Artificial sweeteners.
Yuck.
Worse than sugar hardly seems possible, but it is. Worse than HFCS? No one's sure. But they're on, about, equal footing.
I'm not a big fan of coffee drinking, but every time I see a soda pop in someone's hand, I just want to beg- please, please have a cup of coffee! All the caffeine, none of the man-made chemicals.
Now, as I repeatedly say, I am not a healthcare professional, a chemist, a nutritionist, or an herbalist. And I encourage everyone to do their own reading up on subjects that interest- or incense- them.
But let's face it- if diet pop, diet cookies, and artificially sweetened ice cream really worked, we'd be a skinny nation.
Right?
The bottom line is that NO artificial sweetener is a whole food. Period. And if Mother Nature didn't invent it, it doesn't belong in a "natural kitchen."
Unfortunately, saccharin, sucralose, acesulfame potassium, and some new, seductive combos of these hide in lots of places. Accidentally grab the wrong bag of no-sugar-added frozen fruit, and it's drenched in the stuff. No-sugar-added jam? You thought that was good, right? But if you don't read labels, you're bringing home gram upon gram of Splenda. Ditto fruit juice, popsicles, sunflower seeds, and even bread. Ya, because those 3 teaspoons of honey in that loaf of 100% whole wheat bread are what's making America fat.
Right.
What about my little darling, stevia extract? Hmmmmm? How can that be a whole food?
Well, because you can make it in your own kitchen. From real foods.
But not all stevia extracts, or even honeys and maple syrups and agave nectars, are created equal.
And that's what we're talking about tomorrow in-
Baby Step #5: Choose Your Poison
"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."
~Theodore Roosevelt
No comments:
Post a Comment