Danger In Your Grocery Cart 3: Artificial Sweeteners, Are They Good For You?

"Artificial"...... Let's ponder for a minute of the meaning of artificial.  Artificial sweeteners are not found in nature, but they are man made chemical.  Current list of artificial sweeteners are saccharin, cyclamate, aspartame, alitame, sucralose, acesulfame-K, and neotame. These artificial sweeteners do not contain any vitamins or minerals.  They became desirable to the public because they provide sweet tasting flavor without the caloric intake; however, the effects ofconsuming artificial sweeteners are not desirable. 
"The research team found that the sweetener was associated with high rates of lymphoma, leukemia and other cancer in rats who were given doses equivalent to five 20 ounce diet sodas a day" http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,184872,00.html

The CDC studied 214 of 592 cases of aspartame complains.  The report showed that people experienced aggressive behavior, disorientation, hyperactivity, extreme numbness, excitability, memory loss, loss of depth perception, liver impairment, cardiac arrest, seizures, suicidal tendencies, severe mood swings, and death.  The
CDC presented in the 146 page report that it is important to investigate further into the neurological and behavioral issues relating to aspartame.

Public consumes these artificial sweeteners believing that there is no consequences of weight gain, but according to "The Nurses' Health Study in 1970 found weight gain over eight years in 31,940 women using saccharin. In the early '80s, the American Cancer Society's study of 78,694 women found that after one year 2.7% to 7.1% more regular artificial-sweetener users gained weight compared to nonusers. The San Antonio Heart Study followed 3,682 adults over eight years on the early '80s. Those who consumed more artificial sweeteners had higher BMIs, and the more that they consumed, the higher the BMI." 
http://www.medicinenet.com/artificial_sweeteners/page11.htm How about that!  We thought we were doing ourselves a favor by consuming artificial sweeteners, but it has a reverse consequence.  Something to really think about!

In 1998, scralose was approved and it is sold under the name Splenda.  According to Dr. Mercola, the book called, The No-Grain Diet, stated that "Few human studies of safety have been published. One small study of diabetic patients using the sweetener showed a significant increase in glycosylated hemoglobin (Hba1C), which is a marker of long-term blood glucose levels and is used to assess control in diabetic patterns."

In raw living food world, we use actual food sweeteners like dates, raisins, maple syrup, yacon, lucama, stevia, or agave.  Not everyone of these sweets are raw or living, but unlike artificial sweeteners, these sweets are not produced in the laboratory and these ingredients provide a very valuable nutrition as well as satisfy sweet craving.

Your body will reward you with a healthier you when you consume foods in their natural state, not processed or man-made.