Whole Foods Lifestyle For discussion of whole foods and more natural diets.

Reply
 
Thread Tools
Old 08-07-2010, 12:36 PM   #1  
Senior Member
Thread Starter
 
sacha's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 2,640

S/C/G: 163/128/125

Height: 5'5

Default Former aspartame addicts?

When you gave it up (assuming people here did?), did you go cold turkey or wean yourself? I seem to have trouble staying away from Crystal Light, diet pop, and splenda in my coffee daily.

Do you substitute? Ie. water with lemon slice?? I've given up all bad habits, except this one. I know people say that "a little bit won't hurt" but I think I've gone a bit overboard, I couldn't even keep away from it daily when I was pregnant, I am disappointed in myself.

How did you get away from it?
sacha is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-07-2010, 04:59 PM   #2  
it's always something
 
Suzanne 3FC's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 1999
Posts: 11,615

Default

I retrained my sweet tooth. I discovered by accident that I loved unsweetened iced tea (though it had to be a really good tea and not most common teas). I also find that if something absolutely has to have a sweetener, that a small amount of agave nectar or touch of real sugar works just fine. I no longer need or want things as sweet as I used to.

I drink more plain water than anything. I keep a jug of filtered water in the fridge at all times, along with filtered ice cubes. It tastes so clean and refreshing and is really easy to drink.
Suzanne 3FC is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-14-2011, 01:09 PM   #3  
Junior Member
 
purrsistence's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Texas
Posts: 2

S/C/G: 153/153/120

Height: 5'3"

Default Artificial sweetners

I've been off all artificial sweetners since 11/23/10. It's amazing how much better I feel physically. I had headaches every day for about six days. I also felt sick to my stomach, anxious and irritable for the six days of withdrawal. After that I had cravings a few times but it wasn't too bad. By the middle of December, I had no cravings and I don't miss it at all. I drink purified or bottled water only. It is well worth the withdrawal to get off the poisons.

The website called sweet poison talks about the facts. The other artificial sweetners are poisons too, you can find info on all of them easily on the internet.

Also Aspartame makes you gain weight!


I'm worth more than that today! And as of 1/11/11 no regular sweetners or sugars including so called natural sweetners. Feeling so good!!

LeAnne
purrsistence is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-17-2011, 11:17 AM   #4  
Senior Member
 
bleujean's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Berkeley, CA
Posts: 126

S/C/G: 229/185/155

Default

I retrained mine too. I couldn't go without sweetness in my coffee at first, so I started using sugar. Real sugar is a lot better for you than the fake stuff, and a lot easier on your system. I am not advocating sugar but it's a much better demon than aspartame or sucralose. Just budget the calories. Soda is the devil and I would cut that out cold turkey, but coffee and tea with a spoonful of sugar won't kill you or hurt your weight loss efforts.

Now I use raw honey for all of my sweetening and I really notice the difference between it and sugar. I don't eat much, about a tablespoon a day, but if you hate the idea of sugar sugar try that. Stay away from the fake stuff, though, it really is poison!
bleujean is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-17-2011, 10:34 PM   #5  
Senior Member
 
foodmasochist's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Missouri
Posts: 170

S/C/G: 258/238/135

Height: 5'6"

Default you can do it!

i have also gone of aspartame. Viewing the sweet poison video did it for me i always kind of "felt" it wasn't healthy. i was VERY addicted to diet pepsi. i could drink it all day long.

i put a smidge of real sugar in something i guess, my coffee i just drink with soy milk, my tea, i use organic honey... trust me, if you can get past the initial hurdle (i would say the first five days) you will be OK! And you will feel great!

-fm
foodmasochist is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-18-2011, 08:24 AM   #6  
Junior Member
 
7doghouse's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: minnesota
Posts: 6

S/C/G: 174/174/140

Height: 5'4"

Default

I had a 8 can a day diet coke addiction for years. To make matters worse I rarely drank water except to take medication in the mornings. In my mind I knew how unhealthy it was for me to drinking so much pop, but I was addicted. Diet coke was my breakfast of choice. I decided to make a change just after thanksgiving of 2010, and I did it cold turkey. Initially my reason was because I wanted to give up caffeine, and it was only after I began having all sorts of vague mystery symptoms (we are talking Appetite loss to Zero interest in sex and everything in between) I began researching online and that's when I learned how bad aspartame is for you. And how it can take months to detox from it. My doctor was and still is skeptical, but after undergoing a battery of medical tests with no answers as well as researching further I am a believer.

Here I was drinking 80+ oz of water daily, and not ingesting any caffeine or products containing nutrasweet and I felt WORSE than when I had been. Now nearly 3 months later my many symptoms are gradually lessening. I almost feel "normal" again and I know without a doubt I will never touch anything with nutrisweet in it again. Even though I cannot prove it, I believe I was/am detoxing from my extreme diet coke addiction.
7doghouse is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-20-2011, 02:42 PM   #7  
Succes <3
 
Bonita's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Christiania, Denmark
Posts: 37

S/C/G: 209/192.4/143

Height: 5'5''

Default

Try agave nectar, if you like your coffee sweet <3
Bonita is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-11-2011, 05:00 AM   #8  
One with the Wind and Sky
 
Elladorine's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 1,965

S/C/G: 360/246/150

Height: 5' 8"

Default

A few years ago I was having a horrible time with brain fog. I couldn't think clearly, couldn't remember things, and just felt all out of sorts. The light often hurt my eyes, and I had a constant headache. For a while I thought I needed new glasses, but getting a new prescription didn't help. So then I thought it was allergies or the change in climate (I'd moved to a completely different part of the country), but allergy medicine and extra rest didn't help. So maybe it was caffiene? I completely cut that out, remembering the Mountain Dew headaches I'd suffered many years ago. Still no help though. At one point my head hurt so bad that I'd be laid up in bed completely unable to function. I couldn't read, listen to music, watch tv . . . it was all I could do to hold a pillow over my head in a weak attempt to keep the painful light out and pray that I wasn't about to have a blood vessel burst in my brain. I actually began to wonder if I was having some weird sort of blood pressure problem or something.

One day I felt amazlingly like my old self and was actually sitting up when my husband came home from work. He brought me a bottle of diet Lipton green tea with citrus as a treat. Wow, I'll never forget that. Within seconds of taking a few drinks . . seconds, I doubled over in pain; it felt like my head was going to burst. It was then that I made the connection and realized it was the aspartame. And I felt really stupid for not realizing it before . . . years ago my dad was having issues with the very same chemical. He used to eat suger-free mints and eventually made the connection that they were the reason behind his headaches and the sores in his mouth. He switched over to something with actual sugar in it and it went away. I never had those sores, but I had another problem altogether . . . overactive bladder. Without getting into TMI, let's just say that I reached a point where I no longer felt "safe" leaving the house.

At the time I'd been consuming not only a lot of diet drinks, but other diet products that were sweetened with aspartame. While laying in bed with those horrible migraines I had no appetite, but silly me, I was eating diet popsicles in addition to diet sodas in an effort to get something down. No wonder I'd have to stay in bed so long, I was continuing to poison myself. But to make a long story short, once I realized the issue I had no problem quitting cold turkey! It took a several weeks for the brain fog to go away, and as an added bonus my bladder eventually went back to normal (although that took much longer). I haven't had one single migraine since and can actually hold my pee like a normal person these days.

I try to go for things that are naturally sweet, including using stevia as a sweetener or just not using sweetener at all. I've found I love plain iced tea and even plain yogurt. I occasionally allow myself sucralose (like in Diet Rite) but after that whole aspartame deal I'm pretty wary of chemicals that are supposedly safe for consumption.

To this day I wonder what else the aspartame might have been doing to my body . . .
Elladorine is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-10-2011, 06:53 PM   #9  
Chasing 140!
 
dust2bunny's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Bright and Sunny California
Posts: 63

S/C/G: 190/160/140

Height: 5feet 3inches

Default

In 2007 I ended my relationship with diet soda. I did it cold turkey, and haven't regretted my choice since. Whenever I have a craving, soda water does the trick for me, but be careful the flavored waters sometimes have it. Good Luck!!! You can do it : )
dust2bunny is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-10-2011, 07:14 PM   #10  
Senior Member
 
chickybird's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Texas
Posts: 1,102

S/C/G: 229/220/170

Height: 6'0'

Default

I have IBS-D and haven't had artificial sweeteners in ten years. It makes me vomit, have diarrhea, headaches, etc. I also realized that most toothpastes and mouthwashes have artificial sweeteners like sorbitol. even those were making me sick--I had to switch to all natural toothpastes and mouthwashes like Tom's of Maine.
chickybird is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-11-2011, 12:43 PM   #11  
Senior Member
 
Izzadawn's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Newfoundland, Canada
Posts: 129

S/C/G: 210/Ticker/125

Height: 5'6"

Default

I gave Up cold Turkey after I noticed the More I had the More sweet things I CRAVED... and I do mean Ravenous cravings. Stevia is my sweet source now.
Izzadawn is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-19-2011, 08:38 AM   #12  
Junior Member
 
Gloriann's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Posts: 16

S/C/G: 228/228/170

Height: 5'10

Default

I have a nutritionist friend who is doing an internship with terminally ill brain cancer patients. She told my diet-coke-addicted friend that all of those women, whether diet pop was a link or not, drank at least two diets cokes a day during their lives. That was enough for my friend to start kicking the habit
Gloriann is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-11-2011, 04:42 PM   #13  
Start Date: May.19 .0011
 
rockbanjo's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 25

S/C/G: 217/213/149

Height: 5'5"

Default

My mom never let me have diet ANYTHING growing up because of how it can affect your brain and body. I don't drink pop that often so that doesn't really affect me but chewing gum is SO hard to find without artificial sweeteners... gum is one thing that stops me from eating my cupboards bare o.o
Anyone have any suggestions as to where I could find some sugar free gum?
rockbanjo is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-22-2011, 02:48 PM   #14  
it's always something
 
Suzanne 3FC's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 1999
Posts: 11,615

Default

Rockbanjo, I also avoid gum because of the artificial sweeteners that are so commonly used.

Glee Gum is all natural and sweetened with cane sugar, but I wouldn't worry because 2 pieces only contains 5 calories. They also have a sugar free version that is sweetened with xylitol (a sugar alcohol) instead of artificial sweeteners. BUT each serving still contains 5 calories
Suzanne 3FC is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-01-2011, 04:03 AM   #15  
Member
 
ginny's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Twin Cities
Posts: 60

S/C/G: 225/158/135

Height: 5'5

Default

I knew it! There is something addictive in diet pop! If you've ever tried to quit smoking or anything, you know your brain will betray you with images and smells and comfortable thoughts so strong I think it must be what hallucinations are like.

OK that might have sounded weird but when I tried to get healthy years ago I switched to tea because it's natural and didn't think much about it. A few days in I was daydreaming or w/e and started imagining the taste of Pepsi when I was a kid, out of a fast food drink dispenser complete with those small oblong ice cubes they used to have, and waxy cups that dripped condensation on hot days. Even how watered down it would be on the top, and sweeter on the bottom.

I'd always been a Diet Mtn Dew before, but I ended up a Pepsi addict for the next 4 years. I thought back on it when I was quitting smoking and my brain would give me all kinds of lovely thoughts that would get me up and to a store that sold cigarettes. I told my bf about it, who had to quit much harder things when he was a younger man, and he knew exactly what I was talking about, said it was a common addict response!
ginny is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off



All times are GMT -4. The time now is 10:15 AM.


We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.