Artificial Sweeteners, anyone else hate them ?

Go on the internet and do a search for Stevia. It is (supposedly) a naturally sweet tea leaf. It was okayed for diabetics in the U.S. I have tried it and it's not bad. Of coiurse I haven't tried it since my surgery. I have found that I can't stand saccharin (the pink stuff) and I used it all the time before surgery. Aspartame (Equal) and the yellow one all leave a weird taste in my mouth.

On a side note, I used to drink diet coke and diet dr. pepper almost always. Never any water. I was having tennis elbow, irritable bowell symdrome, and heaven's knows what else. I read about the effects of aspartame and gave it up. Didn't have any for at least 7 days. All those bad things went away. Amazing what the aspartame is doing to people and you don't even realize it.

Thanks for the tips Jodes, that's a big help.

steph

Jaime's School Dinners Yeah I'm trying to get hold of a copy of the DVD to use it at school for my child care classes.

denise did you see jamie olivers 'school lunches' ? that was a perfect example
Jodes

I'm sure you're niece will come prepared if she wants them to ever be babysat again - haha
but you might want to have in the cupboard some plain smiths potato chips , plain sakata's , hummous, red apples are better than green, pear is perfect fruit apparently
you can make or bake nearly anything from scratch - just don't add to many extras (spices, sauces etc)
roast dinner is a safe one with a bit of puree apple/pear instead of sauce/gravy.
pancakes with mayple syrup
bread from bakers delight/brumby's
i use preservative free sausages from the butcher with a big plate of mash veges. (or they eat frozen veges- still frozen - when they're bored of mash)
meat needs to be plain cuts, no ham, bacon , mince(unless you do it yourself), no devons, salami's etc.
jodes

From a teacher's point of view its amazing how kids behaviour changes when they are getting good food that isn't processed to an inch of its life

Jodes, I will be doing both as they are staying the weekend.

steph

hi Denise, yes i have read her book and have since gone onto the food intolerance network.
which is the website i posted earlier.
www.fedup.com.au
they are a husband and wife team, he's a scientist and they give lectures so i took myself along to one with my friend whose son had cancer
so she tries to avoid the chemicals also.
Jodes

yeah its definately more work for yourselves to make it work..pretty much have to make everything yourself and use regular butter , sugar etc.
I am lucky that my girls don't go bolistic with a little bit so they can have a few little things at parties etc and are learning which is the better choice for us - not fat free - but chemical free
Steph are you making dinner or looking for snacks?
jodes

Hey jodes,
If your putting your kids on an elimination diet you should check this website out
http://www.additivealert.com.au/

The lady who wrote the book and did the website is from WA Julie Eady full time Mum to three young children. She developed her interest in food additives and their effects on health after the birth of her first child. With a family history of allergies and asthma, Julie began her research into dietary links to such illnesses, in an effort to improve her children’s chances of avoiding these conditions.

You can get the book from Big W here in WA.

Hi Jodes,

My neice has had to do the same thing with her 2 boys who react badly to additives. She reads the labels of everything she buys when she is out shopping.
Thing is I am baby sitting them both this weekend for her so am a bit worried about what to feed them.

steph

i am learning what an amazing difference it has in kids behaviour. i have put my family on an elimination diet which takes out all the additives, colours, preservatives etc and then you add them
back in one at a time to see what response you have. I have 3 girls and i thought shouting at them 10 times to put their shoes on was normal, turns out that with out the chemicals i only have ask - not shout - and maybe twice at the most. our house is a lot calmer because of it.

here is the article relating to britain removing 211 from diet coke:
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23764556-662,00.html
Jodes

I hate the stuff and it tastes fowl, leaves an aftertaste in my mouth. I'd rather have sugar than chemicals anyday. That said though the sugarfree gum doesn't seem to affect me and the taste is not tooooo bad, go figure, (although I don't have it all that often). I do get worried when you see children having diet drinks, I wonder what it does to them, ie what affect on behavior (maybe affects ADHD? just an hypothesis) because I know other chemicals affect behaviour (ADHD) ie food colouring etc . If I gave my son anything with blue colour when he was little, he would go burko, but he was fine with natural or processed sugar!!!!!

Yes the UK is still trying to ban it.....
Lynette, your reaction to aspartame sounds awful !! I don't get any direct affect from it like headaches or tummy aches but have read all the evidence about the neuro damage etc...and I am really surprised that all these nutritionists prefer us to have it over a little sugar, I mean theres nothing nutritious in it at all....
Catherine.

I went to the Supermarket yesterday and looked at all the sweeteners, THEY ALL had aspartame in! So the UK does have it! I could not find an alternative! yuk

Just to add to the comments below, I have a real problem having anything with nutrasweet (aspartane). I discovered this almost 20 years ago, I used to have two diet cokes a day and by mid afternoon I used to be doubled over in absolute agony with my stomach bloated and cramped. When I cut out the diet coke, miraculously the stomach cramps/pain went away. So I swore off diet drinks from then on, so yes, if I go through McDonalds (as a plus 200 pound person), then I order full coke not diet coke. How, I am going to go pre-post op using artifical sweeteners ie in lollies or chocolate/jellies, is anybodies guess. Will have to wait and see. I have now stopped getting coke at lunch and buy the flavoured waters (mizone), they do have sugar in them, but much less than coke and my dietition thought they would be OK. (at least I'm drinking more water than I used to). I think post-op as someone inferred below, try and cut down all sugar, but a little tiny bit sometimes probably won't hurt (just my opinion).

BTW the Kate Morgan shakes (I'm using these instead of optifast) don't have artifical sweeteners in them but do contain 24g per serve of sugars, it would seem the sugars used are fructose, glucose syrup solids.

I believe that artificial sweeteners are noxious poisons and probably contribute to more physical problems (ie cancer etc) than does real sugar.

Kittycat I love your Cat! Just gorgeous.

Cinni

thats a really interesting website, i wish everyone would educate themselves 'downunder' and follow the UKs lead on this one, we don't have nearly enough publicity about it here.

i believe the UK have changed the aspartame in diet coke to something else,
as well cadbury have changed their artificial colours on smarties to not be as nasty
and the reason the companies don't change the products here is because not enough people have complained
www.fedup.com.au

yes i'm afraid splenda is a poisonous chlorocarbon.

Typical bloody kiwi's hehe

Splenda is poison too.

I was using the fruittose sweetners for awhile on my weeties and found them pretty good eh! Splenda is one brand cant remember the others

Thats interesting about Xylitol, I must buy some and see how it tastes. I've got some stevia which isn't too bad. Such a shame Opti and and diet jellies etc...dont use the natural sweeteners, I guess its economics. You're right Japan has banned aspartame, and South Africa and the UK are trying to. I think the FDA approved it in the first place under suspicious circumstances....and Australia and NZ etc..just followed along like sheep.
Cat.

Was just thinking the same thing Kitty as I ate my artificially sweetened jelly! :[img]http://ww I am on opti so I am so hungry I am eating them and diet pepsi!

I usually don't like the sweetners and had voved to give them up and now use stevia in my tea and have just started using Xylitol, which is another natural sweetner. So there are alternatives. I think in ten or twenty years the scientists will have banned the crap, in fact I think Japan already has in its diet drinks? (not 100% sure about that).

http://www.xylitol.com.au/

I have come to believe that what we now put into our food should be now be about "quality" rather than "quantity" so as your tastes change post op & your weight loss continues a little sweetness in your diet can't hurt. But as applesauce & myself discoverd one day at Dome cafe when we ordered pancakes to share the maple syrup almost killed us & we couldn't eat much at all the sweetness was just too much. I also believe too much artifical sweetener hinders weight loss as it messes up your metabolisim. It all boils down to balance a little sugar is ok in my opinion.