Michael R. Eades, M.D.

This is my first post here and I would like to mention that Protein Power by Drs. Eades was the first diet book I read that made sense to me and firmly steered me directly into the low-carb, real foods path to better health. Thank you so much for enlightening me and saving my life. Too bad I didn't find out until I was in my early 50's and totally wrecked physically. This website is #1 for health news in my opinion and I always come here first for rational comments/news. But I digress.

Sugar and Splenda are both poisons to me. I am asthmatic and without shower and tap chlorine filters, I get severe asthma attacks from inhaling the chlorine fumes or having it touch my skin (only took me about 5 years to figure out). Another thing my pulminary specialist knows nothing about. My experiments with Splenda on a daily consumption basis have been negative (muscle pain) although if I have it once every few weeks it doesn't seem to hurt.

But you are right about the sugar producers. Spenda is a big, big threat to them with its growing popularity. Is it any wonder they are attacking it with a passion?

I don't have a problem with sweetners - except that saccharine tastes horrible. I have mostly used aspartame cause it's cheaper. Splenda is better to cook with, but a pain to find in simple form, without the added carbs of the starch fillers, which is a pain-in-the-butt. I also like the DaVinci sugar-free syrups which I use to sweeten and flavor ricotta, yogurt or protein shakes. I have recently been experimenting with stevia extract, which I like - I make up my own dilution to use for coffee and such. I look forward to experimenting with it more in cooking.

But, I don't really use sweetners much. Probably most of my sweet-tooth is covered with lower-carb fruits like melons and berries, which are an occasional breakfast paired up with some cottage cheese.

Stuff like roasted garlic or fried onions tastes *very* sweet to me. I've become a bad "market" for sweetening in general since it takes so little to satisfy my rapidly-dwindling sweet-tooth.

But... the sugar folks have got to get over themselves. Some of us have a commitment to low-carbing, it's not a "fad" for us.

I'm diabetic, if they outlaw *every* sweetener on the planet, I'm still not going to become part of the market for sugar. I'd miss sweeteners if they weren't available, same as I'd miss low-carb tortillas, but I'd get by without them.

99% of my diet is meats, dairy, fruits and veggies... just plain old whole food cooked up with gobs of herbs and spices and such. It would hardly kill me to make that 100%.

Bottom line - while I can live without sweeteners, I cannot live with sugar. It's not "food" for me, but poison.

There's just no *way* that sugar is ever going to make up any part of my diet regardless of the shenanigans of the sugar/sweetener controversy.

Good for you!

Here's what I don't get. Splenda is MADE FROM SUGAR. So the company has to BUY SUGAR in order to make Splenda. Why in the world would the sugar lobby want to stop this? Shouldn't they be promoting it because it means the company that makes Splenda will buy even more sugar? Talk about shooting themselves in the foot!

Although Splenda is made from sugar, it is 600 times as sweet as sugar. This means that every pound of sugar the Splenda people purchase replaces the sweetening power of 600 pounds of sugar. So from Big Sugar's perspective, they gain the sale of one pound while losing sales of 600 pounds. It gets their attention.

I want to know if Splenda is going to kill me or not.

ALL of the negative I have heard sounds like it has a small percentage of truth to it but then I see where it is coming from and it is ALWAYS from someone trying to sell their diet book, the sugar people, or others that are so biased that I wouldn't believe them if they told me the sky was blue!

I used to live in Phoenix and whenever I went to Tempe to visit friends or house sit there was so much chlorine in the water coming from the tap that I couldn't shower there!! It burned my eyes like I had soap in them!!

There were even warnings on the news about how you should not boil water for cooking without opening up windows because of the fumes!!!!!

How much more chlorine does Splenda have in it that people say that IT will kill you but Tempe water is JUST PEACHY to drink by the gallon?????

I HATE walking though the grocery store and hearing someone behind me say "You know...Splenda will kill you...It's worse for you then *Whatever*!!" yet they can never tell me WHERE they got that information from! I have heard everything from it will give you cancer, kill your immune system, give you arthritis, make you depressed...you name it!

I even heard once that Splenda is WORSE for you then SMOKING!!!

I use Splenda every time I would use sugar...But I ONLY use sugar once in a blue moon... A teaspoon in my every-6-month's bowl of cereal...I use a tablespoon or two in my infrequent Cafe' Mocha splurges...I replace the sugar in my Key Lime Pie recipe with Splenda when I make it about 3 times a year...

If I crave "Sweet" I usually go get a Reece?s Peanut Butter Cup or some dried fruit.

So I don't think that I consume enough for me to start panicking or anything but I hear SOOOOO much negative that I just don't know what to think!

Anyone know something that I am missing???

Thanks!