As savvy as I am avoiding the diet sweeteners, I got caught, once again. If I fall for the tricks, I assume that many of you are falling for them, too – unknowingly.
Stick with me – I have a story to tell.
I live on a wildlife preserve, and we are always dealing with mice foraging off the food droppings. We are totally organic on the preserve, so we do not use any chemicals on the property – for anything. We don’t even use fertilizer for our garden; we fertilize with compost.
So, I am always trying alternative, natural ways to rid the mice, and one way I have found that works really well is putting a dish of soda pop out at night. The rodents cannot digest the carbonation, and they die from a bloated stomach.
It makes you wonder what it does to your human stomach – but I digress.
When I was at our local tractor supply store buying duck and chicken feed, I grabbed a bottle of cream soda for the mice. Yum, old-fashioned cream soda.
When I got home, I decided to have a little nip of the soft drink because I don’t drink soda often, and it was somewhat of a treat.
Or so I thought.
Read The Back Labels
Because I was buying the soda for the mice, I merely read the front label, and quickly put it in my basket. After I took one sip, I knew something was wrong – it didn’t taste as good as the packaging made it look.
There was nothing on the front label to inform me that it had 2 chemical sweeteners in it – sucralose and ace-k.
I gave the soda to the mice anyway because I didn’t have any more soda to use, but I doubt they’ll drink it because mice and insects will not voluntarily eat or drink diet sweeteners. The soda did have high fructose corn syrup in it, so maybe I got lucky and got some takers.
But, when I checked the fluid levels the next morning, none were down.
Typically, when I put the soda pop out at night, it is gone the next day, and our ranch dogs are proudly trotting around with a fat mouse hanging from their jaws.
So far, nada.
Hidden Sweeteners
The point of my story serves as a reminder that we all need to take the time to read both the front and back labels of everything that we buy at the store.
It seems that the fancier the packaging, the trickier this gets. Who’d ever guess this bottle of soda had 2 diet sweeteners in it?
Even though you do your best to avoid the diet sweeteners, think about this:
- are you gaining weight and can’t figure out why?
- do you get a headache for no reason?
- is your tummy bloated sometimes?
- do you chew gum?
You might be exposed to a hidden sweetener that was not labelled sugar-free.
Especially if you are chewing gum, which is notorious to have several diet sugars in them.
Just about all of them.
Isn’t this a sad state we are in?
As a reminder to myself – read the back labels.
Darn mice.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only, and is educational in nature. The FDA may not have evaluated some of the statements. This article is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Please discuss with your own, qualified health care provider before adding supplements or making any changes to your dietary program.
Before taking vitamins, consult your doctor; pre-existing medical conditions or medications you are taking can affect how your body responds to multivitamins.
