giving up artificial sweetners
I have spent most my life on packets of pink sweet n Low. That's 44 years of dextrose and saccharin on my body at several packets a day. I didn't think much of it because I thought I was avoiding sugar and therefore diabetes. 2 years ago I started having severe pain in my joints, fatigue, cloudy mental status. These symptoms things got so bad I could barely walk. There were days when I would audibly gasp in pain at work and cry at night. I felt like I was dying. My bones were breaking down. I went to the doctor and was losing calcium at an alarming rate. Finally, after many test they found tumors on my parathyroid (that is what controls your calcium release). They did surgery and removed 4 large tumors on all four parathyroids. They left half of one because your body needs a regulator of some type. I had no idea how important calcium was until then.
Fast forward to this year. I'm feeling much better and have my clarity back. My calcium has leveled out and my bones are building back up. I'm getting ready to have my lap band removed and the dietician recommended I stop all artificial sweetners. So, I did. I look back and I wonder if there could have been a correlation between all the chemicals and the tumors. This is what I have discovered since I stopped the artificial sweetners. Everything seems to taste better (sweeter). I know that sounds odd but especially fruits and vegetables. Carrots taste like candy. I can't eat many because they seem so sweet to me. I also started flavoring my water. I use mint, fresh ginger slices, cucumber and lemon with halved cherries...yum. I also slice oranges and put them in water. My favorite is sliced strawberries. It makes the water taste like vanilla strawberry treat. I'm off of caffeine and all artificial sweetners finally. The flavored water helps me drink more good clean stuff. In fact, I am eating as clean as I can and feel so much better for it. I read a post where they talked about how you feel today is because of what you ate yesterday. That resonated with me.
