Are you Dying to be Thin?

ThinMany are trying to do things to make them thin. But forget that sugar makes you FAT. Many people choose to ignore this fact.   Very many. 

There are more overweight people in the world than hungry people. More than one billion according to the World Health Organization are overweight.

Sugar also makes us nervous, depresses our immune system, and even causes wrinkles.

So why do we eat the darn stuff … and what are the options? Most of us enjoy sweets.  It is natural to enjoy the sweet taste in naturally sweet foods like fruits which are also good for us. The problem is that most people do not limit their sweet foods to fruit; too often it is a different sugar fix that many resort to.

Are you dying to be thin?

In 1879 someone at Johns Hopkins had a bright idea to develop a calorie-free sweetener called saccharin.   Almost 100 years later, in the early 1970s, a warning label was thus required on all foods using saccharin: “Use of this product may be hazardous to your health. This product contains saccharin, which has been determined to cause cancer in laboratory animals.” That was the first artificial sweetener; a chemical duplicating the taste of common table sugar and is many times sweeter.

That was the first artificial sweetener. Because it is a big business there are many artificial sweeteners on the market and those attempting to be approved for use. Look at this long list: Acesulfame potassium, Aspartame, NutraSweet, Salt of aspartame-acesulfame, Neotame, Neohesperidin dihydrochalcone, Saccharin, Sucralose and Splenda.

Here is a summary of the five most common ones:

  1. Saccharin – aka Sweet’N Low, Sugar Twin is calorie-free because the body cannot break it down. It was found to increase bladder cancer in diabetics who used saccharin for years.
  2. Aspartame – aka Equal, Nutrasweet is one of the more common artificial sweeteners today. There are over 92 different health side effects associated with aspartame consumption (a few examples: hearing impairment, epileptic seizures, migraines, irritability, insomnia, shortness of breath, loss of hair and increased craving for sweets) and it worsens or mimics the symptoms of diseases and conditions as fibromyalgia, MS, lupus, ADD, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s. See this article: “An Overdue Ban On A Dangerous Sweetener.”
    Also, it has been documented that Aspartame Causes Memory Loss.
  3. Sucralose (aka Splenda ) is a chlorinated artificial sweetener which was approved by the FDA on April 1, 1998 (April Fool’s Day).
    Sucralose has been found to be a trigger for migraines.
    There have been no long-term human studies on the safety of Splenda; however, issues have been raised about Splenda in a new study from Duke University showing that it will literally destroy all good bacteria in your gut while increasing acidity which stimulates the growth of harmful bacteria and yeast. Research has shown it to cause Shrunken thymus glands, enlarged liver and kidneys, reduced growth rate, decreased red blood cell count and diarrhea. For more info go to The Sucralose Toxicity Information Center.
  4. Neotame has a similar structure to aspartame and appears to be even more toxic than aspartame. According to Dr. Janet Starr Hull, it is “It’s Just Aspartame Without the Warning” 
  5. Acesulfame-K (aka acesulfame potassium, Sunette, Sweet One, Sweet ‘n Safe) is an unsafe chemical. Compared to aspartame and saccharin, Acesulfame-K is the worst. There has been very little research done but studies have shown that it can produce lung and breast tumors, leukemia and chronic respiratory disease in rats.

Artificial sweeteners can cause weight gain not make you thin!

Yes, it is true.  At Purdue University Research on Artificial Sweeteners, they found that an artificial sweetener makes your body less able to regulate energy. This explains why,  when you are eating so little, exercising so much and find you are STILL gaining weight.

Also, the body doesn’t recognize chemical sweeteners as food; it leaves the body feeling unfilled and seeking nourishment, thus increasing your craving for food. The main reason people consume these is to lose weight and be thin. Now, do you really want to be consuming artificial sweeteners?  I certainly do not! Since these artificial sweeteners came on the market, we have been seeing eating disorders on the rise among younger people.

Because of very clever advertising, we believe we can eat these sugar-free artificial foods without penalty. On the other side of this, there is a fear that eating REAL food will cause weight gain.

Here is a great video: Are Equal (Nutrasweet) and Splenda BOTH Bad For You??

The body was designed to eat whole food, real food, not chemicals.

If you care about your health, my advice is to stay away from artificial sweeteners. This excerpt is from a full article in a magazine  Next week we will talk about other healthy sweetener alternatives.

To learn how Reduce Sugar Cravings read this article: 7 Tips to Reduce Sugar Cravings

Check out a very healthy sweetener that has no calories and is actually good for you. Stevia is the Most Amazing Healthy Sweetener!

Learn to Bake Healthy Sweets. Gluten-Free, No Soy, Dairy, and Sugar-Free.  Sinfully Delicious and Healthy Too!   Sign up for my Healthy Baking Class

vital healt assessment

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Get healthy tasty vegan gluten-free recipes and useful lifestyle tips sent to you twice a month

13 thoughts on “Are you Dying to be Thin?”

  1. Aspartame causes a drop in serotonin and when that goes down our thyroid function goes down and cravings for sugar go up.

  2. I gave up sweet desserts, coffee, artificial sweeteners, and carbonated drinks and in two weeks did not have any cravings for what I used to thrive for many times a day. Before, I was one of those people that ate “fake” food, watched everything I ate, exercised daily, and never lost a pound. When I removed those ingredients from my diet I lost weight and ate food too. I actually ate food and was comfortable. This past two years I was influenced to eat the cake and ice cream, have a coffee with cream and fake sugar, and then continued down this tunnel. I have gained 40 pounds and can’t lose weight. Your article has just convinced me to “get back on track”. Thank you Randy and Diana, you know I’ve been struggling and suffering. At this moment I’m washing my coffee cup and renaming it “my favourite water cup”. Love, Sue

  3. Thank you Tricia for explaining what happens; that helps me to understand the whole thing better.

    Susan, thank you for sharing your story which validates what we are saying here. Good for you giving up your coffee….you know there are some vey healthy beverages out there that actually will help you keep off coffee.

  4. Jean Pelletier

    Nice picture! Where were you? It’s nice to see pictures of you guys especially when you change them and you are in different places.
    Nice to see you.
    Jean

  5. Those are some scary side effects. I used to be a pop-a-holic. Then I quit drinking pop for years. I started again one summer and I found that my memory started getting worse after I started drinking diet pop again because I am a diabetic. Great to know all the info on the artificial sweeteners. Thanks.

  6. James Garcia

    i read somewhere on the internet that long term consumption of Aspartame is not really good for the health. .*:

  7. If you read the bit above you will see that one of the many things is says is: "There are over 92 different health side effects associated with aspartame consumption"

  8. Thanks for writing on this topic Diana – I've just added it to the "noaspa" FB page at http://noaspa.org and hope it brings some new visitors to this site.
    Best wishes
    Will

  9. Tracy, the reason people go for artificial sweeteners is because they know that sugar makes them fat and are looking for an alternative. I have just added another sentence above: To learn how Reduce Sugar Cravings read this article: 7 Tips to Reduce Sugar Cravings. The link is above. Thank you for the inspiration to do that.

  10. Please make the distinction between REFINED SUGARS and sugars found in natural whole foods. Did you realize while writing this that you say sugar makes you fat but at the end you tell us to eat whole plant foods which do contain sugar, some of them contain a lot, such as fruit. Fruit is an excellent source or carbs and DO NOT MAKE YOU FAT. NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU EAT.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *