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As an Integrative Physician, I believe good nutrition is fundamental to creating good health, when it is not there and sustaining it when it is there. I think some guy said (a long time ago) "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food." He's dead now, so a lot of good that did him. Briefly I think it is easier to sort foods into three categories: foods that are just plain bad for you (based on their intrinsically unhealthful properties, or because of toxic ingredients, as with processed …

This is a great comment. I very much agree with it.

I performed and studied a no-sweet-drink intervention with patients a few years ago.

We did the consent,and I explained and gave printed explanation, and I gave everybody a couple of bags of nice Japanese green tea as a gift to try, from myself to them.

I think the sincere gesture of giving a gift of goodwill may help.

With the disclaimer the extent of my "research" was reading diet books (e.g. Atkins) and looking up a few studies on PubMed and such, a curiousity I found: I was dubious of claims that artificial sweeteners might contribute to weight gain. While that seems unlikely in that the chemical itself has little or no nutritional value, it's possible that some of them may affect metabolism in poorly understood ways. But I found a few studies that provided what seem a much more logical explanation: With the sugar substitutes, people may simply eat more on average.

The sweetener causes the body toreleaseinsulin, in anticipation of sugar.The bloodsugar drops from the insulin. The body makes a panic-response to push the blood sugar up, part of which is hunger.

The people and the rats that take artificial sweeteners always gain more weight than the ones who take sugar, though sugar is also a problem.

Hence, the "no sweet drinks" project.

No. Sugar is not the problem. The problem is the indoctrination into pufa's. Read articles at raypeat.com and have your mind blown but come out ahead when you actually understand how bodies work biochemically.

You might have misunderstood what I wrote. I explained how artificial sweeteners trigger a sugar-response, but since there was no sugar, no calories taken, the drop in blood-sugar from the sugar-response (insulin is released to lower the anticipated blood sugar) then the body rebounds into a panicked get-blood-sugar-back-up response.

This is similar to "reactive hypoglycemia" from a fast-release carbohydrate meal (like potatoes or rice), where the insulin produced by the body to lower the blood …

Sorry. Wrong spot for comment. Stevia is a natural plant that still has the problem of artificial sweeteners. I still suggest that you read Dr Peat though, as a doctor, it will especially benefit your hypothyroid women patients because you'll learn alot about hormones and how they really function.

I have tested my blood sugar right after, 1 h after and 2 h after drinking coffee with stevia in it. There was no change in my blood sugar. Now, I don't know if there was a change in my insulin or if I was tempted to eat something sweet after (I am not drawn to sweets). I have hashimotos. I have heard that it can raise insulin in theory. Maybe I am an odd duck. Stevia surely beats sugar IMO.