Learning about sweeteners

I’m on Day 6 of no artificial sweeteners, and I’ve gotta say – this is a useful “Without”.  When I used to look through the list of ingredients on a wrapper, aside from sugar & aspartame, I had no idea which sweeteners were natural and which were artificial.  Everything ending in –ose started to freak me out.  Now, I’ll try to avoid saccharin, aspartame, acesulfame potassium, sucralose, and neotame.  I’m cool with Truvia (stevia).

Even though I’ll try to avoid them altogether , starting Monday I’m gonna make Ben do a blind test with me and some waters sweetened with various stuff so I can nail down which one is the culprit!

Also, I’ve been missing pop.  Even the syrups for homemade pop have artificial sweeteners.  So does Crystal Light.  Then I found Crystal Light Pure at the store!  Sweet! (pun intended)  And now I just found THIS!

No pain...yet

Hershey bars and beer have no artificial sweetener!  Woohoo!

So far, no painful reactions to anything I’ve eaten.  I made coconut-curry chicken with quinoa last night, and hash browns & eggs this morning (with tomato & cheese).  My friend Brandee gave me a bag full of apples she’d picked, so I juiced them last night & drank my no-sugar-added juice this morning J 

This is making me want to try the cleanse again!

A Week Without Artificial Sweeteners

It’s another food one!  This week, I’m going A Week Without…Artificial Sweeteners.

This one came out of the reaction I was having to drinking pop.  Frappucino doesn’t seem to affect me, so that could rule out caffeine.  Carbonation from our homemade pop machine doesn’t always affect me, either.  I had a bad reaction last night after a very healthy dinner at my parents’ house, so I’m suspicious of the Splenda that my mom put on the fresh strawberries for dessert.  I Googled it, and found several articles like this one.  Could aspartame or Splenda could be the cause??

At home, I’ve got:

-          Honey

-          Sucralose (generic brand Splenda)

-          Simple syrup

-          Agave syrup

-          Stevia drops

-          Brown sugar

-          Truvia

…notice that white, granular sugar is not on that list.  Weird.  In all honesty, I don’t USE a lot of these – unless I’m baking cookies or something.  That’s why they’ve kind of piled up!  Ben & I may have to do an experiment after this week to see if I have a reaction to each of these J

Most of the artificial sweeteners in my diet come from processed foods that I buy (e.g. Coke Zero).  That’s why it was tricky finding a grab-and-go breakfast at Walgreens this morning.  Pop tarts?  No.  Egg McMuffin?  No.  Donut?  No.  Ashamed of my recent breakfast habits?  Yes.

“But Nikki, why didn’t you cook a healthy breakfast at home?”

That’s my plan tonight – to make-ahead a breakfast casserole that I can eat all week.

“Why didn’t you just grab a piece of fruit?”

Why didn’t you….shut up?  (no good excuse here.)

Here’s what I found, which only lists “sugar” and “brown sugar syrup” as sweetening ingredients.

Here’s hoping my week is a sweet one!

Caffeine Reaction?

Done!  My second "Week Without Pop" is in the books, and I'm 99% sure I'm giving up my Coke Zero habit.  It seems I've developed a reaction to it: chest wall pain.

Before you tell me to call 9-1-1 & get into an ambulance - know this:

- I've suspected all along that it is gas or something (you're welcome for that visual!)
- I had all of my numbers checked by the Nebraska Heart Institute at the end of 2010, and they said I was the "picture of health" when it came to my heart
- No heart attack history in my family - just high blood pressure/cholesterol issues on one side
- I live with a hypochondriac heart attack "expert" who wants to rush me to the hospital for paper cuts, and even HE says that my symptoms don't match a heart attack.

I am not a doctor.  My hypochondric husband is not a doctor.  This blog is not medical advice.  I take chest pain very seriously, and if I've learned anything from working with the American Heart Association & going through the BetterU program, you should too!  In fact, this is a good reminder to go get my numbers checked again.

OK - disclaimers said, here's what happened:

Everytime I drank a diet pop, I'd start having chest pain.  Exercise didn't affect it, and it normally happened while I was sitting down.  It seemed to correlate STRONGLY to pop.  So, I gave it up for a week.  Symtoms vanished.  This morning, for the first time in over a week, I had a pop.  Like clockwork, the pain is back.  I think my Coke-Zero-with-breakfast tradition is over.

Sidenote:  We got a soda machine (basically a carbonator) for our wedding, and since my Week Without Pop had ended, I made some fizzy Crystal Light "pop" yesterday.  No symptoms.  I think it could be a reaction to caffeine or another additive.