The Truth About Artificial Sweeteners

Happy Spring everyone!   This weather has been truly amazing and sooo…good for our mental health.  I finished my first class at the Institute of Holistic Nutrition and I feel like I am bursting at the seams.  I am learning so much and connecting with so many wonderful people that share my passion for food as medicine.

In my last blog I talked a lot about sugar and how it is making many of us sick.  Unfortunately, sugar seems to be the main ingredient in many products these days.  So if sugar is not good for us and even encourages the growth of cancer…do we use artificial sweetener instead?

I am sure many of you have used or know someone that has used aspartame (Nutrasweet or equal),  Sucralose (Splenda), ACE – K  (sweet one or sunette).  I grew up using sweeteners and believed that they were a better alternative to sugar.  I used to drink up to 3-5 cups of tea per day and put three tablets of Saccharin (Hermesetas or Sweet’N Low) in every cup of tea.  Back then it seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary because I was always watching my weight and sweeteners had no calories.  Or so I thought…

Artificial sweeteners have been around for a long time and the marketing for these products has been nothing less than amazing!   The companies (one being Monsanto) tell you that it is made from sugar and has no calories.  Artificial sweeteners actually have NOTHING to do with sugar!  The marketing of “just like sugar” went on for years until they got shut down.  Sadly by the time they got shut down…many people were already convinced that artificial sweeteners were made from sugar and today they are allowed in thousands of products.  So if these products are not made of sugar…what are they made of and what do they do to our body??

3 components of aspartame:

1. aspartic acid –  Neurotoxin
2. Phenylalanine – Neurotoxin, linked to depression, neuro behavioral issues and also link to PKU.
3. Methanol – wood alcohol – Causes blindness, headaches, numbness.

PKU – is what they test pregnant moms for to make sure the child does not have a mental disability.   A mom consuming a lot of aspartame will cause several problems for the child.

So here is where it gets good.  When methanol gets into your blood stream it converts to formaldehyde.  Formaldehyde is a very serious neurotoxin and at 7.8 mg it can cause severe neurotoxicity.  The average pop has 18 mg of aspartame in it.  If diet pops are left out in warm temperatures, the methanol will convert to formaldehyde in the can.  Now you know why the Pepsi truck drivers take so much care in getting the pop to the store cold.   Aspartame is directly linked to MS and if taken out of the diet it can reverse MS symptoms.   Aspartame is also linked to cancer, IBD, IBS and more.  (Class notes IHN).  Wow!  Now if that was in the marketing that Monsanto did, I am sure the ingredients in our products would look much different.

Sucralose (Splenda) has become the number one artificial sweetener in the world and is 600 times sweeter than sugar.  Splenda was actually created as an insecticide (poison used to control pests) but someone accidentally tasted it and it was very sweet.  Sugar is made up of carbon with water or a carbohydrate with 12 carbon atoms.  What they have done to create Splenda is take those 12 carbon atoms and removed 3 of the hydrogen oxygen bonds and replaced them with CHLORINE.  (Class notes IHN). That seems pretty darn scary to me as chlorine is the single most damaging and widely used chemical in the world.   Every chemical that was ever used for warfare was chlorine based and all highly toxic chemical and pesticides are also chlorine based.  I really can’t believe that they can get away with marketing this as something good for us and our families!   Think of all the diabetics that are told to use sugar substitutes instead of sugar.  Now my head is really spinning.

They market Splenda like it is calorie free which is really not true at all as one cup of Splenda is 96 calories.  Per serving basis is 4 calories.  There is no requirement for companies to label a product that contains less than 5 calories.  Crazy!

The other claim they have made is that Splenda is not absorbed in the body.  Not true!  The studies done by “them” say that 15% is absorbed by the body and independent studies in Japan say 40% is absorbed.  As Splenda passes through our digestive system it can’t break down causing inflammation which explains the huge link between Splenda and IBS!

Today 5000 products have Splenda in them and it is known as a high carcinogen, causes endocrine disruption, neurotoxicity, immune suppression, kidney and liver damage.  (Class Notes IHN).

So now maybe you are thinking…thank goodness I don’t use that stuff.  Well you might not be in the clear as Splenda is considered as a persistent organic pollutant and is not breaking down anywhere.  EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) tested 19 water plants:  15 of the 19 had unsafe levels of Splenda in them.

Seriously…I don’t know about you but this is really upsetting.

So where do we go from here?  I would really encourage you to read your labels and do your best to stay away from the low fat, no fat, sugar free products.  A water filter could also be a suggestion and something my husband and I have decided to have for our drinking water. We seem to be at a time where someone in our life is living with some sort of chronic disease.  Somehow we need to take back our food and reconnect with it.  Know what is in it by using simple ingredients (whole foods) that our grandmothers knew best.  I am really starting to appreciate how important the role of a “mother” (whomever in the house that does the cooking) really is.  When I paint a picture of the past, I see the dad out hard at work and the mother at home in the kitchen.  She was always hard at work creating beautiful healthy meals that nourished her family and kept them healthy and well.  It seems to me that we have come full circle and many people are asking “How can we make that a priority again?” If food is medicine – and it keeps our bodies alive and well – let’s spend more time in the kitchen with family and friends.

Some great links below with more great information:

http://www.naturalnews.com/artificial_sweeteners.html

http://www.naturalnews.com/034378_artificial_sweetener_disease_ASD_aspartame.html

Marty and I (my mom and two friends of mine) took an amazing nutrition / cooking class last week that we all thought was absolutely amazing.

Check Feed Life below to see some great recipes and two very inspiring people.  She is a young woman who was diagnosed with cancer at age 25 and married to a Fire Fighter who make an amazing team.

http://feedlifestarvecancer.com/wp2/

Love to you all

Xo Shannon