Day 23, 20 to go...........

Today's weight 129.6.  I am really craving something sweet today.  As I write this I wonder if it is because I put the Sweet & Low Brown Sugar in my oatmeal which I am feeling guilty about. 

So I looked up some information.  Sweet & Low contains saccharin.  Saccharin has been around since 1879.  It is the most widely used and least expensive artificial sweetener in the world.  It is 200 to 700 times sweeter than sugar.   There are reports that have linked saccharin to bladder cancer in lab animals but studies done on people who consume a lot of it have not confirmed those results. 

Saccharin was discovered in 1879 by Constantine Fahlberg, while working in the laboratory of Ira Remsen, quite by accident as were most other sweeteners. While working in the lab, he spilled a chemical on his hand. Later while eating dinner, Fahlberg noticed a more sweetness in the bread he was eating. He traced the sweetness back to the chemical, later named saccharin, by tasting various residues on his hands and clothes (unsanitary conditions) and finally chemicals in the lab (not a safe lab practice).  Source:  http://www.elmhurst.edu/

It's certainly better than splenda...........read on:

Discovery of Splenda originates back to London in 1975 when a young Indian student who was doing graduate work in chemistry while studying insecticides.
The young fellow was helping on a project of looking for ways to kill insects, when one day he mis-understood the instructions from his boss, who said to be sure to “test” his efforts. He thought the instructions were to “taste” the product, and when he did as told, imagine the surprise when he reported that this highly toxic liquid was 600 times sweeter than plain old sugar.

This synthetic chemical was later to become known as sucralose (Splenda) and eventually approved for human consumption by our ever-so-diligent FDA (Food and Drug Administration) on April 1, 1998 – April Fools Day.

Splenda is the brand name for sucralose and should not to be confused with the naturally found sucrose which is extracted from plants as ordinary sugar. Sucralose begins as a sugar molecule but is chemically changed to a synthetic that includes the addition of three, highly poisonous chlorine molecules in a patented, five step process. It is then marketed as a “healthful” and “natural” product, although as a chemical substance, it is not recognized as sugar by the body. It is therefore not metabolized, which is necessary step for the maintenance of life.  Source:  http://www.healthwantednow.com/2009/09/sweet-deception-about-splenda-the-insecticide-that-is-600-times-sweeter-than-sugar/

Tomorrow is the Turkey Trot, I'm going to run with Laura.  It's going to be cold but once we start moving it will be just right.  I'm also dropping my registration off for the Noodleini 5k which will be Sunday.

I want to quote from "No Need For Speed" written by John Bingham that I found quite insiteful:
"During our sunset years of our running and our lives, victory is about letting go--of how we used to be and of what we thought we would be.  Being a victor means making peace with how far we've come, yet how little progress we've made."  I am at peace!