Avoid Artificial Sweeteners If You Want to Lose Weight.
Eliminate aspartame, sucralose, and saccharine from your
diet. They are nonnutritive. Ask yourself how many pounds
you have lost since you started drinking diet sodas.
Artificial Sweeteners Pose Health Risks
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has received reports
of aspartame being linked to seizures, visual impairment,
pancreas inflammation, and high blood pressure, among other
disorders. The warning label on saccharine states that
consumption is linked to cancer. These artificial sweeteners
are called “excitotoxins” because they affect the brain
negatively.
Artificial Sweeteners Can Actually Prevent Weight Loss
Recent studies suggest that artificial sweeteners boost your
insulin levels by fooling the body into reacting to them as
it does to sugar. This is bad for weight loss and
maintenance. The more insulin in your bloodstream, the more
fat your body stores.
If you are hooked on either aspartame or saccharine, it not
only can be detrimental to your health, it also can stall
and thwart your weight-loss progress. Give up artificial
sweeteners.
Another sugar substitute is called sucralose, with the brand
name of Splenda. We don’t recommend it because it’s
manufactured by adding chlorine molecules to regular sugar.
One of the reasons we recommend drinking purified water is
to avoid drinking the chlorine. So to consume sucralose and
put unnecessary chlorine back in the body makes no sense.
Alternatives to Artificial Sweeteners
You can substitute other beverages such as herbal teas,
decaffeinated coffee, or purified water.
You don’t need to live without the wonderful taste of
sweetness. Choose from these natural sweeteners to sweeten your coffee or tea.
You can use natural sweeteners with confidence, but with
restraint.
Stevia with FOS. Stevia is a very sweet herb from South
America that’s available in powder and liquid form at
health food stores. FOS stands for fruit ogiliosaccharides,
which are beneficial for and support healthy intestinal
bacteria.
Single blossom honey. This honey is low-glycemic. You can use this to
sweeten your beverages. The same goes for Agave nectar. Both,
however, are caloric and high carbohydrate, so use sparingly.
Xylitol. Xylitol can be used for baking and sweetening beverages.
Xylitol is low-glycemic. It doesn’t cause blood sugar
imbalances or yeast overgrowth like table sugar. It’s
thought to promote bone health and prevent tooth decay and
plaque buildup. The only drawback is that if you eat too
much, you could experience gastrointestinal discomfort and
diarrhea. But then, if you’re eating 0-5, you won’t be
eating too much.
Fructose.
Fructose is a natural low-glycemic sugar that’s found in
fruit. You can also find it in granulated form at
health-food stores. Fructose is sweeter than regular table
sugar, so you need less. Research indicates that ingesting
lots of fructose can elevate the lipids that increase heart
disease, so stay away from those syrupy and sweet processed
foods. But you’re fine eating fruit and using fructose
sparingly as a sweetener and for baking.
Sucrose.
Sucrose, or regular table sugar, is medium glycemic and fine
if you consume small amounts, as in sweetening your coffee.