I went “cold turkey” in Sept. 2017 dumping everything with sweeteners. At that point I was drinking 8 2 litre bottles of coke zero a week; 2 litres a day!
It didn’t happen overnight but, I went from eating over 4000 calories a day AND still be hungry to about 1200 calories a day & NOT be hungry around January 2018. Then, the fortnight of the end of Jan. & the start of Feb. 2018 I had a series of hypos, 10 in 8 days, when I lowered insulin doses everyday until they stopped: almost halved my insulin doses!
I just naturally stopped eating so many starchy carbs, potatoes, rice & pasta! I’ve upped my calories intake slightly to 1500 calories a day to include natural fats! I used to eat over 2000 calories just for lunch!
I did this because my GP practice posted a news article about sweeteners on their Facebook page. Sweetners confuse the brain into making you eat more! Because of the level of sweetness, the brain, like an accountant, expects a certain amount of calories! When it doesn’t get those calories, it makes you eat more to make that up! Sweeteners have two BIG problems:- 1.- they are much sweeter than sugar so, the brain expects more calories from it than sugar & 2.- they are, or virtually, calorie free so, you get nothing from them as they pass through your system: read hilarious reviews of sugar free gummy bears on Amazon etc.
So, the more sweeteners you eat; the greater the deficit & your poor, harrassed bean counter goes mental: “where’s all the missing calories? Quick eat more to make up the numbers before I get an audit!” And before you know you’re eating more & more, and still be hungry!
I read that & a massive lightbulb went on in my head! That’s me! I kept eating more & more stuff with sweeteners in it & creating bigger deficits that I couldn’t fill: hungry all the time!
I replaced the sweetners with real sugar to start with by drinking small amounts of fruit juice with meals & taking honey in my tea! Shush, don’t tell anyone: and full sugar desserts! Then around April 2018 I REALLY noticed my taste buds returning. I’m not using honey in my tea & drinking fruit juice less often. I’m still naughty occassionally but, don’t pig out, much: keep THAT under your hat too!
🙄 , with a whistle!
It annoys me that the new sugar tax means I have to read labels more carefully as food & drink that never used to have sweeteners in now do, lucozade being a prime example: used in hospitals to treat hypos but, not anymore! Have to REALLY watch out for that now as the sugar tax makes more brands change their recipes! Grr!
😡
So, yes, I DO think sweeteners are everywhere & the new sugar tax will only make that worse! Have to read labels more carefully now! I have a pair of +2.5 glasses in my handbag for that sneaky small print when I normally use +1.5 for reading: trying to sneak the nutrional info in under the radar!
