“Start each day by affirming peaceful, contented, and happy attitudes and your days will tend to be pleasant and successful. Such attitudes are active and definite factors in creating satisfactory conditions. Watch your manner of speech then if you wish to develop a peaceful state of mind.” ~ Norman Vincent Peale

Greetings Tushkateers!  

How are you on this glorious autumn day?  It’s clear and crisp in New York City.  A stunningly beautiful day that is not to be missed.  I am going to take full advantage of this good weather and make my way to the park, with camera in hand.  Perhaps, I’ll snap a few photos of the turning leaves, which is always a fun thing to do.

Primarily though, I am looking forward to finding a quiet park bench or a rock to sit on; a place where I can experience inner-peace.

Inner-Peace is an important weight loss / weight management tool.  The calmer I am, the more likely I am to make good, healthy choices; the less likely I am to hit the fridge.

Which, oddly brings me to an email I received from Peg. N. from N.C.  Read on …

CHEWING THE FAT:
WILL ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS KILL ME?

Dear OLofWL ~ Is diet soda as bad as ‘they’ say? Will it make me crave sugar even though there’s none in it and it is zero calories? Will the artificial sweeteners in it kill me? Because I’m kind of hooked on it. I drink Diet Coke all day long. Please advise! Thank you. ~ Peg N., No. Carolina

Dear Peg ~ Great questions, Peg!  Before I get into the artificial sweetener aspect of your question, I’d like to point out the Diet Coke also has caffeine in it, and you’re more than likely hooked on the caffeine.  Caffeine, while I love a good cup of coffee to start my day, in excess can leave you feeling jittery.  Jittery can lead to anxious and anxious feelings often move us toward food.

Before you indulge in another glass of Diet Coke, consider what it’s doing to your ‘inner-calm/inner-peace’ and how that is impacting on your healthy living plan.  Thank you 🙂

Now … to answer the primary question, I did a bit of research and here’s what I uncovered.

Warning: It ain’t pretty! AND to be clear, I’m not a dietician or a nutritionist. I’m just reporting in.

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Studies show that artificial sweeteners can:

Stimulate your appetite (spike insulin levels which will increase hunger very shortly after eating);

Increase carbohydrate cravings (consuming sweeteners will cause your sweet tooth to actually get worse);

Stimulate fat storage and weight gain (increase in insulin levels cause you to get hungry and eat more).

In addition, research suggests that aspartame (NutraSweet®) and sucralose (Splenda®) – the sweetening agents in artificial sweeteners – can contribute to other side effects.

Even though sucralose, the sweetening agent in Splenda®, is actually made from sugar (sucrose), Splenda® then adds three chlorine molecules to these sugar molecules to create the final product.

In a number of animal studies, researchers found that sucralose can cause:

Shrunken thymus glands (up to 40 percent shrinkage)
Enlarged liver and kidneys
Atrophy of lymph follicles in the spleen and thymus
Reduced growth rate
Decreased red blood cell count

And, there appears to be some evidence that aspartame can trigger or worsen the following diseases:

Brain tumors
Multiple sclerosis
Epilepsy
Chronic fatigue syndrome
Parkinson’s disease
Alzheimer’s disease
Mental retardation
Lymphoma
Birth defects
Fibromyalgia
Diarrhea

The bottom line is this. You should further look into this and decide for yourself if you want to continue to drink artificially sweetened drinks. Do not rely solely on my merely reporting what I’ve read.

Water is always a good way to quench your thirst, cleanse your body and it promotes weight loss! If you do find good research that you’d like to share, please send it in. We’re in this together, folks! Let’s pool our brain power.

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