Large bingo. When you and I choose an artificially sweetened goodie over an apple or a pear or a banana, it really does make much difference from a caloric standpoint. It does from a quality of food standpoint, and that’s the whole issue here to my mind. When I moved myself off donuts (well, not entirely but mostly) to pineapple and berries, the difference over time was profound. It wasn’t just the weight that fell off, it was how I felt over all. That was many years ago, more than 33 to be exact. One of the obvious benefits is that after releasing some eighty pounds they haven’t returned.

I haven’t lost my taste for ubersweet. However, because there is such confusion around sweeteners I choose Stevia. When it comes to the occasional goodie, I have a big bowl of apples.

Yeah, on occasion I succumb to a Snickers bar or a donut or a cookie. But the retraining of the reward system in its entirety has a lot to do with long term success. It isn’t so much the sweeteners per se, for my part, I think it has far more to do with redirecting our expectations to love what is natural, full of fiber and really good for us.