Artificial sweeteners can be found in breakfast cereals, breath mints, sugar-free gum, cocoa mixes, coffee beverages, frozen desserts, gelatin desserts, juice beverages, laxatives, multi-vitamins, milk drinks, pharmaceuticals and supplements, shake mixes, jams, soft drinks, tabletop sweeteners, tea beverages, instant teas and coffees, topping mixes, wine coolers, yogurt, children's vitamins and  more.

 

Aspartame is the technical name for NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, and Equal Measure.  Aspartame accounts for more than 75 percent of the adverse reactions to food additives according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.  (FDA).  Symptoms include:  headaches, dizziness, seizures, nausea, numbness, muscle spasms, weight gain, rashes, depression, fatigue, irritability, insomnia, vision problems, hearing loss, heart palpitations, breathing difficulties, anxiety attacks, slurred speech, loss of taste, tinnitus, vertigo, memory loss and joint pain.

 

Aspartame is made up of 3 chemicals:  aspartic acid, phenylalanine, and methanol.  All of these chemicals are toxic to the body.  Methanol is a deadly poison and breaks down into formic acid and formaldehyde. 

 

Splenda is marketed as the safe alternative because "it is made from sugar so it tastes like sugar".  But Splenda is made using a chlorinated process - that's right - the same chlorine we use in our pools for disinfection.  Splenda is toxic to our bodies and many people have shared their stories and side effects of using Splenda.

 

We know that artificial sweeteners are unsafe but how do they make you fat if they have no calories?  When you ingest the artificial sweetener, your liver must break down the substance into its toxic components.  This takes a lot of extra energy from the liver which means there is less energy left for the liver to do what its suppose to do - metabolize and burn fat.  Excess fat gets stored in your liver causing "fatty liver" and when this starts to happen it is extremely difficult to lose weight.  In addition, artificial sweeteners cause unstable blood sugar causing you to crave more sugar and sweets.  Toxins that are unable to be eliminated from the body (such as the chemicals found in artificial sweeteners) get stored in our fat cells giving us the appearance of dimpled skin or cellulite.

 

So are there any safe alternatives?  Yes - Stevia (pronounced STEE-vee-uh).  Stevia is a natural, non-chemical sweetener that derives from a shrub grown in Paraguay.  Stevia is available in little packets (like Splenda) or in liquid form.  One quarter teaspoon of Stevia sweetens like 1 teaspoon of sugar (so use VERY little)!  I found Stevia at Publix and Kroger grocery stores in the diabetic section but you can also buy it online from manufacturer direct - www.PuritansPride.com.

 

So what about "Fill Your Plate and Still Lose Weight!"?  I'm sorry to say that I also fell victim to believing that Splenda was safe - originally from a fitness professional and then from mass advertising and marketing campaigns.  I started to experiment with the recipes in my book using Stevia and have had great results.  For those of you that currently have a copy of "Fill Your Plate" - please consider trying Stevia as a calorie-free alternative for some of the recipes.  And let me know what you think!  I would love to hear from you at jan@completefamilynutrition.com!