Read Online 21 Pounds in 21 Days by Roni DeLuz - Free Book Online Page A

acesulfame, neutame, sucralose, and alitame—more commonly known as Nutrasweet and Equal (blue packages), Splenda (yellow package), and Sweet’N Low and saccharin (pink packages). However, neither white sugar nor the synthetic sugar substitutes are as healthy as stevia, a sweetening herb from South America that is available in green packets in select locations. Here’s the skinny on the artificial sweeteners many people take to avoid getting fat.
    Aspartame
    Sold as Nutrasweet and Equal, aspartame produces toxins that can harm the brain and mental functions. It also blocks serotonin production, interfering with users’ ability to experience pleasure and contributing to depression in many people. Aspartame also robs the body of chromium, a valuable mineral that helps control blood sugar. And because it’s unnatural and therefore doesn’t nourish us, aspartame starves our cells of nutrients, causing cravings and weight gain.
    Saccharin
    The oldest of the artificial sugars, saccharin, used in Sweet’N Low, is derived from a plant imported from China. The FDA describes it as a complex natural sugar, so I find it strangethat the FDA used to require it to sport this warning label: “Use of this product may be hazardous to your health. This product contains saccharin, which has been determined to cause cancer in laboratory animals.” For some reason, the FDA has recently changed its tune, refuting the cancer claim and allowing the warning label to be removed.
    Stevia
    If you’re looking for a sugar substitute, I suggest using stevia. You don’t need much of it—according to studies, it’s thirty times sweeter than sugar. Yet it does not raise blood sugar levels, causing the pancreas to sprint to produce insulin, or cause rapid-onset cravings the way simple sugars do. A study published in the Journal of Ethno-Pharmacology found that stevia dilates the blood vessels and helps to prevent high blood pressure. It helps to regulate the digestive system, encourages the growth of friendly bacteria, and helps us detoxify the body and excrete more urine naturally.
    Sucralose
    Sucralose contains chlorine, a toxin research shows causes cancer. A little bit of chlorine stays in the body with each packet of Splenda we use. Sucralose also shrinks the thymus gland and enlarges the liver and kidney in rodents. In humans, scientists know that it causes our cells to mutate slowly, eventually causing cancer. Some people experience more immediate side effects, including dizziness, numbness, panic-like agitation, and intestinal cramping.
    Gluttons for Punishment?
    Not only do Americans eat harmful food, we eat way too much of it. In fact, we eat so much food that Pollan believes we have a “national eating disorder.” I agree. Only one generation ago, people ate three square meals a day and perhaps a snack. They drank milk, water, and maybe some orange juice for breakfast or an occasional soda for a treat. Folks socialized and had fun without food’s being involved. Today, eating is the focus of almost everything. There’s a good chance we’ll be chowing down whether we’re exercising (sports drinks, flavored waters, energy bars), at our child’s basketball game (soda, hot dogs, candy), socializing (chips, beer,soda, ice cream), dating (dinner dates), watching TV (chips, beer, soda, hot wings, pizza), meeting clients (power lunches, drinks, business dinners), or picking up the kids from soccer practice (fast food). Turn on the TV and what do you see? Food, food, food! And let’s not forget beverages. The average American teenager drinks twenty-two ounces of soft drinks and fruit drinks (13 percent of their calories) each day compared to just nine ounces of milk, according to Liquid Candy: How Soft Drinks Are Harming Americans’ Health , a report published by consumer watchdogs Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). 4 Soda pop has bumped milk off the top of