Breaking Up is Hard to Do

I inherited many loves from my mother. Two of the biggest ones were my love for diet sodas and my love for sweet coffee. I grew up watching my mom drink tons of both and two sodas that intrigued me the most were diet chocolate soda and Tab.

Let’s start with Tab (clearly I’m dating myself) Tab came in these beautiful pink cans and according to my mother was only for grownups. Ohhhhh, how I would beg and beg her for a sip and only occasionally would she give in. I loved the way Tab bubbled on my tongue with a distinctive chemical sweetness I had never experienced before. I felt so grown up. Then there was chocolate soda (kinda sounds gross I know). My mom drank bottles of this stuff and I was convinced it was almost as amazing as chocolate itself.

The same way Tab was only for grownups, so was coffee. I would watch my mother fill her thermos with coffee and tons of skim milk. Then she would drop in 4 or 5 of these tiny white magical tablets she called saccharine. That coffee, that she gulped all day, was so deliciously, creamy and sweet and just like the Tab, only for grownups. I would beg for sips and occasionally she would give in. I was one lucky girl. I knew when I was all grownup I would consume as much Tab, diet chocolate soda and coffee as my mom. I couldn’t wait.

My Mom also taught me another fabulous trick. Instead of eating sweets, I could easily substitute a diet soda (my favorite being the stuff in the red and white can) or drink a coffee with some fake sugar (my favorite came in a yellow package) without gaining any weight. It wasn't like I was eating anything fattening, but yet I still got my sugar fix. In addition, I added sugar free gum to the mix and no sugar ever passed my lips. I drank tons of diet soda and sweet coffee and chewed my skinny gum. The problem was, even though I wasn’t consuming any sugar, I wasn’t getting any skinnier. None of it made sense. Or did it?

Here are some interesting facts I lifted straight out of Dr. Mark Hyman's book,"The Blood Sugar Solution"

1. Artificially sweetened drinks jack up your sugar cravings, driving you to eat more food over the course of the day.

2. Diet sodas raised the risk of diabetes more than sugar sweetened sodas.

3. Women who drank diet sodas drank twice as much as those who drank sugar sweetened sodas because artificial sweeteners are more addictive than regular sugar.

4. Artificial sweeteners trick your metabolism into thinking sugar is on its way. This causes your body to pump out insulin, the fat storage hormone, which leads to belly fat.

AND THE KILLER

5. Artificial sweeteners confuse and slow your metabolism, so you burn fewer calories every day. They make you hungrier and cause you to crave even more sugar and starchy carbs, such as bread and pasta.

WHAT????????

How was it possible that all this diet soda and fake sugar I was consuming to not make me fat was making me fatter and possibly leading me down the road to diabetes? This couldn’t be true. Would the companies that made these diet products lie to me? Did they let me drink this stuff knowing it could lead to diabetes and weight gain? How could these companies let me think that by drinking diet soda and using artificial sweeteners, that I was being healthy? Could these big companies know the truth and still be selling diet soda and artificial sweeteners to me?

The truth is: I DONT KNOW. I would hate to think these large companies really cared so little about me and so much more about the almighty dollar that they were willing to let me get sick eating their sweet, tasting chemicals. So, I decided to do some personal research and found that Dr. Mark Hyman might be onto something.

I decided to give up all artificial sweeteners, even gum and mints. All I can tell you are some personal results:

• I don't wake up in the middle of the night parched for a diet soda (and as much as I hate to admit it, I would wake up, go downstairs and swig 1/2 of the elixir from the red and white can ).
• My nails no longer chip and break, but are long and healthy (unless I get a gel manicure, but that I'll save that for another blog).
• My psoriasis on my scalp and legs (something that has plagued me for a long time) is practically nonexistent.
• The twitch above my left eye that has been coming and going for the past few years is 100% gone.

Is this all because I gave up fake sugar? I’m no scientist, but the timing seems more fact than coincidence.

If you are like me, maybe you are reading this and saying to yourself...”yeah, I know how bad this stuff is for me, but I would need so much sugar to replace the “sweetness" or maybe, "nothing tastes as a good as a diet soda when I'm tired and hot" (just ask Taylor Swift). Or… even as my boyfriend says, “sugar doesn't dissolve in iced coffee. I HAVE to use the fake stuff."

I know change is scary and we like what we like, but the first step to change is letting go of old beliefs. So does real sugar taste as sweet as the bad stuff? The answer is no. Total honesty here.

This is what I did get myself off the fake stuff. I went cold turkey. Sounds scary I know. My want for fake sugar didn’t go away in a day or two, but once I made the commitment to stop with the chemicals (and cried a few tears of sadness) I adjusted.

Truth be told it took about two weeks (yes two weeks). I learned to love the taste of Coconut sugar and the fake stuff was a distant memory. Coconut sugar is so yummy and adds an almost nutty taste to my coffee (I even convinced my brother- in- law, a long time user of the fake stuff, to give the coconut stuff a try and now he is reformed.)

True, nothing will ever tastes like a diet soda in the red and white can, but since giving up the stuff, I find water to be the perfect substitute. Even better when I drink water, I am not thirstier than before I took a swig (can’t say the same for diet soda, so take that Taylor Swift).

And true, I admit my boyfriend is right. Coconut sugar doesn't dissolve in cold beverages, but this is easily resolved. Make simple syrup, key word is SIMPLE.

Take a little hot water pour it on the coconut sugar to melt it and VOILA simple syrup.

By using simple syrup, cold beverage woes are gone (some of my local coffee shops offer premade simple syrup on the fixins bar).

I know breaking up is hard to do, but sometimes we have to let go of the bad stuff in our life no matter how long they have been a part of our lives. It’s time to end the love affair with artificial sweeteners. I think my mom would be proud of me for taking care of myself and giving up the bad stuff. Now it’s time for you to make the change.

For more information about Dr. Mark Hyman you can check out his book “The Blood Sugar Solution 10-Day Detox Diet.”