Splenda?

I like the chocolate skinny cow bars. Reminds me of a Wendy's Frostie 

i like real butter, real sugar, and real eggs.   

me too... and milk with fat in it 

I've definitely seen Stevia in the health food shops and I think I even saw it in a big store like Tesco or Waitrose. It is in the same green packaging used in the States.

me too... and milk with fat in it 

definitely!

While I totally agree with Splenda being bad for you, I think there are a million things today that really are. Splenda has been known to cause rashes and bad reactions in select people, but I don't think it's any worse that, say, eating cookies that have partially hydrogenated soybean oils. Heck, you can even die from drinking too much water (there was a story about that this past week!). Even breathing is bad!

Stevia is great, but I usually try to use "Sugar in the Raw" instead of sugar. I doubt it's any better for you, but I think it's probably better than straight up refined white sugar. I've never really liked the taste of any sugar substitutes and I can't stand diet soda. I solved that by just cutting out soda altogether (plus it hurts my tummy!).

Good luck finding Splenda!!

i like real butter, real sugar, and real eggs.   

here, here. 

everyone thought aspartame/NutraSweet was okay when it came out, now come to find out it's nasty stuff.

i like real butter, real sugar, and real eggs.   

Same here. I'm a loyal WW-er as well, but I'd rather use my points on good things than fill myself with artificial everything. People, sugar is not high in calories!! One teaspoon has 15 calories. You can burn that off by walking around the living room a couple of times. I know WW is all about making choices, but sometimes substituting artificial crap for fattening crap isn't such a good choice. More importantly, WW is about changing habits and, to me, that's the key component of the program. If your habit includes four cans of diet soda a day, then perhaps it's time to change that habit and drink water instead.

I like the chocolate skinny cow bars. Reminds me of a Wendy's Frostie 

I used to eat them until I took the time to read what was in them. 

Same here. I'm a loyal WW-er as well, but I'd rather use my points on good things than fill myself with artificial everything. People, sugar is not high in calories!! One teaspoon has 15 calories. You can burn that off by walking around the living room a couple of times. I know WW is all about making choices, but sometimes substituting artificial crap for fattening crap isn't such a good choice. More importantly, WW is about changing habits and, to me, that's the key component of the program. If your habit includes four cans of diet soda a day, then perhaps it's time to change that habit and drink water instead.

I used to eat them until I took the time to read what was in them. 

This is a great point if you're concerned about WW points. I lost 45 pounds on WW, but the best thing that happened was I changed my eating habits, not switched everything to artificial. If I want soda I will drink diet coke, but I won't have more than 1 in a day and I don't use artificial sweetener in anything else (I drink tea black and coffee with a small amount of sugar). It just makes me feel gross. I have friends who won't even chew artificially sweetened gum because it gives them a headache. I guess it worries me a bit if I'm putting something in my body that it's completely unable to process. Like Chary, I started reading ingredients labels and well, that will turn you off of something pretty quick! Trust me, I'm no saint and I like my treats, I just try to keep it in moderation. And the best way for not binging is I just don't bring them into my house. I have to walk somewhere if I want something sweet.

I think the craziest thing is spray butter. When I saw my friend spraying her piece of toast with a butter substitute and telling me how great it is, well, that was just all wrong!

I think the craziest thing is spray butter. When I saw my friend spraying her piece of toast with a butter substitute and telling me how great it is, well, that was just all wrong!

i saw this for the first time when i went to visit my parents in November...  has the world gone mad?!   

Nothing I put in my mouth is good for me!

Nothing I put in my mouth is good for me!

saucy! 

saucy! 

 

almost everything i eat is home made with no artificial subs.  so if i want equal in my coffee and a diet coke a few times a week, well dang it, i'm doing it!

almost everything i eat is home made with no artificial subs.  so if i want equal in my coffee and a diet coke a few times a week, well dang it, i'm doing it!

If it's just a few times a week, no, I don't think that's going to hurt you. I'm talking more about people who have serious dependence on artificial subs.

I don't think anyone here has a serious dependency on artificial substitutes.  My addiction is caffeine not the sweetener.  Some people will not give up their coffee/tea and I just won't give up my Pepsi. Full sugar or diet, neither is good for me so I choose the one with the least calories.  It's as simple as that.  Some people choose to eat less of the real stuff and there is nothing wrong with that either, the more power to you if you can actually eat it in moderation. 

The people who knew me before I started WW know that my eating habits have changed a lot.  I have given up or significantly reduced the intake of a lot of products and started eating healthier thing that I would have never put in my mouth before.  I rarely eat red meat now, maybe a couple times a month but when I do, by golly I eat the juiciest, fattiest steak I can find!  I now eat turkey breast which I thought was pretty gross before, I eat broccoli, carrots, salads, etc that again, I never ever used to eat.

So, I have made lifestyle changes but I'm only human and there are habits I just can't break.  I don't smoke, I don't drink, my only addiction is Pepsi and I'm just not going to give it up!

June

As a mother of young children, I'm interested in what age people are when they developed what they consider to be poor eating habits.

I will admit, I have never had a weight problem, never been on a diet, and can count on two hands the number of times I have ingested artificial sweetners or other fake 'food' stuffs.

But growing up, it was all about moderation in our home.  There was no 'bad' food, only too much of something.

That went for drink, too.

If you didn't want to eat what you were given for dinner, fine.  No argument.  But you weren't getting anything else. 

That being the case, my sister and I both wanted to enroll in cooking classes when were about 12.  And start cooking our own meals!  We both love to cook and bake, even now, and 90% of what we eat is prepared at home.

Food was NEVER a reward.

For those who have struggled w/food, do you think some of it relates to your upbringing, or was it something that developed in adulthood?