Hi all

I am a bit concerned with putting so many chemicals in my body in the form of Nutrasweet, Isomalt and other chemical sweeteners. It doesn't seem right to replace a natural sweetener like sugar with chemicals. When I have too much of this stuff I get bad cramps and really dont feel well. I realise there are warnings on the packaging that excess consumption may have a laxative effect, but are there any other side-effects (long and short term) I should know about? (Thinking along the lines of cancer)....

I know that sweeteners aren't an essential part of low carb eating but they definitely play a big role in my eating with carb-controlled snack foods such as jelly, chocolate and diet drinks.

Can anyone help me out with understanding this?

Hi Leonie,

I've just started Atkins, and I've read quite a lot of information along the way about the bad effects of Aspartame (nutrasweet). Maybe you try to find english sites (with a search engine this must work) about aspartame (mine are in Dutch...). I know that after reading these sites that i'm very careful eating this stuff....

Good luck....Vickolien

Our bodies do not require sugar to live. Sugar is an empty carbohydrate that since it's introduction to human eating habits has caused nothing but problems.

While you are not required to consume artificial sweetners it goes to say you are not required to eat real sugar in order to survive.

So, with that in mind, low carbohydrate diets cut out the high carbohydrate items from our way of eating to get our insulin under control to help us lose the weight.

If you can eat sugar without weight gain more power to you. Most of us find however that eating sugar spikes our insulin levels to excess and becomes a huge problem.

agonycat-

I definitely endorse the low-carb WOL, I am doing Atkins at the moment. I agree that sugar (in excess) is detremental to your health. No arguments there at all!

My concern is with aspartame and other sweeteners endorsed by Atkins in this diet- what harmful effects they may have.

Atkins doesn't "endorse" artificial sweetners, but he does say you can use them in moderation. I don't use nutrasweet-at all. I drink bubbly mineral water instead of soda, and occasionally have a soda with Splenda in it, which has no side affects. If you are in induction right now, you shouldn't be having any jelly or chocolate (?) anyway. As a rule I stay away from processed foods and prepared "lowarb" products and stick with meat, cheese, salads and veggies.

I know you feel right now you can't live without something sweet, but the farther along you get eating lowcarb, the less desirable it becomes. In fact I did Atkins in '98, then went off of it (bad move on my part), but I never went back to sugar. It just tastes bad now and makes my teeth ache.

You right though, Nutrasweet is awful for you, and if I were you, I would stay away from products that use it.


-Shelly

I stay away from Nutrasweet (Aspartame) as much as possible because I've found that it causes my blood sugars to react as though I'd eaten regular sugar. Splenda (Sucralose) doesn't seem to have that effect on me, though. Artificial sweeteners (AS) are a YMMV thing. Some people can use them without a problem, some can't. I like the Splenda better also because it's made from sugar but has been molecularly altered so that while it tastes like sugar your body doesn't digest it or react to it like sugar (in most people anyway). After doing low carb for a while I've found that my tastes have really changed. Tonight we went out for dinner and I ate a bite of my daughter's roll. Wound up spitting it out because it didn't even taste good to me. Now if I can only convince my taste buds that I don't like sweet things anymore.....

hi Leonie,

You might want to try stevia. It's natural, made from the powdered leaf of a plant, stevia rebaudania. It has a sweet taste, but no carbs or calories. It does have a slight "anise" flavour, not everyone likes it ... but I use it and it works fine. I've seen other members in Australia have stated they can find it in health food and natural foods shops.

Doreen