive.
Green Facts cited as 'unbiased'

You will be shocked at the negative impact these artificial sweeteners can have on your body!!
Saccharin and Splenda are not good!
You are much better off eating real sugar than artificial. I wouldn't feed them to my worst enemy,but that is just me.

HTH

:yeahthat:

google monsanto aspartame........... aspartame toxic........... etc etc............

bad, bad stuff, just research it!

[robertw]

Stevia is the only safe alternative. You can even bake cakes and cookies with stevia. Delicious

[rufalina]

This stevia sounds good... Must look into it.

[paradise lost]

Ok, off the back of this thread i ordered 250g of Stevia online and it came today. So far all i've tried is a tiny bit in a coffee (which i couldn't really taste, so i don't think i used enough) and i need HELP!

Recipes? Tips? Help? Anything would be handy!

Bx

[melbel]

it's heat stable so should be alright in cooking...wouldn't work in baking though I dont think cos of the diff in volume.

did yours come with a tiny scoop in the bottle/jar.....if so that is about the same as a teaspoon of sugar.....

just googled stevia recipes and got a heap of sites and blogs come up so maybe have a trawl through them...i personally haven't cooked with it more just used it in tea and on brekky type thing.

[BellyBelly]

Yup I use stevia too, was getting bad headaches with splenda, or other artificial sweetners. So bad for you