I often call sugar “that white powder.” It’s a joke, but it’s also serious because sugar really is that addictive.

But do you know what is even more scarily addictive? Artificial sweeteners.

This will open your eyes:

In a study, 94 percent of rats programmed to be cocaine addicts always chose artificial sweetener over cocaine when offered both.

If that doesn’t make you pause and gasp, really, I don’t know what will. That is alarming, frightening information. We read stories of how horribly addictive cocaine is. People end up doing anything to get a hit. And artificial sweeteners are worse?

Even if it wasn’t for that, there would still be plenty of reasons to stay far away from artificial sweeteners. They appear to be a cause of obesity, and the chemicals they are created from (no, none of them are natural or close to it) endanger your health. Health issues include a huge range of items from somewhat minor – headaches, pain, stomach cramps – to major and life-threatening – increasing your risk of cancer, heart disease and stroke.

So, what to do? If you can, go cold turkey. Get familiar with the names (see below), read labels, and avoid them like the plague. Yes, that goes against my small step approach, but you need to get this crap out of your system.

If you don’t feel you can manage this, go back to the small (er) step method: Start cutting them out, big bit by big bit. Examples: Cut out one artificial sweetener you use now. Or cut out one category of food. Or, if even that feels like too much, cut down that food consumption by half, then cut it later again. You’ll feel better, and you’ll authentically insure your future health.

Generic artificial sweetener names – with any trademarked names in parentheses:

• Saccharin (Sweet ‘n Low, Sweet Thin, Necta Sweet, Equal)
• Aspartame (Nutrasweet)
• Acesulfame-K (Sunett, Sweet One)
• Sucralose (Splenda)
• Neotame