Truvia isn’t so sweet after all!
May 3rd, 2010
Throughout the years food manufacturers have attempted to make low fat, low sugar and low calorie products as substitutes for many of the forbidden foods, snacks and condiments that are on grocery store shelves. The biggest challenge most of them usually face while whipping up these new products, is finding palatable and safe substitutes for all the fat and sugar the original products contain.
In their quest to provide us with the same taste and texture we’re used to (instead of thinking about food quality and nutrition), they often turn to alternative additives that are considered GRAS (Generally Recognized AS Safe) or are FDA approved.
Although it may sound like they have our best interest in mind by including these additives, many times they don’t. Instead, their main concern is developing a profitable product to put into the market place that the public will accept (or in their terms: will sell like hell).
What is most misleading about ingredients or additives that are considered GRAS, is that many are not without negative side effects. Take Truvia for instance, which is one of the newest brands of “natural” zero-calorie sugar substitutes available today.
Without getting into the specifics of how it is manufactured (and unnatural), it is basically a combination of two primary ingredients: Rebiana, which is a processed form of Stevia, and Erythritol, which is a sugar alcohol. In addition to those two ingredients, it also contains what is stated as “natural flavors” on the nutrition label. (Only God knows what those are!)
Curious to see how my body would react to Truvia, before doing any research on it, I recently decided to experiment with it for myself. The first day I used (3) packets at different times of the day and I was ok. The second day when I had a few more packets, however, I started to notice my body feeling really blah.
And by blah, I mean my stomach was extremely distended and sore and I felt bloated, which are the same exact side effects I get whenever I consume Splenda or any of the other artificial sweeteners. My assumption, in the case of Truvia, is that this is the Erythritol at work because it is known to create digestive issues.
After feeling lousy that second day, I decided to search the Internet to see what other people had experienced while using Truvia. Not surprisingly, a lot of others had the exact same issues that I had-plus many others that were even worse.
Some of the side effects others experienced include:
- Bad breath
- Tiredness
- Headaches
- Dizziness
- Back, neck and shoulder pain
- Hives
- Itching
- Gas
- Diarrhea
- An increase in the desire for refined carbohydrates (sugar)
So much for Truvia’s natural claim!
Thanks to this experience and further research, I have once again realized that substituting alternatives for many of the things we shouldn’t be putting in our body in the first place isn’t the smartest practice.
Instead, it is simply best to limit the amount of products we consume that are full of sugar, fat, salt and all the other ingredients our body does not tolerate well. This is not only the best choice for weight loss reasons, but also for general and overall health reasons.
Categories: Get Back on Track, Weight Loss
