Why I gave up Diet Coke and sugar free gelatin

I eat healthy food - with one exception.  I love Diet Coke.  Once I gave it up for six years, only to fall back into my bad habit during the first few months of going low carb.  My doctor, who was supervising my journey into a ketogenic diet to control the effects of bi-polar disorder, pointed out that I couldn't expect myself to be totally without sin in my diet; if Diet Coke helped me to stay the course, then drink a few.

A few?  I know not the meaning of that phrase.  First it was one each market day while I closed out the register.  That meant four a week in the summer, three a week in the winter.  Skip to current consumption, four years later.  I was up to a case (24, not 12) most weeks.  If I was being good, maybe I could get an extra couple of days out of the case.

My friends chided me about it.  They pointed out that it was "poison."  My reaction was to think they needed to butt out - and I would pop open another can.

The other day I saw a list of signs of aspartame poisoning.  I had at least one symptom in EVERY category on that list. Click this link for a list of symptoms of aspartame poisoning.  The worst of it was my body pain.  I blamed it on arthritis, although in a family full of arthritis, I had seemed to be the one who was spared until recently.  I began taking Celebrex and got some relief, also from the bursitis in my hips.  But then I found that I was having to add Tylenol For Arthritis to the mix once a day, then twice a day, and finally getting up in the night because the pain was so severe, to take a third dose, the max allowed in a 24-hour period.

After reading the list of aspartame poisoning symptoms, I poured the remains of a Coke down the drain.  I could no longer deny it - I was poisoning my body, and it's the only one I've got!  The few that were left in the fridge went into an out-of-reach space in a cupboard.  I need them there.  That seems to work better for me than completely purging them from the house.  Maybe later, but not yet.

So how am I feeling?  The pain got better almost immediately.  But it was still there, and I always hobbled for a few steps when getting out of bed, or after a few minutes in my computer chair.  This morning, I got out of bed and started walking gingerly towards the bathroom, and then realized "no hobbling necessary."  Wow!

Okay, so I am confounding this by also beginning yin yoga (See more about yin yoga here.) But there is no way that two days of yin yoga could be responsible for this new freedom of movement.  In fact, I was able to get considerably deeper into my poses this morning and did not have to come out of them due to pain.

I am thankful for friends who nagged me.  They cared more about me than I was caring about myself.  Thanks to all who scolded.  It was a measure of love, not judgment.  :)

Update to my blog - a new mistake about to happen

I am clarifying the first paragraph only on my previous blog, based on information of which I just became aware when perusing the net for information on fat intake and health.  I spoke of Ancel Keys's chicanery in presenting data that led many to believe that eating saturated fat would lead to heart disease. First, here is the link to the Raw Foods SOS blog (written by Denise Minger) that dealt with Keys, if you care to plow through a lot of data. The truth about Ancel Keys.  I swallowed the current conventional wisdom that Ancel Keys was mistaken in saying there was a correlation between fat consumption and heart disease.  HOWEVER . . .   If you take the time to read through this well-written blog, you will see that in fact there was a correlation between the two.  But remember that correlation is not causation.  And the blogger goes on to rip apart the methodology, including the data collection, concluding that we do not have to become vegans to be healthy, and in fact should not look to such a diet to improve health.    What the author showed when combing through this data is that it focused only certain types of heart disease in looking for correlation.  When mortality rates were used (which to my mind is a pretty good way to measure overall health), in fact, those who ate more fat could expect to live LONGER.  Again, remember that correlation is not causation.  The author points out that countries whose population eat a lot of fat in general are more wealthy -- which means better healthcare, better food in general -- and so confounds any conclusions on the matter. Enough said.  My apologies for not doing the diligence that the the writer of Raw Foods SOS did.  I appreciate her work.  Check out this blog!