OPERATION "NO SWEETS" CHALLENGE

[Sherri]

Re: OPERATION "NO SWEETS" CHALLENGE

Is Splenda Addictive?

Yes, and for many reasons. All artificial sweetners create an artificial need for more sweetness. People forget that originally, sweetness was actually a by-product of food: Nature's way to encourage living creatures to consume nutricious foods. Forced sweetness, revved-up sweetness and artificial sweetness- all altered foods- are a trap that addict people to sweeter tastes.
Emotionally, we are witnessing an epidemic of eating disorders in the countries that focus on artificial sugar substitutes, particularly among the younger generation. People are convinced through advertisements that they can eat all the sugar-free foods they want without penalty. The flipside to this is a fear that eating REAL foods will cause weight gain or illness. So, many people now fear their food and believe if they do not eat sugar-free, they'll "gain weight". People are grossly overeating due to the misconception that sugar-free is responsibility-free, especially children.
We need to re-educate the youth about the basics of good nutrition and stop "super sizing" the diet products.

[Sherri]

Re: OPERATION "NO SWEETS" CHALLENGE

I didn't think of it that way...but what a GREAT analogy!

Day 2 of no sweetners.
Today is day 1 of no coffee for me too. I'd been drinking it black for a long time. Switched to decaf black a few weeks ago, and I've decided it's time to give it up altogether. I'm tired of the cravings. I'm tired of hunger. I'm tired of lethargy. I want peace back in my system.

Great job on the no coffee too Joy! Amen to peace!

[Porcelain]

Re: OPERATION "NO SWEETS" CHALLENGE

OMG! I typed a huge post, three paragraphs, and it said "server busy" and I lost it.

[Sherri]

Re: OPERATION "NO SWEETS" CHALLENGE

Good Morning Challengers! Here's to day 3!
Sherri

[Katie_1985]

Re: OPERATION "NO SWEETS" CHALLENGE

Hi Sherri!

I know i am three days late!! Is it too late to join? I am just so nervous of breaking my coffee habit but I know I can do it and it would probably make me lose more weight!!!!!

Let me know if it's still okay to join!

[Sherri]

Re: OPERATION "NO SWEETS" CHALLENGE

Katie,
Unfortunately if you've had sweetners in the last three days then I'm sorry, it's to late to join. But if No Sweetners, then WELCOME!
Sherri

[Sherri]

Re: OPERATION "NO SWEETS" CHALLENGE

Hello Challengers,
Hope all of you are doing well on day 3 of our challenge. As you remember in the begining of the challenge I listed many forms of sweetners. I will now begin to define what they are.

*Monosaccharied: A carbohydrate
*Disaccaride: Any group of sugars with a common formula as sucrose, maltose, and lactose, which on hydrolysis yield two monosacharides
*Hydrolysis: A chemicle reaction in which a substance reacts with water so as to be changed into one or more other substances, as a starch into glucose.


FORMS OF SWEETNERS

Sucrose: A pure crystalline *disaccharide extracted from sugarcane or sugar beets and consisting of glucose and fructose joined together in the molecule.

Fructose: A crystaline *monosaccharide found in sweet fruits and in honey; fruit sugar.

Corn Syrup: A syrup made from corn starch; it is a mixture of dextrose, maltose, and dextrins.

Glucose: Sweet wine, sweetness, a crystaline *monosaccharide occuring naturally in fruits, honey, and blood. The commercial form, also containing dextrin and maltose, is prepared as a sweet syrup or, upon disiccation, as a white solid, by the *hydrolysis of starch in the presence of dilute acids and enzymes.

Corn Syrup: A dextrose made from cornstarch.

Dextrose: A right-handed form of glucose found in plants and animals and in human blood, and made by the *hydrolysis of starch with acids and enzymes.

Lactose: A white, crystaline *disccaride found in milk and prepared by evaporation of the whey leaving the crystallized sugar; used in infant foods, medicine, etc..

Maltose: A white crystalline dextrorotatory *disaccaride obtained by action of the distaste of malt on starch.

Honey: A thick, sweet syrupy substance that bees make as food from nectar of flowers and store in honeycomb.

Invert Sugar: A mixture of dextrose, and levulose in approximately equal proportions, found in fruit and produced artificially by *hydrolysis of sucrose.

Concentrated Fruit Juice: Fruit juice that has been made denser, as by the removal of some of the water.

Sorbitol: A white, sweet, odorless, crystaline alcohol, found in certain berries, and fruits, as a sugar substitute.

Xylitol: A crystalline alcohol, derived from corn or hardwood birch, used as a sugar substitute.

Mannitol: A colorless, crystalline sugar alcohol, occuring in various plants and animals.

Barley sugar: A clear, hard candy made by melting sugar, formerly with barley extract added.

Malt Extract: A sticky sugary substance obtained from malt soaked in water.

Malt: barley or other grain soaked in water.

Monosodiumglutamate: A white crystalline powder, derived from sugar beets, used in foods as a flavor intensifier.

Molasses: A thick, usually dark brown syrup produced during the refining of sugar from sorghum, etc..

Sorghum: A syrup made from the sweet juices of Sorgo.

WORST High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) Same as corn syrup only it's also made with fructose.

[Katie_1985]

Re: OPERATION "NO SWEETS" CHALLENGE

Sherri

Thanks for letting me know! i have had sweetners! So I'll watch you guys go! Good luck all!

[Sherri]

Re: OPERATION "NO SWEETS" CHALLENGE

Good Morning Challengers,
I hope all of you all finding the information I'm sharing with you useful. I would like challengers to check in throughout the week and let us all know how you are doing.
Day 4 of Operation "No Sweets"
Sherri

[ValidRouge]

Re: OPERATION "NO SWEETS" CHALLENGE

Good morning, Day 3!

No sweetners, and I'm already feeling much calmer. My first day no coffee didn't go so well, but yesterday I made it thru the day with no coffee too! Yay!

Sherri, do you have any facts about HCFS/fructose and the different way that the body metabolizes those substances? From what I understand Fructose/HFCS must be metabolized by the liver?

[Adena]

Re: OPERATION "NO SWEETS" CHALLENGE

Good morning, all. Well, I've already had to use my "get out of jail free" key. I didn't eat artificial sweetners... oh no, I ate the real thing...

Hang in there with your coffee detox, Joy. If you drank herbal hot tea, would that at least help a little? It's not caffiene, but it's hot...

Sherri, thanks for that list. I had no idea what the differences were for many of those...

[Sherri]

Re: OPERATION "NO SWEETS" CHALLENGE

Good Morning Joy,
Thanks for checking in dear. I do have info on HFCS and will get that info posted today. I'm headed to town shortly but will get that out to all of you when I get home.
Glad you're getting through the "no coffee". Proud of you! That's great that you're getting your calmness back. You will be feeling better as each day passes. Keep up the great work you're doing for yourself Joy! You're giving all of us inspiration to carry on.
Thank you,
Sherri

[Sherri]

Re: OPERATION "NO SWEETS" CHALLENGE

Good morning, all. Well, I've already had to use my "get out of jail free" key. I didn't eat artificial sweetners... oh no, I ate the real thing...

Hang in there with your coffee detox, Joy. If you drank herbal hot tea, would that at least help a little? It's not caffiene, but it's hot...

Sherri, thanks for that list. I had no idea what the differences were for many of those...

Good Morning Adena,
I'm so happy to see you here with your key. And you're welcome for the list. Print it out and post it in the home and office. Reffer to it when you get that urge for the vending machine. It's all posion for you right now. Look at it as a toxin and not a pleasure and it may help you with your mind set. Oh, and take your L-Glutamine.
Is there any info you would like that would help you with this challenge? Let me know and I'll do my best to get that out to you, okay?
Tell yourself outloud this morning, NO SWEETS.
Hang in there sweetie, YOU CAN DO THIS!
Sherri

[elsy]

Re: OPERATION "NO SWEETS" CHALLENGE

Good morning, all. Well, I've already had to use my "get out of jail free" key. I didn't eat artificial sweetners... oh no, I ate the real thing...

Me too Adena. The problem is that we only get one key and this time I'm in jail again and can't get out.

I'm sorry Sherri. Not only did I disappinted myself but I disappointed you and my friends.

[ValidRouge]

Re: OPERATION "NO SWEETS" CHALLENGE

Adena and Elsy, IMO this just demonstrates the hold that sugar and artificial sweetner has over us. I know there are many who will say, well the artificial sweetner would have been a BETTER choice than the real thing, right??

I don't agree. IMO it's the artificial sweetner PERPETUATING the addiction. PERPETUATING the binge eating behaviors, and PERPETUATING the desire for the real thing. If you watch, the people who obsess over sweet tasting things are the ones who are always having relapses with bad carbohydrates. And, I'm talking about the people who OBSESS over this stuff. I'm not talking to those of you who can eat something artificially sweetened and then not feel the desire to have another, and then another, and then another. I'm glad YOU are not affected by them, but there are those of us who can be COMPLETELY obsessed with them. We cannot manage that addiction/obsession by allowing myself to have just a little bit.

I think it was blue who said on here once, that the artificial sweetner or having just a little bit of something was like giving a drug addict just a little hit. Just enough to KEEP THEM ADDICTED, but not enough to get high. This keeps us in a constant state of MISERY. Yet, we do it. We've BEEN DOING IT all along to ourselves.

I *KNOW* all of this, I battle with this EVERY SINGLE DAY. But, the reality is...if I LEAVE IT ALONE and don't eat it. Don't eat ANY OF IT. The screaming agony of the addiction quiets and then I have peace.

I will admit to flirting with my devil on occasion. I don't know why I do it. Most of the time it's because of social pressures, or inconvenience. But, those are still EXCUSES plain and simple.