In the 1990’s, I ate a lot of ‘diet’ food, usually in attempt to lose weight. As long as something was low calorie, it was good enough for me. But then I learned about the impact of artificial sweeteners, the man-made (aka “fake”) ingredients that are often added to diet foods in order to improve taste.
Let’s talk about aspartame in particular. Also known as NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful and Equal Measure, aspartame is found in diet soda, diet yogurts, Jello, even chewing gum. It has been referred to as a “chemical poison”, is an ‘excitotoxin’ (it actually excites your cells to death!), and is linked to brain tumours, cancer, Multiple Sclerosis, Fibromyalgia, joint pain, rashes, memory loss, migraines and the list goes on and on and on.
If you read all of that and are still interested in putting it into your body because you want to lose weight, then know this: although these artificial sweeteners may not cause an increase in blood sugar, they trigger insulin release, which leads to excess appetite, overeating, insulin resistance, and weight gain.
2 rules to take from this:
RULE #1: Avoid artificial sweeteners including aspartame, sucralose (Splenda), saccharin (Sweet ‘N Low, Sweet Twin, Sugar Twin). If you don’t know if it’s artificial, pull out your phone and look it up.
RULE #2: Eat. Real. Food.