Thanks for the quick reply, coolcat. One reason I asked is that there is so much info on this site about the artificials (in shakes, bars, some recipes, and in drinks). It goes against your thinking of why you're doing this- to avoid the sweet stuff, right? I guess adding some sugar is ok for those in maintenance. Anyway, it's kinda like when the artificial "fat" came out in Doritos and other chips. I thought,"this stuff can't be good for you"-it's not naturally occurring. It has to be processed in a lab somewhere. And a lot of people I know-including me-got diarhhea on that. Are "artificial" sweeteners naturally occurring or do they mix them up in a lab? I know that sugar and honey and stuff like carob are naturals,but I don't mind avoiding them. Now that I'm low carbing-and loving it-I don't want to ruin my good results. And I want to do it with foods and beverages that "remember where they came from"-haha.

The other reason I was concerned is because a very close friend of mine died a few years ago after going on a reduced calorie diet. He didn't eat anything "reduced fat" or "low fat" because he couldn't stand the taste. His focus seemed to be on the calorie reduction and he did use the artificial sweeteners-a lot. He drank tons of diet sodas and used Sweet N Low on cereals and in desserts. His oncologists said there could have definitely been a link between the cancer and the artificials since he had no family history of the disease and was an otherwise healthy 25 year old non-smoker. (I don't want to scare anyone-sorry)

Anyway, I'm glad to know that there aren't terrible sugar cravings that will ultimately make you resort to stuff like that. It's good to know it can be done without the artificial sweeteners.