Deb's Enterolab Results are in

[Martha]

Lesley, can you eat oatmeal, or did you use something else for the bulk of your granola?

[Lesley]

I can eat oatmeal. One of the few things I can eat. I tested the other seeds I put in before making the granola.
And the prime motivator was to have something nourishing I can eat if the power goes out, or another crisis happens preventing me from cooking something. I eat a small amount, and wouldn't try to eat enough for a meal, but so far so good.

Martha, I keep meaning to ask you, and will do so while I remember, if you don't mind, my memory not being good enough to remember to do it when I am not answering you on another subject.

How is Abigail? How are they managing?

[DebE13]

I'll have to give it a try.

[mzh]

Tex, do you have a reference regarding the problems with artificial sweeteners? My husband uses quite a bit of sucralose daily. I keep telling him to stop using it so much but he won't. He wants a study proving that it's bad for us but I can't find anything; everything I've found is that sucralose is safe. Call me skeptical!

[tex]

As far as I'm aware, sucralose is one of the safer artificial sweeteners available, (at least it's claimed to be), but I've never really researched the safety of that particular product, since I don't use artificial sweeteners, and it's too new to accumulate many adverse reaction case files, at this point. The worst ones for MC patients are aspertame, and the sugar alcohols. Various members of this board have reported tracking their D to artificial sweeteners, or changes in types of artificial sweeteners used in products that they had been using without problems for years. I think this falls into the category of one of those general knowledge things about colitis and diarrhea. Sorbitol causes me to have D, for example, even in fruits that naturally contain high amounts of it, such as grapes.

Sorbitol and mannitol, artificial sweeteners found in chewing gum and other sugar-free products, can cause diarrhea in some otherwise healthy people.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/diarrh ... ION=causes

Replace possible triggers to colitis with healthy alternatives. Things such as dairy products, chocolate, beans, spicy foods, artificial sweeteners, fats and alcohol can worsen colitis symptoms. Instead, drink green tea, sweeten foods with natural honey and eat lots of fruits and vegetables.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2099306_treat-c ... icine.html

Colitis patients should avoid caffeine, alcohol, carbonated beverages and artificial sweeteners. Colitis sufferers intolerant to lactose should avoid milk and dairy products.

http://www.natural-homeremedies.org/blo ... itis-diet/

And then there is the research that shows that the concept of using artificial sweeteners is counterproductive:

Davidson and Swithers, members of the Ingestive Behavior Research Center at Purdue, suggest that being able to automatically match caloric intake with caloric need depends on the body's ability to learn that the taste and feel of food by the mouth suggests the appropriate caloric intake. Much as Pavlov's dogs learned that the sound of a bell signaled food, people learn that both sweet tastes and dense, viscous foods signal high calories. This learning process begins very early in life and perhaps without conscious awareness, according to the researchers.

"The body's natural ability to regulate food intake and body weight may be weakened when this natural relationship is impaired by artificial sweeteners," said Davidson, an expert in behavioral neuroscience. "Without thinking about it, the body learns that it can use food characteristics such as sweetness and viscosity to gauge its caloric intake. The body may use this information to determine how much food is required to meet its caloric needs."

Over the past 25 years, there has been a dramatic increase in the consumption of artificially sweetened foods and low viscosity, high-calorie beverages, said Swithers, a developmental psychobiologist.

"Incidence of overweight and obesity has also increased markedly during this period," she said. "Our hypothesis is that experience with these foods interferes with the natural ability of the body to use sweet taste and viscosity to gauge caloric content of foods and beverages. When you substitute artificial sweetener for real sugar, however, the body learns it can no longer use its sense of taste to gauge calories. So, the body may be fooled into thinking a product sweetened with sugar has no calories and, therefore, people overeat."

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/06/040630081825.htm

Another study led by Purdue University researchers gave an opposing result for a different artificial sugar. Saccharin, a sweetener found in Sweet N’ Low and Sugar Twin, was used in this test. Rats fed yogurt sweetened with saccharin ate more total calories and put on more weight than rats in a control group. The scientists thought that it was all in the rat’s little minds. Apparently, the brain looks for calories when something sweet is consumed, and when it doesn’t get them, the scientists concluded, the brain sends signals that slow down metabolism. Whether or not the same occurs in humans was not studied, but they say their findings are, “…consistent with recent prospective human clinical studies that have documented increased risk for obesity and metabolic syndrome in individuals consuming beverages sweetened with high-intensity sweeteners."

http://caloriecount.about.com/do-artifi ... te-b487138

Here's an article about a book that supposedly discusses the potential dangers of Splenda, if you're interested:

http://www.splendaexposed.com/

My personal opinion is that the human digestive system was designed and developed to process whole foods, and not synthetic chemicals, or natural or unnatural food derivatives, and we always remain healthier on a diet of whole foods. IOW, just because something might not kill us is not a sign that it's particularly good for us, either. In my experience, that old saying that "what doesn't kill us makes us stronger", is pretty much hogwash. I've gone through more than a few life-threatening events in my life, that didn't kill me, but they damn sure didn't make me stronger, either - most of them made me weaker.

Tex