Monthly Archives: December 2012

Get Fatter: More to Worry about Artificial Sweeteners

I learned for myself that artificial sweeteners play havoc with my hunger signals, making me strongly crave all the worst stuff. I have other posts that relate to studies on the powerful effect of artificial sweeteners–and now there is another.

We know that rat studies are used all the time to help researchers to find out if drugs, chemicals, etc., will be bad for people. While most of us are not rats, and the correlation between rat and human studies is not one to one, there are lots of clues in the rat studies that alert the scientists pay attention.

Dr Briffa offers the following on artificial sweeteners making rats eat more and gain weight faster that has made me sit up and take notice:

http://www.drbriffa.com/2012/12/21/artificial-sweeteners-found-to-boost-weight-gain-in-animals/

While it has been a challenge for me, the fact is we probably do best when we stay away from sweet taste as much as possible and curtail the need for sweet. I know, easier said than done, but as I’ve written before, after a year or eighteen months most people cease to crave sweets like they did before and go on to prefer a sweeter leaner life without the sweet food.

The Holidays–Again

Nothing new to add to older posts, save the common-sense-planning plan. Planning for some treats is better than pretending that you won’t touch anything, then caving big-time doing the slippery slide into a binge.  Fact is I like one particular type of fruit cake and plan to have one serving on Christmas Eve when my family gathers for our big celebration. Better to be realistic, but realistic doesn’t mean a free-for-all feeding frenzy.

I hope you all the joy of the holidays, and a new year filled with joy.

Nan aka Sugarbaby

Hibernation

I lost all my writing on this post which is aggravating. I’m not highly skilled or even very knowledgeable about these blogs, but my goof tonight may be due to what I was/am writing about which is the low period I experience every year from late November until late January. Not SAD, or seasonal affective disorder,  in my case, just a desire to do little beside cook and eat lotcomfort foods like soups, stews, casseroles, roasted meats. In other words I’m feeling very lazy.

I first noticed this in myself forty years or so ago, when I was right out of college. This is the only time of the year when I want to stay in bed after I awake,  for I’m mainly a morning person; when I do get up all I want to do is drink endless cups of tea, eat, read or watch television, preferably old movies.

Makes sense in light of evolution; that our prehistorical ancestors would want to preserve all the lovely fat they had stored from the summer and autumn bounty. We are still working with brains that think we should still be doing the  same things despite modernity.

When I was younger I always put on 5-7 pounds in the winter and then quickly lost it during the spring and summer’ but with age I didn’t lose it, so the pounds piled on over the years. I had to change to a low carb program, and most importantly get rid of the sugars-starches from grains-most artificial sweeteners.  A cleaner diet has helped me stop the uphill piling on and head back downhill. Just wish I could have my semi-hibernation and still get everything done my modern life calls for; but there it is.

Yours in longing for the cave,

Nan aka Sugarbaby