Artificial sweeteners

I really don't like the idea of artificial sweeteners. I drink them in diet coke as I prefer that flavor/taste over regular coke, but I never use it elsewhere. I don't want to put artificial things in my body to replace sugars. It's like taking away one bad thing and adding another. Though, without artificial sweeteners, the door slams closed on a lot of foods.

Another thing I read recently is that one of the reasons people gain weight while drinking diet sodas (why so many studies on diet sodas, anyway?) is not only the caffeine in the stimulate the appetite, but artificial sweeteners trick your body into thinking it's getting sugar. So, your body gets ready for it (probably insulin going up?) until to not get it and then the blood sugars come crashing down and make you need to eat, like NOW. or at least that's what i think I heard. Maybe it was an NPR thing? Anyway, it makes a lot of sense. Why wouldn't part of our response be somewhat Pavlovian? Tastes like sugar, taste buds sends out the signal, "Yo, sugar is on it's way - have at it!" only to leave the cells hungry and now demanding what they were promised! Let me see if I can find that article, which of course I can't but I found this a good read: article about sugars - especially Splenda

Basically, I can't see any good in trying to make something low sugar unless the rest of the food is good for me. Like, I suppose, pudding could be an example as it's a way for me to get calcium, but I can get that through dark greens too. Making cookies or cake with splenda is pointless as what about the flour? That's basically sugar too!

Plus, I just have this gut feeling that if I give into the 'sweets' craving with giving myself, say a sugar free hard candy, that I'm just allowing that craving to keep coming whereas if I just SKIP all such carbs and even 'fake' carbs, I'll get adjusted to low sugar better and faster. Though, I'm not going to test it. BTW, the sugar craving was much less today.

Weight lost: (OK, according to Wii Fit, I've lost 5 lbs, but not according to my bathroom scale, so I'm not committing to a weight yet).

Exercised in 2011: 6 hours 40 minutes
Walked: 21.7 miles