The Carnival of Homeschooling
The 26th Carnival of Homeschooling is up at The Homeschool Cafe.
I thought this post about getting kids off sugar was interesting. I don't know if it improves behavior--maybe health--for those who don't process it well. Someone in the comments to the sugar post mentioned having problems if they eat Splenda--a sugar-free substitute. I notice that with any type of aspartame (nutrasweet), I get headaches and feel weird--although, I have read that this is common. I switched to Splenda but find I still feel rather sick if I eat too much of it. Anyone else have a sensitivity to sugar substitutes?
I thought this post about getting kids off sugar was interesting. I don't know if it improves behavior--maybe health--for those who don't process it well. Someone in the comments to the sugar post mentioned having problems if they eat Splenda--a sugar-free substitute. I notice that with any type of aspartame (nutrasweet), I get headaches and feel weird--although, I have read that this is common. I switched to Splenda but find I still feel rather sick if I eat too much of it. Anyone else have a sensitivity to sugar substitutes?
posted by Helen at 10:00 AM
17 Comments:
Nasty digestive reactions to Splenda and other suger-based substitutes are well known and documented. No details because that border on TMI.
Some kids, seems to be more often boys, but that's entirely anecdotal, do seem to do better when sugar (and sometimes food dyes) is restricted. That often means just eating homemade food that contains very little or no sweetener, or that uses fruit juice or some other natural sugar substitute, rather than switching to the artificial sugar substitutes.
I personally don't use artificial sweeteners at all. We use sugar, honey, molasses, real maple syrup, and occasionally fruit juice concentrate for sweetener. None of my kids seems to have an issue with sugar so far, but we don't eat a lot of it anyway.
Just eating sugar isn't an option for millions of people. I was diagnosed as diabetic about 18 mos. ago, Type II, of course. My doc told me I was the rarest of birds...a skinny diabetic. He said that if I was overweight he'd tell me to lose weight, but I wasn't; if I was out of shape to exercise, but I already did that, so all I could do was eat "right" and exercise more when my blood sugar was elevated, or go on medication. My wife, who already knew a lot about nutrition, threw herself into determining what eating "right" meant for me. Part of that study involved sugar substitutes. What she determined was that a lot of the problems that people have with sugar substitutes (Splenda/sucralose, Equal/aspartame, Sweet & Low/saccharin) really come from sugar alcohols (sorbitol, mannitol, maltitol), which are often included in products containing the sugar substitutes. This is especially true regarding gastrointestinal problems. You might try looking at labels for these things and the amount (over 4 to 5 gr. seems to be the problem point). I eat lots of sugar substitutes and really haven't had any problems, because, I believe, of avoiding the sugar alcohols.
By the way, anyone wanting a valuable resource for diabetics should go to www.mendosa.com , a great site for diabetic information.
Mike Doughty
Any of the sugar substitutes will give me migraines.
In the context of schools, kids, and sugar... it's nearly impossible to keep kids to any sort of dietary restriction (short of one that will kill them outright such as a peanut allergy) in today's schools. There's always someone in class with a birthday, there's all the junk available at lunch - not just from the school but from kids who bring lunches and trade your kids for garbage food.
That's the way it is. Unless you want to home school and be a food nazi - I don't see how you'll keep kids from eating sugar - it's too much a part of everything.
Therefore, unless you plan on being a helicopter parent or you can make your child think the way you do or your kid just outright dislikes sweets - your child will be ingesting sugar and sweeteners in all their various forms.
Ever since I went low carb I generally feel a lot better. I have also noticed that I have almost zero gas. However, recently I have observed that low carb chocolate (containing large quantities of maltitol) gives me sudden, copious and prolonged problems with gas. It is enough to keep me up at night after just eating a single candy bar.
This would seem to back up Mike Doughty's comment re maltitol et. al. These effects are also mentioned in Wikepedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maltitol.
I've never noticed any ill effects from sucralose (Splenda) but then again I consume it in much smaller quantities (3-6 packets a day) and since it is so much sweeter than sugar, even 3-6 packets a day is a miniscule amount. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splenda
this makes me smile, is natural things like sugar, worse than unnatural chemicals. wonderful sucralose
sugar from beets or canes, compared to Sucralose is made from sucrose by substituting three chlorine atoms for three hydroxyl groups to yield 1,6-dichloro-1,6-dideoxy-BETA-D-fructofuranosyl-4-chloro-4-deoxy-alpha-D-galactopyranoside.
Chlorocarbons have long been known for causing organ, genetic, and reproductive damage
According to the FDA’s “Final Rule” report, “Sucralose was weakly mutagenic in a mouse lymphoma mutation assay.
why are people so obsessed with weight, how many people will suffer from anorexia because of the push for thinness.
http://www.mercola.com/2000/dec/3/sucralose_dangers.htm
yes eat sugar, exercise, but i am fat due to genetic components, rather than over eating. yo-yo dieting has ruined peoples metabolism.
Splenda, which I have had in very limited quantities, has not caused any unpleasant side effects.
Nutrasweet began to give me a "buzz" when I used it more or less regularly several years ago. No nutrasweet, no buzz. No nutrasweet for me any more.
quasimodo
A known percentage of the population are phenylketonurics, having a genetic condition that causes headaches in response to phenylalinine, which is in aspartame.
It's been recommended that pregnant women avoid aspartame, because of the fetus is phenylketonuric (something they can't yet test for) it could interfere with brain development.
The problem that you're probably having with Splenda is that, while you can't digest it, the bacteria in your gut can. And when the bacteria in your gut digest stuff they produce gas, which makes you feel ill.
This is a pretty common problem with sugar substitutes--even fructose (=fruit juice concentrate) is considerably harder to digest than white sugar.
I'm not even close to being diagnosed diabetic. I am of average weight and take a reasonable amount of exercise. My blood sugars never go above 7 (can't recall the unit of measurement) as far as I am aware, and yet even relatively small amounts of sugar make me thirsty. A larger amount appears directly to result in a number of trivial infections, all of which points to the fact that I am probably glucose intolerant.
And I am not the only one. Studies suggest there are a huge number of people out there who suffer from glucose intolerance which if they don't watch their sugar intake may well result in full-blown diabetes. Diabetes has already taken two of my friends at a very young age, neither of whom were ever overweight. It is not an illness to be messed with and I therefore feel very anxious when I see people promoting the use of sugar, over and above other alternatives, often simply on the basis of some theory about sugar being the more natural substance.
but carlotta, should everyone stop eating sugar due to a few people dying, what about the unnatural sugars, they may have killed people too.. whats right for you, is not right for me.
and these studies that say a huge number, a lot of them use statistical analysis, if you ask 100 people do they eat meat, and 80 people say yes, they increase the numbers to say if 80 like it, out of 100, then 800 out of 1000 must and so on.. but its not accurate unless every single person is tested it could be its a cluster, in that one area..
in years past, there wasnt all this panic about diabetes, my grandmothers generation, they didnt suffer, or at least they didnt know and they survived or we wouldnt be here..
I am one of them. I cannot take any kind of sugar substitute, including Splenda, Aspartame, etc. Apparently they are all poison, at least to me. Len
Rio Rancho Public Schools (Albuquerque suburb, New Mexico)
bans aspartame, splenda, caffeine, etc. in Mid-High and high school:
Gary Herron, The Rio Rancho Observer: Murray 2006.07.19
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1357
"Drinks containing the sweeteners Splenda and Aspartame are banned,
as well as drinks containing caffeine."
http://www.observer-online.com/articles/2006/07/19/news/story4.txt
School board OKs new health policy
By GARY HERRON, OBSERVER STAFF REPORTER.....
~250 word letter to the editor:
Congratulations to the third governmental entity in history to limit
aspartame use in any way:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1357
China to restrict aspartame production and sale, three major agencies,
five producers www.FoodIngredientsFirst.com: Murray 2006.07.16
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1341
Connecticut bans artificial sweeteners in schools, Nancy Barnes,
New Milford Times: Murray 2006.05.25
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1307
formaldehyde from 11% methanol part of aspartame or from red wine
causes same toxicity (hangover) harm: Murray 2006.05.24
Dark wines and liquors, as well as aspartame, provide
similar levels of methanol, above 120 mg daily, for
long-term heavy users, 2 L daily, about 6 cans.
Within hours, methanol is inevitably largely turned into formaldehyde,
and thence largely into formic acid -- the major causes of the dreaded
symptoms of "next morning" hangover.
Fully 11% of aspartame is methanol -- 1,120 mg aspartame
in 2 L diet soda, almost six 12-oz cans, gives 123 mg
methanol (wood alcohol). If 30% of the methanol is turned
into formaldehyde, the amount of formaldehyde, 37 mg,
is 18.5 times the USA EPA limit for daily formaldehyde in
drinking water, 2.0 mg in 2 L average daily drinking water.
*******************************************************
"Of course, everyone chooses, as a natural priority,
to actively find, quickly share, and positively act upon the facts
about healthy and safe food, drink, and environment."
Rich Murray, MA Room For All rmforall@comcast.net
505-501-2298 1943 Otowi Road Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/messages
group with 72 members, 1,358 posts in a public, searchable archive
http://RMForAll.blogspot.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1340
aspartame groups and books: updated research review of 2004.07.16:
Murray 2006.05.11
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1143
methanol (formaldehyde, formic acid) disposition: Bouchard M
et al, full plain text, 2001: substantial sources are
degradation of fruit pectins, liquors, aspartame, smoke:
Murray 2005.04.02
NIH NLM ToxNet HSDB Hazardous Substances Data Bank
inadequate re aspartame (methanol, formaldehyde, formic acid):
Murray 2006.07.16
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1349
http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search/f?./temp/~HwoSfJ:1
HSDB Hazardous Substances Data Bank: Aspartame
ASPARTAME CASRN: 22839-47-0
METHANOL CASRN: 67-56-1
FORMALDEHYDE CASRN: 50-00-0
FORMIC ACID CASRN: 64-18-6
*******************************************************
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I am phenylketonuric and things like aspartame, saccharin and really anything sugarfree make me feel really ill. IThey give me pulsing headaches, blurred vision, sickness and dizzyness. They are worse for you than sugar really and things like diet coke with them in are ridiculous. If you're on a diet dont drink coke! I have a high percentage of being diabetic as it is hereditary in my family so really i'm screwed lol.
Lucien says:
Good article to read and ponder.
Diabetis Prevention
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn4413
Cinnamon spice produces healthier blood
17:52 24 November 2003
NewScientist.com news service
Debora MacKenzie
Lucien,
Here is an actual article I wrote containing the actual research that was conducted which explains the results.
href="http://www.healthmad.com/Home-Health/Disease-Prevention-Using-Simple-Herbs-and-Spices.31414">
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