Artificial sweeteners while pregnant?

[Rowan'sma]

I just found out that I am pregnant, and was wondering if any of you knew whether eating non-nutritive sweeteners were prohibited during pregnancy?

[Elsah]

Congrats!! ;) There are a bunch of us preggos on the board right now. Most of us use splenda/stevia only and try to avoid the sugar alcohols and other sweeteners. Every now and then I will have a diet pepsi or whatever if I am out and it's all I can get but again that's a very rare thing. Best of luck with your pregnancy!

Jenn

[Hilary M]

Hey, congratulations! There has been a rash of pregnant ladies cropping up around here lately. Feel free to visit my journal anytime for a daily chronicle of my LC pregnancy.

My doctor told me to "limit" aspartame and saccharine. I have maybe 2-3 sources of it a week in the form of Diet Coke or sugar-free jam. I do not limit Splenda. I am avoiding sugar alcohols like the plague because no one seems to know if they're healthy or not. Once in a while I do sneak a bite of my husband's SF candy bar or have a small bowl of LC ice cream, so I'm getting a few sugar alcohols, which I always feel guilty about. There is probably no reason to worry, but I am avoiding them just in case.

I bumped my calories up by about 400 per day (100 to stop weight loss and 300 to feed baby) and am eating about 70-100 net carbs per day. One thing I will warn you about; if you start cheating because you're not trying to lose weight, it gets much harder to stay on track. I have created a real vicious cycle for myself of thinking "It's OK to have this chocolate cake; I'm pregnant." So far I've gained about 10 pounds at 20 weeks, which my doctor says is perfectly normal.

[Rowan'sma]

Thanks for the advice Elsah and Hilary. I know what you mean about staying on track! I am the type of person who will just eat without reason if I cheat even once! I've been eating from 60-100 carbs, depending on how I feel that day, but I'm not sure about calories. I usually ate between 1500-1800 calories per day before my pregnancy, but will probably stay between 1800-2000 now.

Hope you ladies are having a relatively smooth pregnancy, without too much queasiness! So far, I've been feeling excellent but tired, much like my last pregnancy with my now 19 month old.

[Elsah]

You should start a journal so you can join in with all the preggo chatter that goes on. We can get a little insane sharing our cravings though so you have been warned! hehehe. ;) I'm going to be dropping out of the preggo ranks soon but I'm sure the others will keep you busy with baby talk.

Jenn

[Faithnj]

Another pegger here! Just wanted to say hello. I'm not always perfect with my low carbing, but I can say it's a fabulous way to do a pregnancy. This is my first, and I'm glad I ignored the naysayers once my blood pressure shot through the roof. (I started my pregnancy eating almost ALL carbs and made myself sick.)

I look forward to seeing you around.

Faith

[Rowan'sma]

Yeah, I should start a journal, but I am TERRIBLE keeping one up!! I have had tons of diaries growing up with two entries or so in them! Then when I had my daughter, Rowan, I vowed to keep up a journal so she could read it when she was older, and guess what- I've made a total of three entries!!! I'm awful.

[Faithnj]

Ha! I'm like you. I just can't get myself to write in a "real" journal every day.

Otherwise, the journals these ladies are talking about is not necessarily "real" journaling. They use the "journal" links as alternatives to "forums" and "threads." (that's why the threads on lc pregnancy seem to go dead.) It works almost like an online telephone connection. Then, instead of staying in a forum, they just click on each other's "journal" links to talk to each other. You don't have to write in your own journal everyday--I sure don't. I go to the other ladies journals and just join into the conversation. Give it a try. I'm glad I did. And I think we'd all love to be keeping the pregnancy and lc dialogue going with one another-- as those who are either not preg, or not low carbing probably get sick of our various obsessions!

Faith