I am usually a pretty mellowed blogger, not much gets me fired up.  This post will be short and sweet and to the point, but I will follow it up on my housedad blog in more detail (and less swearing) as it affects everyone.

The point of this post?

Artificial Sweeteners are deadly

I don't often swear a great deal, but the exploitive companies allowing this sort of bullshit to be propagated into our society can go fuck themselves.

With our oldest son, the wife and I had noticed considerable  random behavioural issues which seemed to be directly related to what my son was eating and drinking, this was about 4 months ago.

From his diet we have eliminated artificial colours, preservatives and most of the commonly known dodgy additives from his diet.

The changes in his behaviour since the switch have been incredible.  He changed from a demanding, tantrum powered and extremely unfocused little boy into a clever, imaginative and the most loving kid you have ever met.

He has always liked cordial in the past but we could never brand that didn't have any of the bad additives until recently.  SPC have relaunched their fruit juice and cordial range with a healthy preservative free focus.  Their cordial still has preservatives in it but the cordial concentrate seemingly was OK.  If only we had read the label a bit better.

When we go shopping, both the Wife and I have learnt what additive codes should not be purchased, we both failed to understand the word SUCRALOSE on the bottle.

A few drinks from this cordial - I am talking 2 and a half glasses over the course of a day, turned my son into a Hell spawn demon.  After going to the toilet constantly over the course of today and a few hours after the last drink, my poor sons reaction was like someone coming down off ecstasy.  He was screaming and crying uncontrollably, unable to focus and telling us to "leave him alone" - almost having some sort breakdown, He is only 3 years old for christs sake.

Whilst writing this he has been tossing and turning in bed and waking up crying numerous times.

I just do not understand how these sort of known mind altering and PROVEN cancer causing artificial additives can be allowed in our food.

The Australian Government promotes these additives in our food as a way of stopping overweight kids.  What happened to research and a bit of god damned exercise?

Some Research:

Sucralose or Chlorinated sugar

description from Sweetpoison.com

Splenda, also known as sucralose, is an artificial sweetener, which is a chlorinated sucrose derivative. Facts about this artificial chemical are as follows:

Pre-approval research showed that sucralose caused shrunken thymus glands (up to 40% shrinkage) and enlarged liver and kidneys.

A possible problem with caecal enlargement and renal mineralization has been seen in post approval animal research.

Sucralose Breaks Down

Despite the manufacturer's mis-statements, sucralose does break down into small amounts of 1,6-dichlorofructose, a chemical which has not been adequtely tested in humans. More importantly, sucralose must break down in the digestive system. If it didn't break down and react at all (as the manufacturer claims), it would not chemically-react on the tongue to provide a sweet taste. The truth is that sucralose does break down to some extent in the digestive system.

Independent, Long-Term Human Research

None. Manufacturer's "100's of studies" (some of which show hazards) were clearly inadequate and do not demonstrate safety in long-term use.

Chlorinated Pesticides

The manufacturer claims that the chlorine added to sucralose is similar to the chlorine atom in the salt (NaCl) molecule. That is not the case. Sucralose may be more like ingesting tiny amounts of chlorinated pesticides, but we will never know without long-term, independent human research.

Conclusion

While it is unlikely that sucralose is as toxic as the poisoning people are experiencing from Monsanato's aspartame, it is clear from the hazards seen in pre-approval research and from its chemical structure that years or decades of use may contribute to serious chronic immunological or neurological disorders.

It is very important that people who have any interest in their health

stay aware from the highly toxic sweetener aspartame and other questionable sweeteners such as sucralose (Splenda), and acesulfame-k (Sunette, Sweet & Safe, Sweet One). Please see the extensive resources for sweeteners on the Healthier Sweetener Resource List.

Aspartame Nutrasweet, Equal

Commonly found in Coke brands like Diet Coke and Sprite Zero, Cordial concentrates - pretty much any diet food on the market. Well our market as it has been banned numerous places overseas and a lot of schools in the UK. It is even worse than Sucralose.

From splendaexposed.com

The dangers of aspartame are now widely known, but the risks of using Splenda are not documented – until now. Splenda may not penetrate the blood brain barrier as aspartame does, hence entering the brain and creating neurotoxin havoc at the brain center, but Splenda CAN adversely affect the body in several ways because it IS a chemical substance and not natural sugar.

Has the FDA repeated the aspartame approval process for sucralose, allowing a product with proven carcinogens to flood our food supply?  Only time will tell, as it has with aspartame. Yet at the cost of human lives.  Read more here

Sweeteners to avoid

Refined sugar (sucrose)

Corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup

Sucralose (Splenda)

Aspartame (Nutrasweet, Equal)

Saccharine (Sweet 'N Low)

I will detail the lifestyle change regarding "clean" food and our family on Housedad.org in the next few weeks.   In the meantime the failsafe guide chart we have been following can be found here: www.fedup.com.au

COLOURS

102,104,107,110,122,123,124,127,128,

129,132,133,142,151,155

natural colour 160b (annatto)

PRESERVATIVES

Sorbates                     200-203

Benzoates                  210-213

Sulphites                    220-228

Nitrates, nitrites          249-252

Propionates                280-283

SYNTHETIC ANTIOXIDANTS

Gallates                     310-312

TBHQ, BHA, BHT        319-321

FLAVOUR ENHANCERS

Glutamates incl MSG 620-625

Ribonucleotides          627, 631, 635

Hydrolysed Vegetable Protein (HVP)

ARTIFICIAL FLAVOURS

No numbers since they are trade secrets

Finally got round to finishing my HTPC room with a nice bargain entertainment unit from Dare Gallery.  Had a few issues with trying to get the HDMI cable into the HTPC - was a bit too short though finally managed to squeeze the damn thing in.

Here are some pics of the destruction in action:

Now to cut into the wall.... Again!

Cables everywhere.

Looks like fun dad

Making a mess

Thanks for our new cubby house dad!

Almost done - testing HTPC with a JJJ x264 rip of Lily Allen.

DVD Test - Yes its Bob the builder.

All Done!  The PC HDMI cable was a pain - Too short.

What is this site all about?

It's a gamers take on reality, basically thoughts, information and insights on anything and everything. Anything I find useful I will strive to put up on this site. (as long as I remember to do it!)

Hope you enjoy your stay.