Kidney Health & Artificial Sweeteners

I,ve been battling with weak kidneys for the last few yrs,this week we found out that I am on the verge of needing kidney dialysis.Seems that the problem has been traced to the artificial sweeteners used in many sugarless products.We had heard of the bad affects of nutra-sweet & have shied away from it,i do not eat or drink many things in the last few yrs that contain sweeteners at all. Usually for Christmas,some family member will gift me a chocolate assortment with artificial sweeteners.A few months ago our oldest son brought home some butter pecan sugarless ice cream,a real dairy product. The taste of this ice cream is unbelievable,so he got more for me. This past summer we made our own ,homemade ice cream,sweetened with only maple syrup ,but it is so much easier when the weather cools to just buy ice cream.Over the last few months I have eaten a few boxes of this artificial sweetened ice cream & much of it within the past few weeks. Well, no more bought ice cream for me !! I had already cut all pain meds earlier this yr., as they too are detrimental to kidney health,i use a mixture of turmeric Z& honey for pain,it works quite well. So,we have alerted family members,no artificial sweetened gifts of any kind. If the herbal treatment & avoiding pain meds & artificial sweeteners works ,my kidneys should slowly recover without dialysis,i sure hope so. Let this be a warning to others who are on a sugar free diet,stay away from all artificial sweeteners if at all possible.We have been using maple syrup for quite a few yrs now with great results,i just have to eliminate a few more "good" tasting things from my diet.Maybe your reaction to the artificial sweeteners will differ,as we all have different chemistry,but consider this an heartfelt warning to beware. And so life goes on.

I hear you on that WH, my wife being diabetic it has been a constant battle for her. A while back she quit using Spenda & started feeling better & anything with Saccharine gives her problems as well, I don't know if it's the same with all diabetics or not but she craves sweetness more than normal IMO. It's a hard road to follow & wish you all the best on your journey to keep the kidney's & everything else as healthy as possible.

Samhill, Thanks. Have you tried Maple sweetener,it is expensive,but for me it is the only choice,& it does not mess up the blood sugar.

Generally speaking, I think it is best to avoid all sweeteners, regardless of how they are produced. Of course that is much easier to say than to practice...I compromise by only having sweet treat once in a while, and avoiding the artificial stuff.

Moving this to the health forum.

You're in our prayers David . I'm glad you are fighting to naturally heal your kidneys . There is so much natural things on this earth that no one needs to eat one artificial thing!

Finding foods with out soy or canola oil (rapeseed) is near impossible . Even "natural" or "organic" things can hurt you. After all coal is "organic" but do we eat it ?

The greed and slothful ways of man ... How else do you explain pressing peanut oil out of peanuts and then replacing the oil with soy oil on the peanuts ? Simple . They want to make more money buy selling peanut oil at high prices but without wasting the meat of the nut and soy oil is just a good old cheap industrial lubricant so why not?

Yuck!

Again, you are in our prayers

Thanks, Josh, we do try to eat all natural things,but it is so easy to get a box of ice cream for a treat.I had actually gone a few yrs with only getting 1 or 2 boxes per yr,this summer the home made ice cream got me hooked on ice cream again. This fall, instead of making our own we bought some ,big mistake.

I know, we do the same thing in our house. It's not convenient to make mayo all the time so we buy the other crap which of course it all has soy in it . even the stuff that says olive oil on it . It's sad how money trumps health with all these manufacturers of food products. It makes you wonder how these people sleep at night

My buddy is in his mid 40's, and already had a transplant this summer. He was on dialysis for YEARS. Didn't think he'd ever get on the list. Once obamacare kicked in, he got bumped off the list ...

Docs think he was born with really small kidneys. He never knew how bad he was until he went to the hospital for the flu. Docs wouldn't let him leave! They asked him when his last dialysis was .. and he's thinking, WTF are you talking about?? They said his levels were so high that if they were to transfuse his blood into a healthy person, they'd instantly go into a coma. They told him he should be dead at those levels!

He had to COMPLETELY change his diet. All the foods he loves he can never eat again. Was a big change and was tough, but he's managed. Doing really well now. Just has to be 200% sure he takes the anti-rejection drugs - I guess just 5 hours late and it starts damaging the implanted kidney. Can't go into big crowds either - will catch things that won't affect anyone else. The pills he has to take kills his immune system I guess. Sucks, but you'd never know all this while talking to him. He's glad to be off dialysis! He still works full time, and had to spend 15 hours a week on dialysis. No fun, for sure.

Glad you found a way around all this Windy! Definitely a good thing.

windyhill4.2 wrote:Samhill, Thanks. Have you tried Maple sweetener,it is expensive,but for me it is the only choice,& it does not mess up the blood sugar.

What about agave? I started using it in my coffee instead of white sugar until I saw how many calories it has. Yikes! But it allegedly has a lower glycemic index.

I compromised by switching to raw or turbonado sugar. I know it would be better if I didn't use any at all, but you have to pick your poison as it were.

Windy, my wife has been diabetic for over 30 years & of German heritage so I've found that I can only suggest very discretely changes in her habits. The only sugar I use is what's in the food & I try to watch that, the amount I eat is the problem. My wife is an excellent cook & I'm a weak person when it comes to good food. I do try & support all that have health problems, now that my wife is on chemo I see so many people that are so sick it's almost unbelievable. Aside from injuries, asbestosis & my bout with a FUO I've stayed pretty healthy.

Agave is unfortunately among the items that are too highly processed & is not all that beneficial for you.Maple Syrup is the safest sweetener to use with blood sugar issues,Natural,Organic Honey used sparingly is ok,Stevia can be ok if not heavily used. Natural,Organic Honey would be fine to use lots of if one has no blood sugar issues,as well as rapadora sugar or raise your own sugar cane,squeeze it & use it for sweetening. OR, just pretend that you do not like anything sweet

SMITTY wrote:My buddy is in his mid 40's, and already had a transplant this summer. He was on dialysis for YEARS. Didn't think he'd ever get on the list. Once obamacare kicked in, he got bumped off the list ...

Docs think he was born with really small kidneys. He never knew how bad he was until he went to the hospital for the flu. Docs wouldn't let him leave! They asked him when his last dialysis was .. and he's thinking, WTF are you talking about?? They said his levels were so high that if they were to transfuse his blood into a healthy person, they'd instantly go into a coma. They told him he should be dead at those levels!

He had to COMPLETELY change his diet. All the foods he loves he can never eat again. Was a big change and was tough, but he's managed. Doing really well now. Just has to be 200% sure he takes the anti-rejection drugs - I guess just 5 hours late and it starts damaging the implanted kidney. Can't go into big crowds either - will catch things that won't affect anyone else. The pills he has to take kills his immune system I guess. Sucks, but you'd never know all this while talking to him. He's glad to be off dialysis! He still works full time, and had to spend 15 hours a week on dialysis. No fun, for sure.

Glad you found a way around all this Windy! Definitely a good thing.

This is a part of the kidney issue that I want to prevent adding to my life's story. I am not supposed to get angry or as this releases some bad chemicals that damage the kidneys too,so less of this & more of this

windyhill4.2 wrote:OR, just pretend that you do not like anything sweet

Wish it was that easy, LOL!

I use a LOT of artificial sweeteners. Post chemo, my tastebuds were a casualty and one of the long term effects. They just never really came back.

I try to kill the permanent old-copper-penny metallic taste, mostly in coffee. Bitter is REALLY bitter, so coffee gets sweetened and milk. If I didn't use sweetener, I think I'd weigh 600lbs!

I've never had luck with honey as a sweetener. Just doesn't dissolve well?

Any tips?

We are praying for you David! Glad you have a good outlook and prognosis

For several years running my EGFR, BUN, and Creatinine readings have been telling me that both of my kidneys working together are functioning at somewhat less than the level of one good kidney, so I've watched this thread with interest.

I'm wondering if Stevia is a good substitute for sugar for such issues with the kidneys, seeing as that it has no calories, and that it is extracted from the leaves of the Stevia plant, which you can grow in your own garden, meaning that it is natural and not not synthetically derived. It's what I've been using lately.

lsayre wrote:For several years running my EGFR, BUN, and Creatinine readings have been telling me that both of my kidneys working together are functioning at somewhat less than the level of one good kidney, so I've watched this thread with interest.

I'm wondering if Stevia is a good substitute for sugar for such issues with the kidneys, seeing as that it has no calories, and that it is extracted from the leaves of the Stevia plant, which you can grow in your own garden, meaning that it is natural and not not synthetically derived. It's what I've been using lately.

Unfortunately, you'll get different answers from different folks on Stevia and its possibly unhealthy effects.