We're not ascetics here. We would never suggest that you give up your favorite foods just to remain healthy! But given your individual state of health, you might feel it wise to modify your eating habits a bit after looking over some of the food commentaries we make on this page. We're also going to be bringing you some really nifty recipes, not all of them the most healthful and we'll leave it to you to decide on whether or not to use them. Another thing; if you have any favorite recipes you'd like to share with us, feel free to do so by emailing them to betty@lequadrillage.com
Some of the recipes we'll be including here are old - absolutely ancient - Pennsylvania Dutch and Amish recipes and take it from me, those people know how to eat! I'm going to assume you all know how to cook, because any recipes appearing here won't really be in standard recipe format, allowing you to make whatever modifications you prefer. Now as far as out and out JUNK FOOD is concerned, you simply musr READ THIS ARTICLE by Mike Geary, a very well respected Nutrition Specialist. Cheers, Betty
Don't use a pumpkin. Use butternut squash.Cut it in half lengthwise with a large French knife, scoop out the seeds, place it cut sides up on a baking sheet and bake it at about 350 degrees until it is soft, then scoop it out of the shells after it cools.
When it's cold (next morning), put two cups in a bowl and whip thoroughly with a fork until all the lumps disappear, but avoid mashing. Beat the egg whites until they're stiff. Add the sugar, egg yolks (save the whites, we'll get to them in a moment), cinnamon and beat for five minutes. Quickly add the cream, the whiskey (I use Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey for this, but you can substitute brandy or rum if you prefer) and the butter and mix well. Sprinkle the cornstarch over the stiffly beaten egg whites and fold into the mixture. Pour into a pie dish lined with pastry and bake for about an hour at 375 degrees.F. Allow the pie to become cold and firm before cutting.
This is some pie! I made two of them for my family last year and they disappeared before I could blink. I really suspect that the Amish women who devised this recipe liked to tipple in the kitchen a bit.
If you want to make your own pie dough, it's fairly straight forward. It's what I do because I don't like the chemicals they put into commercially prepared pie doughs.
I use one stick of butter for each cup and a half of flour, a lttle salt, a lttle sugar and mix the dry ingredients well, then cut in the butter. I use my fingers. You can use two knives, until the mixture starts to develop the consistency of coarse popcorn. Don't overmix this. And you have to keep the butter cold, so work quickly. I don't use shortening or margerine - I use butter. That other stuff is no good for you, trust me . Read my thing on butter v margerine here.
Then add ice water, a little bit at a time. Toss the mixture loosely so it doesn't glop together. I also use a little lemon juice. When the mixture forms a ball and stays that way when pressed together, it's ready. Remember, this doesn't take a whole lot of water. Put it into the fridge for an hour or so before rolling it out. Rolling out pie dough is a whole other subject that I can't get into here - if I run across a good text on the subject I'll turn you on to it. Enjoy - Betty
KITCHEN CURES I
Some foods fuel disease and some foods fight diseases. Some people have actually fought cancer and prevailed simply by changing their diet. We'll deal with two of these kitchen disease fighters right here. They are garlic and turmeric.
Garlic; a Well Known Kitchen Cure
Garlic kills insects, parasites, bad bacteria, and fungus.
Garlic lowers blood sugar levels and harmful fats in the blood.
Garlic eliminates tumors.
Garlic reduces formation of carcinogens (cancer promoting molecules) in the liver.
Garlic helps prevent arterial clogging.
Garlic, along with cloves, cinnamon, oregano, and sage may help stop the growth of E-Coli in uncooked meat.
According to Ty Bollinger, Cancer, Step Outside the Box (reviewed here in theBook Reviewssection), one effective anti cancer blend is raw broccoli, garlic juice, onions,and ginger mixed together in a food processor.
Note: Cooking kills garlic's cancer fighting properties.
Turmeric; Another Kitchen Spice
Curcumin, a substance found in turmeric can repair DNA (genetic material) damaged by radiation. This includes damage done by cancer treatment.
Curcumin inhibits H Pilor, a bacterium associated with gastric and colon cancer. Note also that H. Pilor causes stomach ulcers, a culprit in some heartburn cases.
Curcumin is an anti-oxidant that inhibits DNA damaging free radicals.
If you've ever wondered what gives curry powder and mustard their yellow color, you now know that it is Turmeric. The somewhat spectacular and often unappreciated health benefits of Turmeric and Garlic are much too numerous to outline in their entirety here. You can get them both as supplements if you like and they are abundantly available as intrinsic components of many commercially compounded supplements. Turmeric is found in Xtend-Life's ARTHRIT-EZE, a natural anti inflamatory supplement for pain control and elimination and also in Xtend-Life's TOTAL BALANCE formulas. You can visitXTEND-LIFE from here. We're very proud to be allowed to present their incomparable products on our site.
Butternut Squash-Tangerine Soup (with a pistachio gremolta)
This will please any vegetarian and even the most voracious meat eater like me will welcome this at the table, anytime. Here's what you'll need:
About a pound of peeled and cubed butternut squash. If you don't have a scale, figure about four cups.
A couple cups of fresh tangerine juice. You can use orange juice too if you prefer.
Some dried apricots, about a quarter cup.
Gather your cinamon shaker, honey jar and if you have any saffron threads, get them to hand.
Chop up a couple tablespoons of fresh ginger and two garlic cloves..
You'll also want to get the ingredients for the gremolta and have them handy for when you'll need them:
Chop a quarter cup of parsley for this.
Chop about 2 tablespoons of pistachios and mince some tangerine or orange zest from the citrus you used for the juice.
Have a quarter cup of plain yogurt handy.
Ok, so now that you've got everything together, put a little butter in a large pot, enough to cover the bottom, and saute the squash, ginger, garlic, cinammon and saffron (just a pinch if you have it) in the butter over medium-high heat until the squash gets brown. Expect this to take about five minutes. Stir this often as it sautes. Then add five cups of water, the tangerine or orange juice, the apricots and maybe two tablespoons of honey. If the citrus juice you used is tart, you may want to use a little more honey. Bring this to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer covered until the squash is tender. This should take about 40 minutes. Then let the soup stand for ten minutes or so and puree it. I use a Kitchen Aid Mixer but you can puree small batches in a blender and that will work too. Puree the batches until they're smooth, return the soup to the pot and reheat it through.
You could make the parsley mix for the gremolta in between times. Toss the parsley, pistachios, and zest together in a bowl. That's simple. Then when you serve the soup, spoon a gob of yogurt on top of each serving and garnish with the parsley mix. Simple, huh? Enjoy - Betty.
Resistant Starch causes a slower glycemic response in your body. Foods high in resistant starch (and incidentally, fiber) are not digested in the stomach or the small intestine. They are digested in the large intestine (colon), much lower in the digestive tract.
This means that your blood sugar and insulin levels don't spike. You feel fuller longer because your food is digested more slowly. Some foods high in resistant starch are:
Cold, cooked potatoes (they don't have resistant starch while they're hot).
Legumes like Lentils, Peas, and Beans have more resistant starch than any other other foods.
Whole Grains are rich in resistant starch. Some of these are: Brown Rice, Barley, Whole Wheat, Oats, and Buckwheat.
Cooked and Chilled Pasta. As with potatoes, hot pasta doesn't have resistant starch.
Bananas - especially the ones that are a little green.
Resistant Starch also helps you burn fat for up to 24 hours. Foods high in Resistant Starch really help you to "resist" weight gain.
The big bonus to consuming a lot of Resistant Starch is that it helps you avoid insulin resistance and by doing so, helps you avoid metabolic syndrome diabetes and other inflammatory diiseases.
AS PROMISED - AN AMISH RECIPE PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH POTATO PANCAKES
Peel 4 pounds of potatoes and 2 large onions.
Six eggs.
Two cups of flour.
A couple teaspoons of baking powder. This is a concession to us city slickers who aren't happy unless we goose everything up. Actually the Amish don't use any.
A teaspoon of lemon juice. The Amish women just squeeze a whole lemon into the mix at the right time.
Ground nutmeg and about a tablespoon of salt
Put the raw potatoes and onions through a food grinder, using the fine blade. Amish women usually just grate them. Drain them if you want to, you're losing good nutrients if you do. Mix up the eggs, flour, baking powder (if you must), lemon juice, a pinch of nutmeg, and salt. Then drop the mixture by the serving spoonful into a hot skillet lubricated with lard. Yes, lard. If you're chicken, use coconut oil but there's nothing wrong with using lard. The pancakes should be about the as big around as a baked bean can - about four inches around. Don't have the heat too high, the potatoes need a little bit more time to cook through than what is normally required for regular pancakes. Serve them with apple sauce.
Nutritionists really knocked themselves out for years, convincing us that margarine was so much more healthful than butter. Their skewed reasoning, absent any real scientific thought, was that:
Butter is animal fat, and as such is saturated fat containing cholesterol.
Margarine is vegetable fat, so it simply must be better.
Margarine has polyunsaturated fatty acids, not saturated fatty acids.
Margarine has no cholesterol, and therefore it's better for you.
This reasoning was used to foist margarine off on gourmets who worried about their health. Butter lovers weren't exactly thrilled with the taste. "Polyunsaturated" became a buzzword and synonim for "healthy."
But is margarine really better for you? Maybe not. Butter is real food, margarine is not! To make butter, cream skimmed from cow's milk is churned down. It is naturally yellow due to the carotine it contains, and it is high in vitamin A. Natural vitamin A.
Now let's examine margarine. It starts out as canola seeds if it's the good stuff, or any of a number of other seeds if the processor wants a bigger profit from his product. The processor presses the oil out of the seeds, and to get the highest yield he can, then follows the pressing up with solvents to extract the last remaining drop of oil from the seeds.
One of these solvents is hexane, a known toxin and carcinogen!
Then the manufacturer refines the oil, removing odors, tastes, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients. Why? To increase eye appeal and shelf life.To this end he also liberally adds yellow food coloring.
Now, to become margarine, the clear oil needs to be solidified. and it needs to remain solid at room temperature. This is accomplished by blowing hydrogen through it at temperatures up to 140 degrees fahrenheit saturating the oil with hydrogen in a process called hydrogenation.
During the process of hydrogenation, a metal catalyst is added to help solidify the oil. This metal catalist remains in the product unchanged. When the oil turns into a solid blob of fat, hydrogenation is stopped. This is what the packaging labels mean by "partially hydrogenated."
Besides a loss in nutrients, margarine picks up chemically altered fats during hydrogenation. These are your infamous trans-fatty acids that cause health problems.
Now the manufactured and packaged margarine makes its way into the dairy case of your local supermarket side by side with butter.
Well no, butter isn't absolutely perfect...
To be fair, butter has its own nutritional problems these days. Besides its natural saturated fats, butter contains some pesticides and antibiotics picked up indirectly through the cows' diets. (Unless the feed is organically grown.) And the margarine advocates are right about the cholesterol in butter, which contains about one gram of cholesterol per pound. And since the liver can make up to a gram and a half of cholesterol by itself every day, you could be in trouble if you eat more than a pound of butter a day! (Read our take on Cholesterol here.)
So compared with margarine, butter wins hands down in our view. A few pats of butter a day won't hurt a bit; it sure tastes better and since polyunsaturated does not mean "healthful" there is no reason to abstain from eating butter. Just remember to eat less than a pound a day... Betty.
Beets are super good for you. Ever wonder what to do with them? Here's another Amish recipe
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1Tbs cornstarch
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup water
3 cups cooked red beets; slice them.
2 Tbs butter
Mix the dry ingredients, add the vinegar and water and stir it smooth. Cook this for 5 minutes,, add the beets and let it all stand for about 30 minutes. Then, before serving, bring it back to a boil and add the butter. Simple, huh? Good too!
HOW ABOUT SOME APPLE FRITTERS?
Here's how the Amish make them:
1 cup flour
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2Tsp sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
3 apples
Mix the dry ingredients and add the well beaten egg and milk. Stir the batter smooth. Take the peeled and cored apples and slice them rather thin. Dip them in the batter and fry them in hot deep fat (I use lard) on both sides until they're golden brown. Sprinkle them liberally with powdered sugar and serve them hot.
Milk is a species specific food. Cow's milk is good for calves. That said, if you can get raw milk from a reliable dairy, drink it. Stay away from processed milk. It's no good for you. In fact, we place it in the category of poison.
Pasteurization, the most benign phase of processing milk, destroys all the essential enzymes we sorely need, reducing the food value of the milk dramatically. At the same time, it fails to destroy all of the pathogenic micro-organisms in the milk. It's primary quality is that it extends the refrigerated shelf life of the milk to 2-3 weeks. Ultra pasteurized milk lasts a lot longer than that.
Then, when the milk gets homogenized, it can last even longer! Processors like that. Another thing the processor likes about Pasteurization is that he doesn't have to worry about testing every lot for excess pathogens.
Homogenization breaks the fat globules in the milk into such tiny, sub-microscopic particles,that they bypass the digestive system and pass directly into the bloodstream, contributing greatly to arterial plaque buildup. This holds true for anything with "hydrogenated" on the label.
There are other facts about milk processing that are just as disturbing, but it is not our intent to delve into all the excrutiating details here. If you must drink milk, buy skim milk and cream separately and mix them yourself. You'll find it tastes much better and you'll be avoiding significant arterial blockages.
SAUTE'D BRUSSEL SPROUTS With Garlic & Parmesan
Get the most out of them and still enjoy
2-3 punds brussels sprouts
Mince 6 or 8 large garlic cloves
Coarsely ground black pepper and Kosher salt
1/8 pound butter
1 cup of chicken broth
1 cup pf grated Parmesan cheese
Trim the stem ends of the sprouts. Then slice them thin. If you're a wimp, use a food processor. I take it as a personal challenge to slice them thin by hand. Separate the slices with your fingers. Take the garlic and saute' it in the butter for a couple of minutes - not too long - 2 should be enough. Add the sprouts and continue to saute' until they're bright green and crispy tender - about 3 minutes should do it - and then run the heat up to high, and pour in the broth. Cover and cook the whole thing for 2 or 3 minutes - don't overcook them, then add the salt and pepper. Taste them. Put them into a serving bowl, top them with Parmisan cheese and you're all set. Nothing to it and your family will actually want to eat this dish. If you dole out really pinky-squareeny servings, you can get away with serving ten, but in my family it will only stretch to four. Betty
Kelp, if you can get it, is especially helpful in controlling and eliminating obesity. The Japanese are large consumers of kelp and you need to look long and hard to find an obese Japanese. Kelp contains generous amounts of polysacharides, dietary fibers and a plethora of minerals and trace elements. Kelp can reduce animal fat accumulation on the vascular walls, iintestinal walls, and heart walls. Kelp contains no fat. The cellulose and algins contained in Kelp can inhibit the body from absorbing cholesterol and even promote its excretion. If you have a weak stomach or spleen, it's best to stay away from it, or limit your intake.
Since Kelp does contain a small amount of arsenic, iit should be fully washed and rinsed - twice - then soaked in water for at least 24 hours to be sure that all arsenic has been dissolved in the water.
KELP RECIPE
This recipe is straight from Japan. The measurements are in metric, so we've added some rough conversions. Ultimately it's kind of up to you to eyeball the list and make your own decisions according to taste.
BRAISED CARROTS WITH KELP
Ingredients: 250g carrots (1/2 to 3/4 pound), 50g Kelp (2 oz), 15ml Olive oil (try a shot glass full), 2g clove, 2g anise, 2g Chinese cinnamon, 2g Chinese prickly ash, 1/2 tsp soy sauce, 1/2 tsp salt. (You know, just for the sake of comparison with something most of us are familiar with, look at any 500mg capsule in your supplement inventory. 500 mg is 1/2 gram. This should give you an idea of the amounts of clove, anise, cinammon, and prickly ash to use, ultimately it's up to your own tastes.)
Here's what to do with this stuff:
Soak the kelp in cold water for 24 hours, changing the water twice.
Clean the soaked kelp, drain well, and cut into shreds.
Clean the carrots and cut them into strips (4 cm - you could figure 3 inches or a little shorter).
Heat the oil in a wok, then add the kelp and stir it several times as it cooks.
Add the soy sause, clove, anise, cinammon & prickly ash and stir fry for a minute or so.
Add 2 tbsp of water, cover and simmer over low heat until the kelp is thoroughly cooked. Add water as necessary
Add the carrot stips, salt, and simmer for about 10 minutes, or until the carrots are thorougly cooked,
Pour out to a dish and serve.
This is said to be 5 servings. 60g per serving (2 Oz?)
Sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite are preservatives. You find them mainly in processed and cured meats like peperoni, salami, balogna, hot dogs, ham, and bacon. These chemicals give your bacon that appetizing reddish-pink color. Without them, processed meats would look gray. Nobody would buy them.
Nitrates and nitrites are also found in freshly cut steakes, chops, and roasts. They keep the meat from turning dark in the showcase.
What's the Downside?
During digestion, sodium nitrite forms cancer causing chemicals called nitrosamines. These are human carcinogens. It's a very good idea to limit your consumption of these foods.Better still, avoid them altogether.
WINE
It's kind of easy to justify the moderate consumption of wine with regard to your health. Wine is rich in resveritrol, a powerful antioxidant. Something the commercial interests don't tell you is that you'll have to drink about four gallons of wine to get enough resveritrol to make a difference. So unless you're a heroic drinker, you can disregard this as an excuse for drinking wine. No matter, there are plenty of other good excuses. Number one, it just plain tastes good! It's fun, pleasant, and a nice compliment to a meal. It won'r raise your cholesterol or clog your arteries As long as you're in reasonably good health, without any liver problems, go for it! I get mine from Wine.com, a San Francisco merchant with a huge selection and incredibly good deals. Hit the banner above to go there. Here are a couple of other merchants you can try. They're all good - I can vouch for them. Betty
All these merchants have more than what is shown here, but you get the idea.
NIP THAT HANGOVER IN THE BUD!
If all this titillates you, go for it! Just don't blame me if you wake up hung over. A hangover is caused by depleted vitamin B. Alcohol consumption does that. You can avoid a hangover with vitamin B supplementation. If you've had a little too much to drink and hopefully still have your wits about you, then take 10 brewer's yeast tablets before you go to bed. You'll wake up fine in the morning. If you forget and wake up hung over, then take the brewer's yeast immediately and it will quickly go away. But watch your liver! Take it easy on the booze!
This is a really neat and easy way to make a small one pound loaf of bread to be eaten the same day, if you want, and you can freeze the leftovers. The recipe will make three of four loaves one at a time, if you want, on different days. You can keep the basic mix in the fridge for up to two weeks. The longer you allow it to sit there, the tastier it gets. It's totally unnecessary to toast this. We never do. Here's how to make it...
The Day Before...
First get a pot, or bowl, with a well fitting lid. The lid should not be airtight. That's important. The pot has to be big enough to hold at least twice the volume occupied by 7 cups of flour (unleached all puropse or bread flour) and a generous 3 cups of warm (about 100°) water. The pot also has to fit into the fridge comfortably.
Put a couple tablespoons of dry yeast into the pot and about 1½ tablespoons Kosher, or any coarse grain salt. Pour the water over this and mix well. I use a whip. Then dump in the flour and mix it all up. Beginners can use a wooden spoon. I use my fingers, keeping them very wet to avoid the stuff from glopping all over my hands. Don't knead this! Just mix it gently until it's all uniformly moist with no dry spots. Well, that's it. You're done!
Well, almost, for now. Put the lid on the pot and let is sit at room temperature for about two hours. You can actually letit sit for about twice that lone, it's not critical. The dough is ready to use now, but it will be easier to handle and much tastier if you let it sit in the fridge overnight.
Next Morning...
Take your pizza peel. If you don't have one, you can use the bottom of a cookie sheet, or you can bake directly on the cookie sheet and sacrifice the nice crispy crust you'll get if you do as I tell you.. I got my peel from King Arthur Flour. I also got the baking stone in my oven there and you'll need one for this is you want to do it right, without any compromise. You can use unglazed garden tile too. Anyway, dust the peel liberally with corn meal, or flour. Corn meal is better. You don't want the bread dough sticking to the peel. You'll see why in a moment.
Now pull up a handfull of the dough you made last night. Cut it off with a serrated knife. You want about a pound. Use a scale. Shape this dough by pulling it around with your fingers. Keep flour on your fingers to prevent the dough from sticking to them. Shape it gently into a circular shape (roughly, this is a rustic loaf) . Don't worry if it's lumpy. Let it sit on the peel - in the middle of the corn meal, make sure it slides - for about 45 minutes, at room temperature. You won't see much rise. Don't worry about it. Meanwhile get the oven ready. Put in the baking stone on the middle shelf , raise the top shelf as high as it will go. Put a shallow pan on it. Start the oven and set the temperature to 450.
Dust the bread dough liberally with flour. Cut a criss cross pattern in the dough with a serrated knife. The cuts should be about ¼ inch deep. When the oven is up to temperature, get a cup of hot water ready. Then, open the oven door, take the peel and (first make sure the dough is free to slide) then, with a quick forward then back motion, flip the loaf on to the baking stone. Pour the hot water into the pan on the top shelf and close the door.
Bake for 30 minutes until the crust is brown and firm. Then remove it with the peel and allow it to cool. You can eat this while it's still warm. We always do, even though it's recommeded to let bread cool completely before eating. We're guilty of deviating from good health practices once in a while. If you don't you'll get digusted and abandon the practice alltogether. You won't have to toast this bread. In fact we recommend that you do not Store the rest oof the dough in the fridge until next baking day. Enjoy. Betty
All body cells need glucose to produce energy. Carbohydrates are the major source of glucose. Carbohydrates are either simple of complex. Complex carbs are the good guys.
The body slowly digests complex carbs like those found in whole grains. The digestive system slowly converts complex carbs into glucose and slowly releases it into the bloodstream. Slow glucose release keeps the body satisfied. Energy lasts longer. You don't get hungry fast.
White sugar, a simple carbohydrate, comes from sugar cane. In its natural state, as a plant, sugar cane is harmless. In fact, it has some beneficial properties.But when the cane gets processed into white sugar, it becomes decidedly unhealthful. Here's why:
White sugar is digested rapidly and quickly turns into glucose.
The glucose is quickly dumped into the liver, which immediately turns it into triglycerides.
The liver then quickly dumps the triglycerides into the bloodstream.
Since the body uses triglycerides slowly, the excess triglycerides are stored in the viens and tissues (belly fat!).
Now the pancreas gets into the act, releasing insulin to absorb the excess glucose.
The result is a spike in energy that drops off quickly. You are soon hungry again.
Constant and abundant use of white sugar eventually causes insulin resistance, a precurser to diabetes and other diseases. Sugar also causes fermentation, the beginning of cancer. Cancer loves sugar!
PROCESSED SUGAR IS EVERYWHERE! Even foods in which sugar should not be found have it added by the processors, like in frozen and canned vegetables. Read the labels.
SUGAR SUBSTITUTES;
Aspartame: Commercially produced as Nutrasweet, or Equal, this sounds likea great alternative to sugar. Well, it isn't! While aspartame has fewer calories than sugar, the advantage stops there. Here are the facts about the "safety" of aspartame:
ASPARTAME IS A CARCINOGEN! It's a trigger for tumors and brain cancer.
The FDA knows this.
Aspartame is an exitotoxin just like MSG and just like MSG aspartame stimulates your brain neurons to death.
Aspartame also interacts adversely with other drugs.
Here are the other facts about aspartame:
Aspartame is made up of 50% phenilalanine, 40% aspartic acid, & 10% methanol.
Phenilalaline is a substance some people cannot metabolize. This is an inherited trait, which they pass on to their children. This trait can cause mental retardation in the children of those who cannot metabolize phenilalaline.
Methanol is a wood alcohol. You don't want to drink this stuff! Methanol distributes itself throughout your body, including your brain, muscle tissues, fat, and nerves.
That's not all! Stay away from diet soda! Here's what happens when you drink this stuff: When aspartame gets into your body and reaches a temperature of 86oFahrenheit, the Methanol converts to formic acid & formaldehyde, commonly known as embalming fluid! Since your body temperature is normally 98.6o F, you now have formaldehyde in your cells binding to protiens and your DNA. Drink a lot of diet soda and risk vision, brain, heart and nerve problems as well as pancreatic inflamation.
Still not convinced? Here's more!
Aspartame was once on a Pentagon list of biowarfare chemicals submitted to Congress. In spite of this, aspartame has been approved as a food additive for use in soft drinks. (Coca Cola lobbied heavily for this.) The "safe" amount of aspartame, according to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), is 7.8 milligrams. One liter of diet soda (about 5 cups) contains 56 milligrams of aspartame. Even low levels of aspartame intake consumed often can cause serious health problems for you. So whenever you quench your thirst with diet soda, you're slurping up a biowarfare chemical along with diseases looking for a home.
