Are you a sweet junkie too?

Are you a diet soda addict? How about a sugar addict? Are you one of those people that just has to have something sweet to eat or drink?

The dilemma facing people around the world, and particularly in America and Europe is that more and more we are living in a sugar rich society. We are so accustomed to a sugar rich diet that we are litterally addicted to a sweet taste. The problem is that now there is plenty of research that clearly shows that the sugar addiction can create some tremendous health problems including things like Diabetes. That’s a very bad thing.

The problem is that it’s really difficult to shake loose of being a sweet junkie. So, our ever diligent food industry (diligent to how to make the next buck) has come up with the idea of artificial sweetners. In theory, it’s great. Come up with something that tastes sweet that doesn’t have the calories of sugar and doesn’t make you Diabetic. Well, that’s the theory at least.

Artificial sweeteners have been a failure – except financially

The fact is that artifical sweeteners have made the food processing industry and chemistry labs a fortune, but the artificial sweeteners themselves have been found to be quite harmful to health. Saccharin has been related to cancer. Sucralose is also highly suspected of being carcenogenic because of its classification as an organochloride. For a greater history about artificial sweetners check out Wikipedia.  And that brings us to the third most widely used artificial sweetner in the United States, aspartame.

The Truth About Aspartame

Aspartame is the most widely used artificial sweetner in diet sodas. What’s really interesting is that there is some research that shows that you actually tend to put on weight by drinking diet sodas, so it’s a bit of a mystery why people do it. There is solid research (according to Dr. Mercola) that diet sodas containing aspartame can result in…



• Headaches/migraines
• Nausea
• Abdominal pains
• Fatigue (blocks sufficient glucose entry into brain)
• Sleep problems
• Vision problems
• Anxiety attacks
• Depression
• Asthma/chest tightness.
• Emotional disorders
• Epilepsy/seizures
• Fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue syndrome
• Parkinson’s disease
• Memory loss, and Alzheimer’s disease
• Cancer
• Premature birth, and birth defects

So, it probably doesn’t make sense to have aspartame as part of your diet.

What can you do?

If you have any of the symptoms above, or, for that matter, any other chronic symptoms, then you should definitely eliminate aspartame from your diet and see if the symptoms improve. The best course of action is to eliminate all artificial sweetners from your diet for two to three weeks. Record in a journal how you feel. See if you feel better after these two weeks. If you don’t feel better, that doesn’t mean that aspartame won’t hurt you, because it may. If you do feel better… well, that’s a no brainer isn’t it.

Fix for the carbonated beverage junkie

Yes, there is nothing like that hit of carbonation to perk you right up. So what can you do. Here is what I suggest. Stevia and LoHan are safe, natural substitutes that give you a nice sweet taste. So, give this a try. Get a bit of fruit juice. Then add some water. Then add Stevia and/or LoHan… and for the carbonation, try using a SodaStream carbonation machine. You can use it to make your own carbonated beverages. If you are drinking diet sodas all the time this $100 gizmo will pay for itself in no time. You’ll get the carbonation, you’ll get the sweet taste from the Stevia and/or LoHan, and you won’t get too much sugar by diluting the fruit juice. Here’s a link to Amazon, but you can also get it at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. It works for me.

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