New Mission

This was an absolutely gorgeous Spring day. We picked daffodils for Mom, and drove past our beautiful bright blue bay. Mother seems fine - she loved the flowers, and we had what she likes to call "a good visit". She learned all about the latest happenings. She enjoyed hearing about L, C & D camping in Florida - we told her about the raccoons and the bears, the canoeing and the geo-caching, but we left out the story about the tics!

After our good visit, we drove over to Lake Dubonnet, and located a possible site for another Shore to Shore cache. The trail really meanders around through there - and it's a beautiful area, although spring is not it's prettiest season - lots and lots of dry leaves.

I have a new mission in life - I'm going to try to avoid artificial sweeteners because I believe they make me feel ill. Over the past 10 years I've consumed just about every type of sugar substitute that there is, and I certainly can't notice any positive results. I've been reading about them on the internet, and some of the case histories are downright scary. Some people are seriously affected by the chemicals in the sweeteners. After my aspirin/internal bleeding episode, I believe I probably am "some people"!

There's a long list of physical problems associated with most of the fake sugar - even Splenda, which I had thought was going to be the healthy choice. Check out the link above, and scroll down to "side effects". Maltitol is my biggest bugaboo - my system can't tolerate it - and it's in so many things I've been eating - the diabetes food bars, sugar free cookies, fake chocolate, even hard candies and sugar free gum. I found this paragraph which graphically explains the biggest problem:

All authorities recommend using caution and definitely moderation is key. Because they are not completely absorbed in the bowel, they have a nasty reputation of holding onto water, and promoting diarrhea, gas and bloating. This is politely termed the "laxative effect". Sorbitol and mannitol are the worst offenders, maltitol and lactitol less so. The label should indicate the serving size. This is the amount considered safe to eat before the laxative effect takes over. So beware that overeating these foods can have serious effects. Especially for children, who of course will experience the effect from an even smaller amount.

Those substitutes mentioned in that paragraph are all sugar alcohols, and I'm learning that we really don't want to be putting these substances in our bodies. Reading labels is going to be my new hobby. Even Diet Pepsi is on it's way out - I think I'll start drinking more iced tea and sparkling water. Water si, chemicals no.