Baby needs to suck Coke Zero

Subtitle: this is post #650

http://foodtrainers.blogspot.com/2011/02/artificial-sweetenersbetter-safe-than.html

Remember the ep of Family Guy where Peter becomes a president of "big tobacco" and Stewie starts smoking. There's a great scene where he says, "Baby needs to suck ash!" That's how I feel about diet sodas today. Since my conversion to the Real Food movement, I have been trying to implement changes a little at a time. Some changes have been easier than others and, frankly, some of them required me to simply get over fear. It had been a long time since I'd enjoyed a glass of whole milk instead of insepid skim milk. Or real homemade bread instead of a store-bought loaf. Or real peanut butter instead of commercialized stuff. I had been stepping down my artificial sweetener consumption and today, I decided to kick it. I feel like Stewie. Baby needs to suck Coke Zero. LOL. I don't miss the taste. I decided to buy some sugar sweetened stuff to keep around the house for an occasional (read: not daily) treat. It's like the difference between a real dessert and a diet dessert-- the real cake always tastes better than the Weight Watchers version. That's just reality. But I do feel like I am experiencing some sort of withdrawal, which only makes the whole thing scarier to me. I had a massive, blistering headache tonight and I have been horribly dehydrated. If I could drink a gallon of water and hook up to an IV, I would. I feel like a mummy. Also, I have pissed like a racehorse all day. I peed twice before we went into the movie and 10 minutes in, I had to go again. Eh. I feel luckier than a lot of people because I actually do have a taste for things that are bitter. In fact, I feel very lucky in that regard. It does not bother me to drink black coffee or have tea without sweeteners. I like Guinness much more than pee-water lite beer and I'd rather sip a scotch than drink some froo-froo daiquiri. I like strong tastes. I have read a few articles recently about how, because of the ubiquity of fast food and junk food, a lot of people have lost their taste for anything that isn't either salty or sweet. (http://rosesprodigalgarden.org/articles/bitter%20herbs.html) Or bland, mild, and anemic. You see these people day after day who'll eat some anemic boiled chicken breast with no skin and no spices and you wonder how they can possibly be happy. But I digress. So I am glad I can enjoy things without needing them to be sicky sweet. But I was totally unprepared for any sort of withdrawal. I figured the toughest part would simply be to retrain myself and break the old routine. I never considered that any physical sickness might be involved. All the more reason to get off the sauce and not look back.