Abundance of low-carb grocery items leads to excessive consumption of artificial chemical sweeteners like sucralose

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This article offers a worthwhile overview of both what's happening to the low-carb food industry and the fundamentals of the Atkins diet in case you're new to the low-carbohydrate diet scene. What's interesting here is to track the increase in the number of low-carb grocery items introduced last year: 633 compared with 339 in 2002 and only 47 in 1999. It seems like all the food manufacturers are retooling for the low-carb market, and for good reason: shoppers are buying it up!

But manufactured low-carb foods aren't necessarily a panacea, and some contain ingredients with a questionable safety record. The heavy reliance on sucralose by low-carb dieters causes me concern, since sucralose has never undergone long-term safety testing in humans. Some low-carb dieters seem to live off this artificial chemical sweetener, and you'll find it in virtually ever sweet tasting low-carb food on the grocery store shelves.

A much better sweetener choice would be stevia, an all-natural sweetener made from an extract of the sweetleaf plant. Stevia has no calories, doesn't come from a laboratory, doesn't impact blood sugar, doesn't cause dental cavities, and has been safely used for decades by populations around the world. So why isn't stevia used in the United States? The FDA is dragging its feet on approving stevia, most likely for political reasons (to protect the profits of makers of artificial sweeteners, namely).

To learn more, read my guide that reveals which low-carb ingredients to avoid while following the Atkins diet: Low-Carb Diet Warning.
About the author: Mike Adams is a holistic nutritionist with a mission to teach personal and planetary health to the public He has authored and published thousands of articles, interviews, consumers guides, and books on topics like health and the environment, reaching millions of readers with information that is saving lives and improving personal health around the world. Adams is an honest, independent journalist and accepts no money or commissions on the third-party products he writes about or the companies he promotes. In 2007, Adams launched EcoLEDs, a manufacturer of mercury-free, energy-efficient LED lighting products that save electricity and help prevent global warming. He also launched an online retailer of environmentally-friendly products (BetterLifeGoods.com) and uses a portion of its profits to help fund non-profit endeavors. He's also the founder and CEO of a well known email mail merge software developer whose software, 'Email Marketing Director,' currently runs the NaturalNews email subscriptions. Adams volunteers his time to serve as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and pursues hobbies such as Pilates, Capoeira, nature macrophotography and organic gardening.


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