There are so many additives and such in the food we eat today. I'm not going to try to delve into and explore all of them, there'd never be enough time (bonus: I wouldn't run out of topics, lol!). There are two in particular that have affected/influenced the way I have chosen to eat lately.
Aspartame (NutraSweet)
It's in almost any sugar-free or "diet" food available in the store. Growing up as an overweight child (with an overweight mother), when we wanted soda, it was diet soda. Somehow my brother got away with drinking regular soda, though I did not. I also seemed to prefer the taste of the diet sodas versus regular soda.
As an adult, I have a few friends that have varying degrees of sensitivity to aspartame. One can drink an occasional soda, one gets migraines from drinking more than a few sips, the other gets violently ill from drinking as little as a sip of it. I've always felt bad for them that they had to drink regular soda or no soda, while I enjoyed all the diet soda that I wanted.
About a year and a half ago (or so, I really don't know how long it was), I realized that drinking so much caffeine was not doing me any good (think top-of-your-lungs screaming at other cars on the road). So, I stopped drinking all caffeinated soda of any kind. I would occasionally drink caffeine-free diet soda, but it was hard to find in restaurants - I did not buy soda for the house. One day (after a few months of not drinking any soda) I had a caffeinated diet soda. I got a headache later that day and assumed it was the caffeine. So, a few days later, in an effort to figure it out, I had a diet caffeine free soda.....still got a headache. A few days after that, I had a regular caffeinated soda....NO headache! It was like a light bulb going off!!! The aspartame seemed to be causing the headache.
Well.....sooooo much stuff suddenly made sense! My entire life (from when I can remember back to) I have always gotten headaches very very easily. There were always other reasons to explain the headaches (hair too tight, loud noises, etc....). I even had a perpetual headache the entirety of my senior year at college when I got my undergraduate degree. I literally lived on tylenol (thank god I still have a liver!) 24/7 for close to 8 months (excluding vacations at home). I had not yet learned about ibuprofen, so tylenol was what I took. That time, the headaches went away if I was home, so I think it was mostly stress. They have not returned like that yet.
Since I realized about a year ago about the aspartame, I have avoided it at all costs and have not had the frequency of headaches that I once had. It hasn't always been easy to find substitutes for the products I used to enjoy. If it were not for WW, I would be drinking the full sugar versions of everything. However, I do not want to count the points for these items, lol. I researched aspartame and the other artificial sweeteners in an effort to find something that I could live with. I decided not to try the other, long-time artificial sweeteners (Equal, etc....). I also read up on Stevia and Splenda. I came to the conclusion that none of them are all that great for you, BUT each person needs to decide for themselves what they want to do.
The lesser of the evils seems to be Stevia (and Truvia, which is made from Stevia I think). The only area any of this has really been an issue is flavored beverages. I love flavored water, but almost all of it is sweetened with aspartame. I have found a few brands that do not though. They either use Splenda (which may not be any better, but doesn't give me headaches) or Stevia/Truvia. Crystal Light Pure and Hansen's (I can find it in Hannaford and some Walmart's) use Stevia/Truvia. There is also a store-brand of Crystal Light Pure at Walmart that uses Stevia/Truvia. There may be other, not-well-known brands of them out there, I read the labels on all new ones that I see. Hannaford sells a store-brand of sparkling water that is sweetened with Splenda. I love it, and it satisfies the soda craving sometimes, but I try not to buy it too much. As for soda, there are not many out there that I have found. Pepsi One is sweetened with Splenda and is 1 calorie per serving. There is a new soda out called Zevia which I believe is sweetened with Stevia. I have not tried them yet. At $5-$6 for a six-pack of them, versus $4 for a 12-pack of Pepsi One, I'm going with the Pepsi. Plus, the PepsiOne has caffeine. The only reason I really drink soda is for the caffeine, when I need it.
So, I've been living without aspartame for a year or so (like I said, I don't know exactly when), and it seems to be going good. I drink a lot more water than I used to, which is not a bad thing. It certainly helps to get in all the water I'm supposed to drink per WW.
Stay tuned for another post about another food I've decided to reduce/eliminate from my diet.
Diet....that word has so many connotations to it. The first one people usually think of is a weight-loss diet. There are many many others out there. Diabetic diet, weight-gain diet, etc.... The diet I am talking about is a nutrition diet (that which makes up what we eat). The definition from Wikipedia is: In nutrition, diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism. So, this is the one I think of when I say the word "diet".
~Chelle
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