The Dark Secrets of Artificial Sweeteners

By Mary Langfield, Certified Holistic Health Coach dedicated to increasing awareness to improve your health and outlook on life.

Do you use artificial sweeteners in your coffee or tea? Do you enjoy diet drinks and diet foods? Most of us have opted for things labeled “diet” to avoid the typical high-calorie sweeteners in drinks and foods. But what if I told you that you can be addicted to artificial sweeteners and that they might be causing you to eat more food or gain weight?

Cutting back or eventually eliminating your consumption of artificial sweeteners may lighten your mood, remedy some of your health problems, and may even result in weight loss.

In her book The Diet Cure, author Julia Ross, M.A., explains that “more than ten thousand aspartame [common artificial sweetener] users have reported over one hundred adverse symptoms, compiled by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). They include everything from menstrual changes, weight gain, and headaches to severe depression, insomnia, and anxiety attacks.”

Have your cravings for sweets and fatty foods (and possibly your weight) increased with your aspartame use? Ross explains that the connection between eating more unhealthy foods, gaining weight, and consuming artificial sweeteners has been confirmed through several studies in both animals and humans.

What’s worse, when you consume aspartame, the fake sugar’s ingredients are actually in competition with tryptophan, blocking its conversion into the "fog-clearing and mood-enhancing chemical serotonin.” This means that diet sugars may actually be preventing you from feeling positive and having a clear mind.

Next time you reach for your typical artificial sweetener or diet soda, consider going without the sweetener or replacing your diet soda with hot water and cleansing lemon oil from Young Living Essential Oils instead. You may just find that in time you start to find your mood elevating and your waistline shrinking from these easy diet adjustments.

I’ll leave you with this encouraging quote about Richard Simmons:

“In 1996, Richard Simmons, the diet and fitness guru, announced that he had given up diet sodas after years of addiction and suddenly lost ten pounds.” If that’s not a success story, I don’t know what is!

Are you interested in learning more about healthy living and ready to have more energy and feel better? Schedule a Nutrition Breakthrough with Me Today!