Daily Baby Steps #2

Daily Baby Steps
This is the beginning of a series of baby steps that everyone can do to move toward better health for yourself and your family. Some of these will be easy, no brainers!  Most are simply exchanging one thing for another or eliminating something from your now healthy diet. I will include information that I think pertains to the “Why” we should do something and I will include the swap details. Usually when you remove an item, it can be replaced with a healthy alternative.
I am not perfect. I hope these things help you and encourage you, but you may have a different opinion or just not feel good eating something. Please, trust your own body. I welcome your comments and suggestions!

Baby Step #2 is removing Aspartame from your food.

Aspartame, aka NutraSweet, is an artificial sweetener that is WIDELY used. You will probably find it challenging to buy food for your family that doesn't contain it. Remember, you can do anything that you decide you need to do! Don't give up! Try looking at various brands to see if they list aspartame as an ingredient. You will be surprised at the differences in the food labels for the same item from different manufacturers! You may end up needing to look in the natural/organic areas of your grocery store.

Why? There are many reasons why a person trying to live a healthy life would avoid aspartame. The first one is that it is a chemical created in a lab to provide us with a sugar-substitute that is actually cheaper than sugar. Anything created by combining chemicals should not be considered food, in my opinion.
If you research aspartame, you will find a lot of different sites railing against it's use and against the company that produces it, Monsanto. If you want to research, please do. Be prepared to see many conflicting stories and an out and out food war.. If you didn't know about food wars before, you will see it for yourself.

And that brings me to my second reason why a healthy family shouldn't be eating aspartame: the mere fact that it's so highly debated and yet, our government still says it perfectly healthy!! Amazingly enough, aspartame is in everything. If you read labels, you will see what I am talking about. This is big business at it's best.

So what will be in our food instead of aspartame? Honestly, for your second baby step, just eliminate the aspartame. I realize that this may mean you get actual sugar or high fructose corn syrup. But, for some people, one thing at a time is enough! You can just focus on the aspartame.
If you are already at the point that you don't eat sugar or high fructose corn syrup, or sucralose, there are other sweeteners that don't raise your blood sugar, are low or no calorie, and are perfectly healthy. Stevia and Xylitol are the two that we use. Other healthy sweeteners include: organic maple syrup, raw coconut syrup, raw honey, brown rice syrup, and fruit juices. I may be missing some, but this is a general list.

Believe it or not, almost all gum has aspartame! But, there are some that don't. We have resorted to a xylitol gum that we get at the health store.

Don't get overwhelmed! One thing at a time! Just start removing the aspartame!