Splenda is NOT splendid

Nov 23, 2009

Splenda is not splendid

http://www.healthsachoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/splenda-aspartame-artifical-sweeteners.jpg
"Why can’t we encourage people

to just overcome 
their sweet tooth?...
  http://www.whale.to/w/aspartame-poison.jpg
  ...Perhaps it would help, 
but of course there is 
no money 
in that...
http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/splenda.jpg   ...We have the sugar industry, 
the chemical sweetener manufacturers 
and the processed foods 
and drinks industry 
making sure that does not happen...

Splenda<sup>®</sup> Is It Safe Or Not? (Autographed) ...But people do pay the bill 
– some with their lives, 
others with suffering and illness, 
others simply with obesity, 
and all of them with their weekly grocery bills, 
not to talk about hospital costs
that hit every one of us." - from The Center for Science and the Public Interests Warns of Aspartame But Advocates Splenda/Sucralose
http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Uploads/Graphics/001-0803081419-Aspartame-Sweetmisery.jpg   Did you know that there is no clearcut evidence that artificial sweeteners aid in weight reduction? Yet when I see recipes on blogs and support groups that are "WLS friendly" I see that they include Sucralose (brand name Splenda) in their sugar-free versions of what used to be recipes for actual food now diet-ized by replacing the fat with starch and replacing the sugar with artificial sweeteners.   Why the emphasis on sugar-free?   According to what I read from pre-ops, post-ops and no-ops who are trying to lose weight the idea is to cut calories by any means necessary. Sugar has calories.   We've also been conditioned to believe that sugary sodas, baked goods, candies and desserts are the main cause of  obesity and that by simply making these same items Low-cal, Low-fat or Sugar-free, but continuing to eat them, we are doing something wonderful for our health.
 http://www.northeastohiocouponers.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/smart-ones-chocolate-chip-cookie-dough-sundae-3028.jpg   According to Dr. Janet Star Hull, author of Splenda: Is it Safe or Not? and Sweet Poison, "Splenda, or sucralose as it was named when it was invented, comes from a sugar molecule, yes, but it is so mutilated and transformed in the lab, it has merely 1 atom of sugar remaining after 3 atoms of chlorine are injected into the sugar molecule. So in laymen's terms, sucralose, or Splenda, is 1 part sugar and 3 parts industrial chlorine. You might as well drink from your fish aquarium or swimming pool." (click here for the complete interview)
  What is it about us
(I was once an artificial sweetener junkie)
that makes us prefer to put poison in our bodies rather than just eat better? Are we (and I was one of the "we") so addicted to sweetness that we'd willingly endanger our health just for a flavor fix?   I know that I for one like sweetness. I used to use the pink packets (saccharine). Then when those were determined to be cancer-packs I switched to the blue packets (aspartame). When aspartmate was discovered to be toxic I switched to the yellow packets (sucralose). Now sucralose is in question.   Today I use the green packets (stevia). The difference with the green packets is that it's not an artificial sweetener. It's the powdered version of an herb. It IS a processed food so I use it sparingly but it's nothing like the pink, blue or yellow packet devils.   I also use good old raw honey, organic molasses, real maple syrup and Agave nectar. I'm looking into acquiring some Rhapadura.
Yes they have calories.
No I don't care.
Real food has calories.
I'll deal.   I'm more afraid of harsh chemicals than I am of calories.   I think it's easier and safer to train my taste buds to like things that are less sweet than to tax my body with a toxic substance. But I warn you, DON'T try to talk about this topic on a Weight Loss Surgery support group anywhere online. Either you'll be attacked, insulted or told that artificial sweeteners are "safe in small amounts" and that the side effects of obesity are far more dangerous than the side effects of Splenda.   The WLS "cheerleaders" (a term coined by Dani Hart, author of I Want to Live) who wave their pom-poms for a post-op way of life that includes artificial sweeteners and low fat diet foods will not tolerate dissent.
They regard Splenda-eating as one of the many adjustments one must make as a post-op if one wishes to be part of the weight-losing in-crowd. Question thier methods and you'll be told you're just not committed.
I know. I've been cheer-led right off of these support forums and asked not to interfere with those who are truly on the road to success. Or I've been told that what works for one person may not work for another so I should just leave the Splenda-eaters alone to do what they have to do in order to obtain glorious thinness.   Do I sound bitter?   I'd rather be bitter than artificiually sweet.
*Lisa's Video Pick of the Day* Sweetpoison, written by author Dr. Janet Starr Hull, is a book exposing aspartame dangers. SweetPoison.com provides a variety of aspartame information including nutritional advice on aspartame detoxification, aspartame side effects and up-to-date information on aspartame dangers. click here
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Dumping Syndrome!

Sep 15, 2009


Dumping Syndrome pre AND post op

"Here is a trick to improve your digestion 
and help you eat less food, 
if you tend to overeat. 
Chew your food until it is liquid
in your mouth before swallowing. 
Digestion starts with the enzymes in the mouth, 
so the more you mix the food with saliva, 
and the more you break down the food 
with your teeth, 
the less work your stomach 
and digestive tract has to do...

...If you have 
any digestion issues, 
this can make 
a big difference.
...This will also slow down your meals, 
giving you the opportunity 
to enjoy the taste of the food, 
and may help you eat less, 
because you will feel satisfied 
before you have gulped down 
huge amounts of food... 
 
...It takes a while for the satiety center 
to send out the message 
that you have eaten enough, 
so if you eat quickly it is easy to eat too much 
before you get the signal. 
Then you suffer by feeling stuffed." - from Paul Chek's   "How to Eat Move and Be Healthy" 
Gastric Bypass patients can suffer from something called "dumping syndrome" if we eat too much or too fast or eat something we cannot tolerate (click here) but I remember suffering from dumping syndrome
BEFORE THE SURGERY.
Yep.
My binge eating was that bad.

Usually the symptoms of dumping syndrome are nausea, vomitting or pain.
A lesser discussed symptom is a racing heart beat.
I suffered all three BEFORE I ever had surgery.

The amount of food I ate before I had surgery was obscene.
I'd eat
whole pizzas washed down with diet soda,
boxes of Entemann's cakes,
tubs of onion dip with two bags of chips,
multiple value meals from the drive thru,
just an inhuman amount of food.

The aftermath was awful.
Pain, nausea,
dizzyness and the all too familiar rapid heart beat.

My heart would be so hard and so fast I thought I'd have a heart attack.
The over stuffed sensation was paralyzing.
There were times when I felt so sick I would pray to die.
I'd tell myself: Never again.
I'd pray to God that I'd never do it to myself again if only he'd get me out of the pain and slow down my heart.

This would happen one or more times per day.
That's why I looked for a drastic solution: weight loss surgery.

Getting the bypass bought me enough time to get on the path to wellness.
I'm very close to being completely well
but an old symptom still remains.

The oh-my-God-I-want-to-die feeling and rapid heart rate that comes with post-op dumping syndrome.
It doesn't necessarily take a lot of food to make it happen.
I dumped yesterday when I ate two tablespoons of peanut butter.

That's what happens if I wait too long to eat.
Hey, sometimes I'm just not hungry.
I'll go about my business with an empty stomach.
Then suddenly the ravenous hunger hits.
I panic.
I eat too much too fast and whammo!
I'm down on the sofa feeling like my heart will beat itself to death.

The peanut butter was lovely, made by hand crank on an Amish farm, as organic as can be, and fresh!
But peanut butter is a very dense food.
It takes a lot to break it down during digestion.
I SHOULD have eaten it very slowly and chew chew chewed it!
I didn't.
Instead I gulped it down, chasing it with cold milk.

Holy crap.
I thought I would die.
My heart was hammering at a shocking rate.
I could feel it beating in my ears.
I uttered the familiar words: Never again.
Never ever ever again.

When I eat I have to tell myself to slow down and chew!

That's not just a recommendation for bypassed folks.
We all need to chew our food.

Many of the digestive disorders people suffer from come from improperly chewed food entering our guts too fast.
Ever watch the average person at lunch time?
Gulp gulp then wash it down with something.
We're a nation of dumpers!

We gulp down big bites of food on the run and wash it down with soda or Snapple or some other drink.

That's what I used to do.
I paid the price in many ways for my hasty eating.
Now I know better but sometimes I still need to remind myself that digestion begins in the mouth.

If we want to get well we need to stop gulping and slurping and become a nation of chewers!

*Lisa's Video Pick of the Day*
Paul Chek tells us to chew our food down to a liquid.
Digestion begins in the mouth.
AND chewing our food lets our bodies imprint the food with our chi.
He's an expert and he's in phenomenal shape.
I believe him!
click here or click below
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eat your fatty protein!!

Jul 10, 2009

healthy like a watch

Proud to be part of Real Food Wednesdays! (click here)
thanks to nataliedee.com
 
I've tried a lot of stuff in 3 years.
This blog just nicks the surface of my struggles to be....what?
Thin?
Small?
Not fat?

Was there ever a time in my life when I really wanted to be healthy?
I SAID I wanted to be healthy, but really I wanted to be thin.
To be thin meant to be socially acceptable, attractive, worthy and even enviable.
I'm finally getting to the point where I value my health more than I value my dress size.

All it takes is losing something.
Sometimes you have to lose something so you can realize its value.
I lost my health.
Now I understand the value of being able to wake, walk and function!
Thin??
You can't be serious.
Not after what I've been through this summer.
Thin is no longer the goal.
Healthy is the goal.

But but but...don't we all believe that we have to be thin to be healthy?
That's the bill of goods I was sold all my life.
My fat body was automatically judged to be an unhealthy mess.

In my efforts to take off the offending fat I ruined my health.

I won't even touch on the weight loss surgeries right now.
In a nutshell? Disasters.

What I do wish to touch on is the pride I took in eating virtually NO FAT for almost 2 and a half years.
It wasn't just that I was eating diet foods with tons of sugar or fake sugar with the words NON-FAT emblazoned on the label.
I was eating tons of whole grains, tofu, red sauce, fruit, vegetables, rice cakes, egg beaters, skim milk, soy milk, sugar free jello, sugar free ice pops, diet foods...and for what?

Sure I took off 140 pounds.
Sure I trotted off to the gym 6 days a week.
So why did my health crash and burn??

I burned out my adrenals.
I burned out my my ability to heal.
I totally malnourished myself.
And this summer, I broke down!
Just plain broke.

The exhaustion was too much.
If you read my blogs from the beginning of 2009 you'll see how desperate I was. I talked about feeling as if someone was pushing down on my eyelids.
I was drinking a pot of coffee a day and still struggling to get from task to task.

People keep asking me why I started this whole nourishing traditions way of eating.
They asked if something led up to this, some sickness.
Yes.
I hit an impossible plateau in my weigh loss despite a super low fat, supposedly health diet and ridiculous work out regimen
and
I had no energy left.

Before I could save myself my knee blew out over Easter weekend.
I'm spending most of the summer in a wheelchair.

Something radical needed to happen.
Another weight loss diet??

No.
I don't think so.

It's time for a different approach.
It's time to focus on health.

If I hadn't broken down the way I did, I'd still be hoping to lose weight even at the expense of my health.

Does that mean I'm giving up on losing weight?
Well, that depends on how you look at it.
Following a rehabilitation diet as prescribed by my nutritionist
along with exercise designed to reconnect mind and body
will lead to many changes in my health.
One of those changes will be regaining my ability to lose excess body fat.

Losing weight is not the focus.
It's the side effect.

Health is my priority, now more than ever.
I lost it.
Once I get it back, I'll never neglect it again.


*Lisa's Video Pick of the Day*
What part of a watch tells time?
Remove one part and the whole watch stops.
Trying to lose weight?
Let's take care of our bodies and trust that the weight will take care of itself.
And it will.
Focus on fat loss is isolationist thinking.
Focusing on health will succeed because it acknowledes that it takes a whole watch to tell time!
Paul Chek talks sense, always.
click here
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Resolve!

Jan 02, 2009

the process of resolve




"I have so many things to do today that include;
paying fines that I have accumulated over the span of the past year,
a large and filthy smelling pile of dirty laundry
that starts next to my bed
and stops down in the basement next to my silent washer and dryer,
overdue scheduled vehicle maintenance of my vehicle
that I don't want anymore
but am still making payments on,
and dozens of additional tasks
that are just as unpleasant.
Why don't I just run out in front
of a fast-moving garbage truck you ask?
Hmmm, good question!
"
- blogger Joe Frawley

 
It's only day 3 of my food diary
and I'm already learning quite a bit about my eating habits.
I'm an unapologetic grazer.
Yes, yes, yes, I know we're not supposed to graze after bypass or banding for fear that we'll out eat the surgery.
I know.
I get it.

But if I'm hungry I'm going to eat.
If it's stomach hunger, emotional hunger, mouth hunger, *heart hunger or whatever hunger, if it's there, I'm feeding it.

*“Heart hunger” or “emotional hunger” = We feel an ache and emptiness in our hearts due to unmet emotional and/or spiritual needs. Rather than acknowledge our feelings and work through our issues, we try to fill the void with food. Or sometimes we try to use food to “stuff” our feelings down. Although there can be physical discomfort in the gut when we’re upset, it is a distinctly different sensation from stomach hunger.

- Finding Balance

 

 

I can make good choices about what goes into my mouth.
Good,
better,
more nutritious.

Last night I had the late night munchies (I get them every night).
I ate sugar free jello, 3 raw peppers and some almonds.
Hey, it's better than "slider" foods like cakes, pretzels or ...or... other pretzels (I don't eat chips so, what else is there?)

My appetite is HUGE at night.
My appetite is so-so during the day.

I find it very easy to eat like a gastric bypass patient during the day.
Then nighttime hits and I'm ravenous.

I'm probably legitimately hungry. I could be depleted.
How would I know??
I haven't had ANY blood work done since the surgery.
My surgeon is fit-to-be-tied over this, but what can we do?
I have no insurance.
If I can't pay for the blood work, it ain't gettin' done!

But there's a solution.
As part of my catch-up-on-paperwork effort I filled out all the necessary paperwork for Charity Care at my hospital in Summit (where I go for my check-up from the neck-up).
I'm sure I'll get approved.
Then my neck-up doc will write a scrip for blood work and send the results to my bariatric doc.
I'm just waiting for that approval to arrive in the mail.

And yeah, I'm tired.
Draggy, sluggish, half asleep, possibly anemic.
There might be a medical reason for it.
It might be fixable.

My '5 Minutes a Day in 2009' project will help me take care of business so I can better care for myself.

I'm learning to do my 5 Minutes of stuff in an as-you-go fashion.

I'm creating the habit of answering emails when I get them instead of putting them off for some future time when I'm 'in the mood' to answer them (when does that mood happen anyway?)

I'm filing things as I open the envelopes instead of putting them into a to-be-filed pile.

I keep my books in places where I can read for a few minutes during my couch time (I'm currently reading 'The Dance of Anger' by Dr. Harriet Lerner and 'Why We Love' by Helen Fisher)

I do exercises throughout the day like yoga poses, stretches, rehab stuff, walking, breathing.

The list is pretty doable.

The one item that's giving me the most trouble is book-writing.
I'm still treating it like it's a monumental task that can't possibly be broken down into do-able chunks.
I'll have to reframe that megillha!

Meh, I'll put it on the to-do list.
It seems like writing stuff down helps me to get it done.

I highly recommend it.

*Lisa's Video Pick of the Day*
Exercising a lot and eating a little (1500 calories a day is very very little for grown people who exercise) WILL make you lose weight.
No doubt.
But what about addressing all the complex issues of eating disorder recovery??
Learning to eat smaller portions - depleting calories without increasing nutrition - won't help.
I still use food to soothe my emotions.
I think the fact that the foods I eat are nutritious, low fat and high fiber makes a big difference.
Reframing the way I view my behavior as being self-soothing rather than self-destructive has helped.
Binge eating on crap is self destructive.
Eating well is an act of self-care, even if the portions and frequency are higher than normal.
I wish I could partner with the folks at New Haven to help these people get well for good.
In the meantime, I have great compassion for them....and when I can, for me.
click here or click below
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Compulsive OverEater

Nov 28, 2008

“Only work which is the product of
inner compulsion can have
spiritual meaning.”

- Walter Groupius

I understand compulsive behavior.
Wait, let me rephrase that.
I experience compulsive behavior.

Do you know how many games of Scrabble I had to play (against the computer) just now before I could start writing?
I dunno, 10 or 12.

Compulsive behavior seems to be hard wired into me.
That's the bad news.

The good news is that certain behaviors can be thwarted, blocked, redirected.
Take the gastric bypass for instance.
The weight loss surgery keeps me from over-binge-ing.

Yesterday, I spent the day preparing for a glorious, low-fat feast here at my lil' apartment.
In the middle of preparing an oven stuffer chicken surrounded by turnips, carrots, celery and 12 grain stuffing, I craved a piece of carrot cake. I had to have CARROT CAKE!!

Now, as you may know if you've been reading this blog for a while, the bypass makes it very, very uncomfortable for me to eat fats. A piece of carrot cake would definitely make me feel terribly nauseated. Even just a few bites would make me feel sick for an hour or more.

But I wanted carrot cake.

I ran out to the store, hair askew, no makeup, no earrings, just wearing my gross cooking clothes and picked up a few items. I bought Betty Crocker carrot cake mix, egg beaters (they have zero fat), baby food strained carrots, sugar free vanilla pudding mix and fat free sour cream (in hindsight I should have gotten the fat free cream cheese but I was not thinking clearly).

Came home and baked a cake.
A sorta delicious carrot cake with vanilla pudding icing.

I substituted the baby food carrots for oil.
Used the egg beaters instead of whole eggs.
Beat the vanilla pudding mix with part soy milk and part fat free sour cream to fac-similate cream cheese icing, licked the bowl and baked the hell out of that f*cker.

The pre-gastric bypass Lisa would have devoured the entire cake by now.
As of this typing, I've only eaten a fifth of it.

So, yeah.
I'm still compulsive.
But at least my compulsion won't kill me.

Happy Thanksgiving!
I am grateful to you, my readers, for paying attention to me as I put myself back together after a lifetime of self-destructive, addictive behavior.

Eating Like a Queen

Aug 15, 2007

I had a wonderful time at Marakkech in Montclair the night of my 43rd birthday on August 6th, 2007..
I was surrounded by loved ones in the most luscious, beautiful atmosphere.
Balloons were floating, gifts abounded.

And the food was just phenomenal.
I ate like a queen.
No, really.
Like a queen.

It wasn't JUST that the food was incredibly expensive.
It wasn't JUST that the food was indescribably delicious.
It wasn't JUST the visually stunning way it was served.

It was HOW I ate it.

I've never watched a queen eating but I imagine it's very daintily.
Tiny bites.
Slowly and methodically.
Not slopping all over the front of her blouse.
No gulping.
No oinking pig noises.

I remember back in my binge eating days how many pajama tops and t-shirts I ruined with stains from slopping red sauce or grease or chocolate down the front of myself.

I remember eating so much so fast I actually made grunting pig noises as I ate.

Hiccups, burping.
Not very queen-like.
No dignity.

The surgery forces me to eat slowly.
For the past year it has forced me to eat slowly, to chew every bite, to pause to see if I'm satiated, and now these slow, methodical necessities are habits.

I was slowly, methodically enjoying my exquisite Moroccan feast that night. Add to it the wine and the chattiness that comes with it (maybe the chatty wine high was not very queen-like) and I ended up with 3 To-Go containers after my birthday feast.
I barely ate.

The bites I DID take were tasty explosions of distinct flavors: biting cinnamon, flowery saffron, puckery lemon, cool, sweet yogurt.
Each dish tasted like it was lovingly prepared with artful, careful pride, the way a royal chef might cook for a queen.

When Linda, our lovely server poured our after dinner tea from a silver tea pot held 3 feet above our delicately etched tea snifters we could all smell the fresh, garden mint sprinkling into the air around us.

Ah, what a sensual experience.

Food should be like that, always.

It's kinda pricey, though.

I often wonder if I could be happy being poor.
Sure, I could make do.
I look at Kai living in her trailer behind the Yost's surf shop and imagine having a whole lotta nothing in life. Nothing except passion for the sea, for board shaping, for loved ones and the simplicity of the surfer lifestyle.
Sure, I could dig it.

But, I 'm no surfer.
My tastes are not that simple.
They COULD be.
If I chose that kind of simplicity, I could be happy.

I choose otherwise.

I like money, or rather, I like what it buys.
Fancy foods, comfortable cars, a well appointed home, high quality health care, the best foods for my cats, high tech entertainment and computer accessories.
Yeah. I want that.

I want that for me AND my friends.
Having nice things for myself and only myself would be no fun.
I want my friends there with me enjoying the finer things.

As a binge eating food addict it was difficult to appreciate life through the sugary, diabetic fog I was living in. It was painful to walk around the places I love most (NJ shore, Charleston S.C, MSU campus, any park or flea market in the sunshine, NYC). I could barely cover a two block distance without having to stop, sit, pant and rub my aching knees. Once in a while, if I was out with people at a nice restaurant, I could enjoy the succulence of well prepared food. The need to be socially appropriate kept me from gulping. The company helped me to pace myself and enjoy what was in front of me.

But someone else always picked up the tab.

As I get stronger I get the urge, the inclination the need to be more independent, to pick up the tab for my own lifestyle. I want to OWN my circumstances. I want to OWN my life.

For all my complaints about how I look in that picture, I do notice the difference from last year. I am standing. I am standing and NOT counting the seconds till I can sit down. I am wearing a size 18 down from a size 32. I am almost cured of my diabetes. I can breathe more easily. I'm not in any pain standing there.

This next year is about radical healing.
Time to repair the damage done by years of steady destruction.
Time to rebuild my blood and replenish my organs.
Time to heal my self-esteem and gain confidence in my ability to use my passions, my talents, my work to translate into an abundant income to support my dream lifestyle.

Eating like a queen with my beloved friends.
Living in comfort in surroundings paid for and created by me.
Satisfaction in knowing I am helping others to do the same.

Read my DAILY Blog:
http://TheSkinnyOnline.Blogspot.com

The Skinny - the Blog

Oct 24, 2006

The Skinny
My Emotionally Raw Look at Obesity and Weight Loss Surgery
http://theskinnyonline.blogspot.com/

About Me
Clifton, NJ
Location
44.2
BMI
RNY
Surgery
08/16/2006
Surgery Date
Oct 21, 2002
Member Since

Friends 20

Latest Blog 7
Compulsive OverEater
Eating Like a Queen
The Skinny - the Blog

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