All I wanted to do was re-live the glory days of my youth. Those days when I still had perky breasts. Those days when I could gnaw on 4,000 calories without suffering from stomach-enlargement and/or involuntary thundering of my thighs.
One of my earliest greedy memories was opening up some Swiss Miss and pouring the entire packet of dry chocolate powder mix down my throat.
Yup. It was fun.
I bought Swiss Miss for my kids a few weeks ago. Just wanted to share the instant hot cocoa nostalgia with my gremlin children. My 8-year-old got a headache about an hour after drinking his. I didn’t think anything of it.
He drank some Swiss Miss again a few days a later. And again, he got a headache.
That’s when the boy asked me to NOT give him Swiss Miss anymore. He was smart enough to make a connection between the Swiss Miss and his headaches. So I checked the ingredients label. And wouldn’t ya know it — Swiss Miss contains sucralose.
I was shamefully foolish to assume that a product favorite from my youth should be exempt from label-checking. Swiss Miss is NOT the same stuff I grew up on. It’s now chemically laden and harmful to our bodies. My kid stopped getting headaches once he stopped drinking Swiss Miss.
What is sucralose doing to the brain that it causes headaches? If you do a quick Google search for “sucralose toxicity”, you’ll see that headaches are just the tip of the iceburg.
Sucralose is toxic. Which means, so is Swiss Miss.
If you eat or drink artificial sweeteners and think that it’s NOT causing you harm because you feel fine and don’t have any symptoms, you really need to re-think that situation. What’s really going on inside your body?
“Out of sight, out of mind” isn’t gonna cut it. It’s gonna catch up to you.
I know some of you love your diet sodas and sugar free foods that are infested with artificial sweeteners like sucralose and aspartame, but you really gotta stop eating that shit. It’s just not good for you.
I think we have some of this in the kitchen, and I know no one checked the label before buying it. It’ll probably get thrown out soon though because not long after buying it and discovering it tastes like vaguely chocolate chalk no matter how you prepare it, I discovered how insanely easy it is to make hot cocoa with milk, unsweetened cocoa powder, and a little sugar. Haven’t touched the Swiss Miss since!
Deb recently posted..Tuesday Day 424 Food Diary
Amen sister:) I’ve ingested artificial sweeteners for 30 years now. Pink packets, then blue, then yellow. Did you know that Monsanto owns all 3 of the afore mentioned? I’ve finally been converted. Do I hear an amen? The only sweetener I use now is Stevia. I have even given up sugar from honey, sugar from beets, and cane sugar for 95 percent of the time. I especially got rid of all the high fructose corn syrup foods in the house. The benefit is my triglyceride number was 52 in October.
Marc recently posted..Wintertime workouts with the family
Hubs was just telling me that Splenda also kills your good gut bacteria. I had NO idea and have a box in the kitchen. It’s going in the trash.
Barbara recently posted..Tuesdays With Princess Sparkle – A Special Guest Post From Mr. Poozle
WOW! Didn’t know about the whole gut bacteria thing. There’s such a rise in the number of people who’s guts are jacked.
Yum Yucky recently posted..Greedy Recipe! Flat Abs Scramble
This is sooo true!
People just DO NOT know what they are putting in their bodies. Like you say ‘out of sight’, out of mind’ just sin’t going to cut it. Artificial sweeteners do all sorts of things to our bodies that we aren’t aware of and everyone need to wise up asap.
One of my brothers is a huge fitness freak, yet even he continues to tuck into pepsi max as a substitute for regular soft drinks and others. We should never treat anything with artificial sweeteners as a substitute for the foods and drinks we enjoy, period!
Toby Edge recently posted..How To Prevent Weight Gain Over Christmas
There’s a lot of conflicting data when it comes to these kinds of products. When in doubt, I choose to avoid artificial sweeteners. I was a Diet Coke junkie for years. No longer. I don’t know who to believe, but for instincts — they speak with great clarity.
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Yep, i cut this stuff out of my diet, and i don’t buy it for the kids. In my Sweetie, it caused full blown panic attacks. Trust me, it doesn’t make it past the door of this house if i can possibly help it.
Make your own hot cocoa. The sugar isn’t good for you, really, either, but it’s better than this stuff.
I’m looking forward to my own hot cocoa creations. And darn right, I’m gonna throw some REAL sugar in it.
Yum Yucky recently posted..Yonanas Frozen Dessert Ice Cream Maker (oh yeah!)
Totally agree – I’ve never liked artificial sweeteners. Rather give me a whole boatload of real sugar then (actually that sounds pretty darn good…).
Marisa!!!! so glad you stopped by. Enjoy that boatload of shu-gahhh, girl!
Yum Yucky recently posted..(Pic) Ye Ole’ Greedy Christmas Cookies Whoredom
You are my hero, miss lady. I choose real 15-calories-per-teaspoon sugar over any of the artificial sugar ANY DAY. I try and keep all my food as close to “natural” as it can get and, short of knawing on the sugar cane itself, I’ll take it. Does it mean I might not be able to nosh on as many cookies or goodies? Yes, but that gross splenda stuff makes the crap I make stringy and metallic tasting.
YUCK. EAT REAL (ALBEIT LESS) SUGAR.
Jane recently posted..Trying CrossFit and Quitting
It’s EVERYWHERE! You can’t buy anything these days without some chemical crap added to it. I’ll stick with farm-raised meats, eggs, and produce, thank you very much!
I hate all of those artificial sugars and additives. I feel SO MUCH better cutting out processed foods. I make a conscious choice when I buy “processed” foods to read ingredients and choose things that don’t have sugar added, or fake sugar, and try to buy things with less than 4 ingredients. That stuff is so nasty. It’s why we’re getting cancer at such an alarming rate. Our bodies aren’t meant to eat that crap!
Lisa recently posted..Party Animal
Once in a while I want fresh breath before I go chattin it up with people. Do you know how hard it is to find gum or mints that AREN’T sugar free?!
You downed packets of dry hot choco? Ewwwwwww Reminds me of the pasta noodles I used to eat raw. Nothing like sucking on a hard pasta noodle until it soggifes in the mouth. Side note – good thing your son is so smart. Just like his mama
KymberlyFunFit recently posted..TheraFit Shoes Were Made for Walking: Product Review
Well how about that! I used to suck on pastas noodles, too. The best part was that pseudo-soggified state when the noodle was still kinda hard, yet bendy and chewy.
A couple of years ago we gave our kids some sugar-free popsicles, and my daughter got horrible stomach cramps. Lesson learned. If they get a treat, they get one that’s a bit closer to nature. Luckily her favorite sweets are grapes and oranges, while my son likes apples and bananas.
I figure a treat is a treat, and no sweetner means I just watch my portions. Same with hot chocolate and that kinda stuff. Luckily for me I don’t have a big sweet tooth….salty crunchy however is divine.
I’m a sucker for hot cocoa made from scratch with milk and a pinch of cinnamon and cayenne in it. I haven’t found an instant I like that doesn’t have sweetener gunk in it…
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I hear ya! I was addicted to the Diet Swiss Miss a few years ago (25 cals!) and had it for my sweet tooth or to mix into greek yogurt (really nice) but gave it up because of the links between nasty ingredients and all kinds of health woes. But then I missed having something sweet that wouldn’t blow my deficit while trying to lose weight. So I bought some again and felt dirty every time I used it. So I gave it up again. I wish that there was a non-chemical way to create a 25 calorie cup of cocoa though. I’ve tried, and the best I can do is around 60-80 using Almond Milk, Cocoa Powder and Stevia. Not the same though. Monsanto is an evil genius. Scary.
i never liked swiss miss that much, or any of those…always preferred homemade. but, i do still eat splenda, its my one bad thing i eat reguarly. i know it’s bad for me, but sugar has ALWAYS made me feel gross, even before i cut it out, and stevia tastes bitter, and sometimes honey or maple syrup just isn’t strong enough so i go to splenda. i dont doubt it’s bad for me, but at least it doesn’t make me feel sick the way sugar does. for hot cocoa lovers: ghiardelli makes unsweetened cooking cocoa powder that tastes really good, esp if you use coconut milk plus your fav sweetener, to make some homemade cocoa with it on the stove. yum.
merri recently posted..There’s Some New Tea in Town
Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us. I guess I sometimes ignore the labels of my childhood comfort foods too! No more!
Stevia ONLY for GiGi !!!!! Stevia only for EVERYONE! lol!
Gigi Eats Celebrities recently posted..Naked or Dressed; That is the Salad Question!
I also get really terrible headaches when I eat anything with sucralose that endless amounts of pain reliever won’t touch. I don’t have the same reaction to all sweeteners, but anything with sucralose I can feel for a full day.
Lyn @ Pretty Frugal recently posted..Pretty vs. Frugal: The Cost of My Morning Beauty Routine
Glad I stumbled across your blog! I have to say, SHOCKING. I was also a swissmiss fan growing up
what a bummer! Have you checked out any organic hot cocoa options?
Amanda recently posted..Get Motivated to Workout | 5 Ways to Instantly Redefine Yourself & Find Your Voice
We officially ditched the Splenda as a family this month and yesterday I threw out two boxes of this mix that my mom still had at her house. She was all for it!
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Splenda turns to chlorine gas molecules as it breaks down, simply check the wiki, only few people had clarified this well. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splenda clearly states:
Sucralose is made by replacing three select hydrogen-oxygen groups on sucrose (table sugar) molecules with three chlorine atoms
Chlorine is strong enough to rust gold, so its strong enough to rust (oxidize) your intestines too no doubt. Like idiots we all have fallen for ‘diet’ and ‘zero calorie’ crap for long enough to let FDA cronies to make a mint on the grease monsanto’s paying, while were sick and in pain.
Tip: if you would tell your kid NOT to drink the pool water, dont put splenda or equal in their food.
Avoid aspartame and saccarine too, aspartame is formaldehyde / wood glue / embalming fluid w/e.
These are just clever ways to rob us while selling us dirt cheap garbage that saves product manufacturers money and makes their product seem hyped.
Thanks for your comment, DJ. And about those FDA cronies, you’re spot on!