I am a biologist. I know that artificial sweetners are bad, nasty chemicals that do your body no favors. Obviously, though, if I was in the habit of doing my body favors, I would be living a very different life and this would be a very different blog.
Thus, I am a Splenda fiend. I am a broke college kid, so I hoard the little packets from coffee shops, there is a special compartment in my purse for pilfered condiments. (I preferentialy pilfer the Splenda, but I won't turn down any of the brands if the yellow packets aren't available). I am 100% aware that it's a bad health habit, but I usually chose to ignore that fact in my day-to-day life, telling myself that if I have to have a vice, at least it's a non-caloric one. (Bad ED thoughts, bad).
While I was in Central America, though, I was involuntarily detoxed from all artificial sweeteners. We had a cook at the research station, but no baked goods/desserts, mostly tortillas and rice at every meal. Also, people doing physical labor for 12+ hours a day just plain don't worry about how many calories they get from the sugar in their morning coffee. I was thinking about so many other things, I didn't really realize that I was going cold-turkey from the pseudo-sugars.
Then I got back to the U.S. One thing I HAD missed while I was down there was the array of sports drinks I usually keep in my fridge. There were days when I got really dehydrated down there because the trucks carrying drinking water couldn't get through on the terrible roads (the downside of being in the tropics during the rainy season). I would spend hours daydreaming about all the stuff I was going to DRINK when I got back to the U.S. From a biology standpoint, it really shows how crucial water is to life, the thirst was worse than any hunger I've experienced in all my years with the ED.
When J. picked me up from the airport, I made him stop at the first gas station we saw so I could buy a Propel. I had been having vivid malaria pill dreams (yes, Mefloquine is a fun drug, I'll be sad to give it up, it gives you unbelievably realistic dreams) about Propel, I was irrationally excited about getting one.
So I bought my half-gallon bottle of grape Propel, impatiently twisted off the cap before I was even out the door of the gas station, took a huge chug . . . and had to spit it out as soon as I got outside. BLACH!!! WTF??? EEWWWW.
My taste buds apparently completely de-acclimated to artifical sweetners, and the first re-introduction was terrible. I was truly amazed that I had ever enjoyed the stuff. It was definitely an interesting--albeit unintentional--experiment. It was a great opportunity to just cut the stuff out of my diet forever and thus lead a slightly less toxic lifestyle. I have been slowly re-adjusting to it, it's like when I first switched from regular to diet coke back when I was around 12: a little bit, then a little more, bear it until you either get used to it or just forget what the good stuff tastes like.
I don't think I'm going to go back to consuming the same amounts that I was, though. We had real sugar at the research station, but there were usually ants living in it, so I actually went off pretty much all added sweeteners period, and now I really don't crave them as much. I used to just add a handful of packets of Splenda to everything without even thinking about it, but now I truly don't want that yickiness clouding up my coffee, tea, cereal, yogurt, etc. Anyway, just wanted to share that experience/experiment. I know that some people are genetically "supertasters," meaning that they react really strongly (and negatively) to Splenda and other fake sweeteners, I wonder if there have been any studies on dietary habits of those people, do they tend to weigh more/less, have any characteristic eating patterns, any more/less incidence of eating disorders for people with that phenotype? I will have to look into this...
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5 comments:
Wow, what an interesting story about you going off of artificial sweeteners and then reacting so strongly to the taste when you tried them again.
I used to be a diet-coke addict, but when I began to recover from my ED I had to admit to myself that it wasn't exactly normal to drink a gallon of the stuff a day. Bit by bit, I went "off" the stuff, and now I sweeten my coffee and tea with real sugar (it was ridiculous, I realize, to worry about the calories in my tea, when a teaspoon of sugar has only 15! -- why do we put ourselves through such agony?).
Anecdotally, I think there is some connection between supertasting and eating disorders...I am probably a supertaster (though I can eat Splenda), and I think that my sensitivities to certain tastes contributed to my developing an eating disorder. I have also known other supertasters who have struggled with food issues.
Interesting...
I like the pink stuff (Sweet N Low), which is pretty much the worst as far as the fake sugar goes. However, Splenda tastes disgusting to me, and Equal can get bitter tasting if you use a lot at once. So I remain a pink packet girl.
I really have no desire to abstain from artificial sweetners. For one, I have a huge sweet tooth, and the amount of calories I would get from just the sugar in my coffee is to much for my ED past to bear.
It's interesting though. I'm very curious about supertasters and EDs. I would bet it has something to do with picky eating, regardless of an ED link.
This definitely made me think. I used to be an artificial sweetener whore, but for the past couple years have made a conscious effort to have real sugar to fight the ED voice in my head.
In just a month to completely have your body forget the taste...wow.
Interesting idea about supertasters. I don't drink as much pop (as we call it in Ohio) as I used to, but I actually prefer the taste of diet - regular colas have a heavy sort of taste.
I am also a poor college pink-packet thief. I'm afraid the local coffee places are going to post my picture and refuse to serve me.
Actually ,in some ways, I don't find it surprising that your tastebuds shifted so dramatically in only as little as a month. Some researchers who deal with weight loss have said how going "cold turkey" actually helps "rewire" the brain. So thus, once many people get over the initial first few days to a week, the brain doesn't want the similar stuff whether it is sweet or whatever it is someone may crave.
This reminds me of my whole animal cracker addiction and going off of them for awhile. It really did work and I no longer craved them so much. That didn't last long, but I know if I decided to try the experiment a gain, it would likely have similiar reactions.
That being said, for me, I don't use as much artificial sweetner as I used to but still do in coffee and teas. I have , however, been trying to go with stevia and agave (when I can afford it).
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