Artificial sweeteners may have more risks than benefits

Free range beef. Steroid-free milk. Pesticide free produce. Non GMO products. Concerns over food products are present today that didn't exist generations ago. As the decades have passed, we've moved from the self-sustaining families growing their own foods and raising their own meats to our diets coming from packages in grocery stores. Many of the discoveries and inventions in the area of food that were once thought to be great progress it turns out have caused plenty of harm in exchange for convenience.

It's true that if you're searching for negative, you're going to find it. And it's true that you can find something bad in almost every food we consume. And it's true that you can't believe everything you read. But, with all that in mind, there are a lot of bad things out there that Americans are eating every day.

One thing we stay away from completely in our house is artificial sweeteners. My husband claims to have a myriad of symptoms when he consumes them, from feeling jittery to ringing in his ears. I haven't found reports that show those links, but it is funny how he'll say he doesn't feel good and then when we'll go back to read the label of something he ate that day, it almost always has an artificial sweetener of some kind in it.

Then there are the other more serious side effects, like the links to cancer. I hate how manufacturers sneak it into so many products. I really have to pay attention to labels. And I don't drink soda often, but when I do, it is NEVER diet soda. I recall during my third pregnancy when I was on the borderline of a gestational diabetes diagnosis, my doctor advised me to drink nothing but water (and small servings of milk.) She specifically warned me NOT to drink any diet sodas or anything with artificial sweeteners. She didn't say that it was bad for the baby, but said that there wasn't enough medical research to prove that it was safe and didn't want her patients taking that risk. Anyway...just sharing a few bits of info on artificial sweeteners and the dangers to consuming them, coming from some pretty reputable sources.

http://www.doctoroz.com/episode/should-you-give-artificial-sweeteners

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/10/13/artificial-sweeteners-more-dangerous-than-you-ever-imagined.aspx

http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/artificial-sweeteners-sugar-free-but-at-what-cost-201207165030