Patty, I can relate!

We had no soda at home until I was ca.12 then my mother allowed one bottle each weekend (just 700 cc), as a treat shared between two. It was only when she joined WeightWatchers that we started getting artificial sweeteners. They were so awful-tasting that I just gave up sugar in tea and coffee.

Around that time my best friend kept telling me I was fat (not true) so I used meal replacements full of artificial sweeteners to lose 7lbs in a week, and gained 2x back in a month each time. Later at drama college, fad-dieting central, a straight diet tonic became my 'usual'. I congratulated myself on choosing such a 'healthy' option! We got big bottles of Tab and slimline tonic at home and I wondered why I just kept getting fatter.

I've tried fad after fad and believed for years that low-fat and 'sugar-free' meant healthy.

A light dawned about 12 years ago; I made a resolution to STOP DIETING. Healthier eating, no more 'diet' foods - and I stopped getting fatter!

I had a heavy smoker colleague who was in hospital for 3 days. She didn't miss the smoking but had her husband smuggle in a 6pack of Diet Coke every day. My lifelong obese brother always has a big supply in his car. A friend's daughters set up a lemonade stand, selling foul-tasting (to me) Aspartame-laden shop-bought nastiness. When I gave them some of my lemonade, made with lemons (what?!), sugar and water, they spat it out.

My daughter has friends over who seem perplexed that we have no soda in the house, diet or otherwise. I relent sometimes, for Christmas and birthdays, but never the diet versions.

Russ, I dabbled with the GI approach a few years ago and we (the group) were told to avoid all fizzy drinks including diet drinks because of their effects, and because having fake sweetening will not help re-educate the sweet-junky. One of our group got severely told off for recommending a drink she thought was 'just mineral water and a bit of vanilla - no sugar and it's not sweet at all', which turned out to be diet cream soda! Not sweet??

I'm surprised to hear that the Glycemic Index recommends diet drinks; I don't have a list to hand.

While I agree that the G Index is not the whole story, it does act as a fairly good starting point for those completely in the dark about blood sugar spikes, insulin resistance, etc. Some obese seriel dieters I talk to are incredulous when I tell them that their 'healthy, eat-all-you-like diet soup', made of pureed cooked root vegetables, is more fattening than a portion of, say, broccoli with cream and cheese on top.  Perhaps you would disagree if the calorific value of the latter is higher?

However, I will read the study you recommend. Thanks for the info.

LadyPam,

I just wanted to say that after my son was born (before I found Mercola.com) I ate those "replacement meals" and drank those shakes... I turned into a raging lunatic. I am hypoglycemic and didn't realize the amount of "sugar" in those things. I thought I was doing my body good. I shutter to think that I thought that. When I switched to healthy eating, lean proteins and veggies/fruits... foods as they are found in nature (or as close to it) not only did I lose weight, but my attitude improved 10-fold, and so has my health! (My husband and baby thank me).

I am one of those who could never stand diet drinks, and if I eat something with aspartame I have a severe reaction, but I did fall into the sucralose hype... then I found mercola and my attitudes have changed for the better. I strive to teach those close to me what I have learned, but find many of my friends balk at my telling them how bad artificial sweetners are. Everyone wants to know how I lost the weight until I tell them how...by changing my eating habits and exercising. I get tired of being scoffed at for feeding my child healthy choices instead of typical snacks and fruit juices... but maybe someday I will be looked at as a role model, instead, when these same people decide they, too, need a change for their health. Until that day, I just keep striving to educate myself and eat healthy and offer my son healthy choices.

Foxtroter, when I complete my training and qualify as a nutritionist, I can assure you that I will never, ever, ever, ever, advise anyone that these artificial sweeteners are in any way ok. On my own, I may just be a drop in the ocean of nutritional (mis-)advisers, such as NHS-employed dieticians, but we will grow. Oh yes, we will grow!

I'm not decided yet about stevia though my thesis is generally: just get out of the habit of consuming sweet stuff. This would be supported by the article's mentioned theory that breaking the connection between a sweet taste and high calorific food could be compromising the body's ability regulate intake.

I work in a facility that does bariatric surgeries for weight reduction, and artificial sweeteners are a major component of the pre- and post surgical diets. It must be effective to use them in these cases because after surgery, morbidly obese patients melt away their excess weight so quickly it's like I can watch it disappear right before my eyes.

Here I am, replying to my own post....

Yes, I was banned owing to a misunderstanding, and now I'm back!

Russ, perhaps you thought I was trying to press your buttons since we have gone a few rounds on stevia and the glycemic index in the past. As I said originally, no deja vu. I am seriously looking for the dirt on xylitol. I asked the right search question - "dangers of xylitol" - and turned up no results. I tried the link on this site and brought up a 404. You are the resident authority on sweetners so you must have some evidence of harm. I wish you would share what you know because I have two very good friends who use it and have asked me whether it's safe...and I have no answer. Please help!

Foxtroter, I'm pretty certain that Dr Mercola also rates HFCS as the worst thing in the Western diet.

I would like to know where in the list of evil substances MSG stands?