Just say NO to artificial sweeteners!

About 20 years ago, my brother Gordon told me, "Diet sodas will make you fat."   I couldn't see it and only the last 5 years or so have I stopped drinking them. I'll have an occasional one, yes, but will usually opt for a drink with real sugar in it. REAL SUGAR! Charge!  Yes, real sugar and although not related, I switched back to real butter too.

For a number of years I've noted the alarming number of kids with mental disorders and I remember growing up and not seeing this phenomenon. I lived in Toledo, Ohio in the 6-8th grade and there was one fellow of maybe 25 on the corner everyone said was "retarded". He smiled a lot and was never really outside his house and we would wave at him as we pedaled past on our wheeled iron horses. He was harmless and to us kiddos, a novel mystery. His name was Jim.

Jim is the only kid I can remember who was "retarded". All the other kids were "normal", meaning it ran the spectrum from tame to wild and honest to criminal. Some were over-achievers, others were very studious, but as a whole, most boys were rowdy to a degree. No one ever thought any of the boys had accelerated attention problems. They were boys for gosh darn sake. They acted like what they were and that is the way it was.

 

List of health problems associated with Asparteme

Something has happened in the last 50 years to create this massive and unexplained plethora of mental deviations. It seems everyone you know either has a kid on anxiety drugs, or is accused of a mental departure from what is labeled as normal. Back in the day people didn't drink Tab or Fresca because they were leery of sodium cyclamates (sweetener code 952) and on top of that, they tasted terrible... but they were diet drinks, so many endured the after taste.

To my personal knowledge and experience, this was my first artificial sweeter experience. Cyclamates are banned for human consumption in the US, but 130 other countries allow it. I don't care, I won't knowingly allow the substance in my food or drink. I will not consume any product with high fructose corn syrup or aspartame. Give me real sugar from honey, beets, or cane. I will curb the amount I use. Better yet, I will mix my 100% fruit juice with filtered water for my "soda" fix.

Its what's in my gym water bottle and works fine without a boost from artificial ingredients like Red Bull and Monster drinks. Speaking of those type of drinks, they are liquid Drano with enough citric acid to dissolve rusty metal. I say no to "energy" drinks or supplements. I've witnessed how much energy these drinks give people and 10 minutes after chugging one, they can hardly keep their eyes open. Its a typical big rush followed by a huge crash. The answer is always to drink more.

If one of these USDA approved sweeteners is present (saccharin (SugarTwin, Sweet'N Low), acesulfame (Sunett, Sweet One), aspartame (Equal, NutraSweet, Spoonful, and Equal-Measure), neotame (NutraSweet variety), and sucralose (Splenda), I will not consume them. I'm going to avoid Stevia for the time being also, but it may be a very viable alternative.

Pretty much if the product is advertised as "diet or low this or low that" I am going to avoid it and go as natural as possible. I have to start somewhere and this is the line in the dust. I'm not going to make a big issue out of it and I will have to exercise portion control, but gosh, aren't we all accountable for what goes into our mouths anyway?

There is a study that suggests that your brain not only sees the artificial stuff as real, but it responds just like it would with sugar, so why oh why are we being duped into believing it is a diet drink? Aspartame has over 90 documented adverse reactions including mental retardation, Alzheimer's, fibromyalgia, birth defects and the list goes on.

Why is it that country people who grow old eating the pigs they butcher and the garden they grow, ate bacon, eggs, sweet tea, biscuits and gravy and are still healthy into their 80's and 90's or older and we are dying in our 40's? Join me and remove this possibly dangerous substance from your diet. Just say no to artificial sweeteners.

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