I did a stupid, stupid thing.  Partly from ignorance and partly from idiocy. The idiocy part was ignoring what I knew better. Changing my ‘standards’. Not educating myself and staying ignorant of the facts.

I KNOW that sweeteners are a bad thing. I know aspartame gives me migraines just to be near the stuff. I have read up on sweeteners, man made chemicals, or God made substance adjusted by man made chemicals, and know chemicals going in can not be ‘good’. I know sugar is NOT a bad thing, it is natural. It is the amount of sugar eaten that can become a problem.  Yet, when I wanted to lose weight and have my sweet and eat it too, I ignored what I KNOW. Idiot. I could not eat aspartame, but I found that sucralose (Splenda) did not give me a headache, so ta da, it must be safe.

I also have been using Stevia, which actually does seem safe, but stevia is not in packaged foods. But Sucralose and Aspartame are. I began to search out Sucralose instead of aspartame.  Propel 0, became my addiction.  I had the powder packets, and found that sprinkled over crushed ice was a neat sour snow cone. I was doing about 3-4 packet a day, getting my water that way too!

Friday I started having some stomach trouble, pretty intense, in more that one way. I thought maybe it was something I ate. We had tried a new place. I didn’t feel sick, just pain and  OTHER. Then it went away. Saturday, just a bit of pain and OTHER, so maybe it was something I ate. I did not have any Propel, I kind of wondered if it could be getting to be too much.  Sunday I found some Blue Bunny fat free sugar free (Splenda infused) ice cream.  Had that at lunch, and I think a Propel, too. About 2 PM it hit me, HARD!!!! Lots of pain and OTHER.  I fell asleep on the couch with grandkids all around, hoping I did not have a bug to pass on. Lee had said he had something weird earlier in the week, so maybe it was something buggy.  When I woke up I began to think about my not ‘feeling’ sick, but just hurting, and how IF anything hit my stomach immediately came out, this did not seem like sickness, but something ‘wrong’. Like when I eat wheat. The idea hit about Sucralose. Thanks God. 

I typed in Sucralose on the trusty lap top,  and then the pop up ‘sucralose danger’ as I lay in fetal position on the couch,  guess what I got… http://splendasickness.blogspot.com/2006/03/diarrhea.html, http://www.medicinenet.com/artificial_sweeteners/page9.htm, http://rense.com/general48/splenda.htm, http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/nutrition/healthy-eating/top-number-most-dangerous-artificial-sweeteners.html.  There are also articles by Splenda that state the FDA has approved it so it must be ok.

So, I was ignorant of these sucralose facts, it being mixed with chlorine. It not being absorbed, because of the chemical change, thus it actually having sugar calories, it is the chlorination that ‘tricks’ the body to not absorb the calories.  I was an idiot to not educate myself.

It has been just two full days without sucralose and I am much better. I get a bit of a twinge in my stomach when I eat, but no more mad dashes to the bathroom. My guts hurt like I have been doing a billion sit ups. Wish I did.