I am irritated with the press right now. Don't they know the harm they do when they quote sensational headlines without giving us the whole story? This week's misleading news story is "Artificial sweeteners may make you gain weight."
I say they're confused. Fooling your body with a zero calorie sweetener is not the problem. I drank tons of diet sodas when I weighed 120, so don't tell me they made me eat more! The problem is artificial sweeteners that are not recognized by your body that do have calories, i.e. high fructose corn syrup, which is an engineered sweetener that has tons of calories. It's in everything because it's cheaper than granulated sugar.
Here's the problem the media have now created: Woman stops drinking diet sodas because she hears on the news they will lead to weight gain. Woman loves sodas, so she drinks regular Pepsi, Coke, Dr. Pepper, whatever--all of which are loaded with high fructose corn syrup. Woman has same problem as before except now she gains weight from the added calories. Plus, her dentist notices she has developed dental decay.
I caution you to avoid HFCS. It's artificial, it's sweet, and it's high calorie--not to be confused with calorie-free artificial sweeteners (i.e. Splenda®).
Have a sweet day!
Cheryl
