This response is a bit long, and I apologize.

Let me begin by stating that experiments with ourselves ALWAYS give us great insights into ourselves and our well-being. That said, I am not a doctor nor do I have a medical degree of any kind, but I wanted to share with you what I discovered almost 30 years ago.

When my two boys were ages 2 and 4, we decided to take my mom to McDonald’s for her birthday. That way, after eating, the kids could play and Mom and I could sit and talk.

That morning, the kids crawled into bed with me and watched cartoons until 9:00 am while I went back to sleep. I dragged myself out of bed to get them breakfast and get dressed. I didn’t want to go anywhere. I had been getting plenty of sleep, but at McDonald’s I fell asleep on the table.

No, it wasn’t mono.

Fast forward to the immediate care clinic. My blood numbers showed that my system contained better than 10% allergens, food allergens the doctor guessed.

Allergic to what? Without a scratch test, the doctor and I put our heads together. I had been trying to lose weight and had been consuming a larger number of products that contained sugar substitutes. The doctor asked me to eliminate foods that contained aspartame, NutraSweet, and sucralose and let him know if anything changed.

With that information and a antihistamine shot, much like mainlining Benedryl, he sent me on my way. At home, I carefully weeded out all of the foods labeled “sugar free.”

I hadn’t realized that in addition to being overly exhausted that my heart would race after a meal or snack as well and I had been functioning with a foggy brain.

A few years later, I was still working to lose weight, but eating healthy foods. I fell in love with the flavored rice cakes, but as a teacher, they would make a mess during my break as I tried to snack and grade papers. In the grocery aisle, I got excited when they began to make mini-rice cakes in my favorite flavors. They WEREN’T labeled SUGAR FREE.

Score!

But, that Monday, as I snacked, the feelings of a racing heart and exhaustion began to creep back into my body.

What the ___?

At home, I read the ingredients: these little rice cakes contained sucralose in addition to sugar and the label didn’t indicate that it included artificial sweeteners.

In addition, we have found that the artificial sweeteners that are supposed to be a diabetic’s friend, spike my husband’s blood sugar numbers.

Through all this, we have learned to be diligent label readers and ingredient researchers.