Reading Time: 5 minutes
There’s a lot of conflicting information these days on what’s good or bad for us. The federal recommendations keep changing, health gurus from one side say one thing, others say the opposite. Health documentaries, newspaper and research headlines, top-searched websites on Google… Many will give you conflicting information!
Health and nutrition are still emerging fields in the scientific literature and components of these fields are not exact science. Individual differences do exist, which makes the data even harder to process and analyze.
The purpose of this article is to try to dispel any myths that are still paramount and offer a science-based resolution (with a relatively high degree of certainty) with logic and reason to this complex question.
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Reading Time: 6 minutes
Quick Background
*As a disclaimer, artificial sweeteners and their impact on the human body are not completely understood. They’ve been around for a few decades, but their long-term impacts are still being evaluated. This article is using the currently available evidence as its basis.
Artificial sweeteners are those that are made synthetically (by humans) and are not found in nature. Common artificial sweeteners are sucralose (i.e. Splenda), aspartame (i.e. Equal), or saccharin (i.e. Sweet ‘N Low).
Natural sweeteners are those found in their natural form and then processed by humans to isolate and concentrate their sweetness. Common examples are stevia leaf extract or monk fruit.
Are They Safe?
We’ve all heard the expression “the dose makes the poison”. This can be applied to just about anything. If you drink too much water, breathe in too much oxygen, eat too much broccoli, or exercise too much… It can literally be fatal!
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Reading Time: 3 minutes
Feeling Deprived?
One of the first concerns about transitioning to a healthy lifestyle and diet is that you won’t be able to eat your favorite foods ever again… This claim is partly true (if you were eating a particular diet), but fortunately there is a solution – Which I’ll get to shortly!
The primary culprit in an unhealthy diet are processed foods, which are essentially just regular foods that have been engineered to taste a certain way, have a long shelf life, and be cost-effective to produce.
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