Reasons to Avoid Sugar and Artificial Sweeteners

Do you eat white sugar?

I don’t and here’s why:

1. Sugar makes you FAT.
2. Sugar makes you NERVOUS.
3. Sugar depresses your immune system.
4. Sugar cause WRINKLES.
5. Sugar rots your teeth.

People seem to ignore these facts. Right now for example, there are more overweight people in the world than hungry people — more than one billion, according to the World Health Organization.

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. (Learn more about eating carbs at Smart Carbs- Dumb Carbs and try out a sugar free recipe like Sugar Free Apple Sauce.)

The problem is that most people do not limit their sweet foods to fruit or grains. Too often it is a different sugar fix that many resort to.

Are You Dying to be Thin?

In 1878, someone at Johns Hopkins had a bright idea to develop a calorie-free sweetener called saccharin. Almost 100 years later, a warning label was finally 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. Because it is big business though, there are now many artificial sweeteners on the market.

Five most common artificial sweeteners:

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.
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). It also worsens or mimics conditions such as fibromyalgia, MS, lupus, ADD, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s.
Sucralose (aka Splenda) is a chlorinated artificial sweetener. 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.
Neotame has a similar structure to aspartame and appears to be even more toxic than aspartame. According to Dr. Janet Starr Hull, “It’s Just Aspartame Without the Warning.”
Acesulfame-K – (aka Sunette, Sweet One, Sweet n Safe) is an unsafe chemical. 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 also cause weight gain!

Yes it is true! Researchers at Purdue University found that an artificial sweetener makes your body less able to regulate energy. This explains why, when you are eating so little and exercising so much, you 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. 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 are to believe we can eat sugar-free 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.

Here are more delicious sugarless recipes:

Wishing you increasing health!

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Yiska S.

8:07PM PST on Nov 28, 2012

w/o a doubt, artificial sweeteners are BAD for you... anything refined is bad for you too... organic is the way to go... and keep it in moderation... BUT I have to disagree w/ your 5 points!!! cause I know w/ my 33 yrs of living, I have consumed a lot of sugars and I'm none of them... so I'm in agreement w/ Renee R. :)

November 28
send a green star

Renee R.

6:43AM PST on Feb 24, 2012

1. Sugar makes you FAT. ~ Nope ... unless you eat sugar with pastry. Pure sugar does not make you fat. I am proof of that.

2. Sugar makes you NERVOUS. ~ Quite the contrary, it gives you an instant boost of energy, but it goes away as fast as it comes.

3. Sugar depresses your immune system. ~ Sugar is Soul-food and makes you happy (I should know, I eat a lot of sweets without the weight gain.

4. Sugar cause WRINKLES. ~ LOL ... I should be full of wrinkles by now, but people think I am 20 years younger than I am ;)

Sorry Diana Herrington, didn't mean to burst your bubble, but every time I hear people talk about the negative effects of sugar, I wonder why none of the things happened to me, the biggest sugar eater on the planet, lol. Perhaps it affects different people in different ways, and I am just the lucky one ... without wrinkles at seventy+

Thank you for bringing an awareness :)
5. Sugar rots your teeth. ~ Only if you don't brush them properly before you go to sleep.

February 24
send a green star

Banbha M.

6:24AM PST on Feb 24, 2012

I don't like sweet's at all! A glass of veggie juice is something I crave more than any sweet! Green star me if you agree...And I'll green Star you back...

Chris R.

6:42AM PDT on Sep 16, 2011

Great info, thanks Diana!~

September 16
send a green star

jane r.

7:09PM PDT on Aug 4, 2011

thanks

August 4
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Marzia F.

11:06PM PDT on Jun 7, 2011

Good info.

June 7
send a green star

KrassiAWAY B.

4:28AM PDT on Jun 5, 2011

Noted with interest.

June 5
send a green star

Lika S.

2:39AM PDT on Jun 3, 2011

Thanks. I'm wondering if there any good sugar substitutes out there, such as fructose or the like.

June 3
send a green star

John S.

4:36PM PDT on Jun 2, 2011

Thanks, just don't like the taste of sugar in my foods.

June 2
send a green star

John G.

3:48PM PDT on Jun 2, 2011

Concerning “watch the documentary......”, anybody can record a video about anything--that is what YouTube is all about and it doesn’t make it true. Science has never supported these arguments. Criticism of aspartame arose from 1970 era animal work well before the 1998 fortification of grains with the vitamin folate. Before that date people and particularly women were notoriously deficient in folate, a fact demonstrated by the rampant spina bifida and other teratology in offspring of deficient mothers; folate supplementation dramatically reduced that. None of these allegations have ever received lasting scientific support. Except that is the pathetic 2006-7 Ramazzini group work; their Sprague-Dawley rats, like those used in the earliest ’70-80 era irreproducible Searle work, were folate-deficient before the experiment, were made even more deficient as their 2 year+ experiments further depleted their folate, and their Sprague-Dawley rats are documented as being deficient in folate by 1 year (see my earlier Alzheimer reference). So their 2 year+ lifetime experiments further skewed the experiment.

Aspartame is perfectly safe used as directed in normally healthy people who are taking folate (and iron) supplements to prevent folate deficiency and related problems and in those who do not have folate enzyme polymorphisms that further raise the folate requirement.

John E. Garst, Ph.D. (Medicinal Chemistry, Pharmacology, Toxicology, and Nutrition)