Every mother loves to send their adult children home with leftovers. In addition to leftovers from the family weekend we had together I bought my son his favorite “lemon” candies.
Sweet, sugary Brach’s lemon drops. Made with real lemon juice! (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
He had a 3 hour ride home. I knew it would be a little extra special. What I didn’t know myself was how extra special these candies became. My son called when he arrived home, about 5 hours later. It’s only a 3 hour ride. What happened that it took so long?
He told me he had to stop at every rest area with diarrhea. No one else had these symptoms so I wasn’t terribly concerned about food-poisoning. I suddenly realized, I gave him the sugar-free lemon candy instead of the regular.
Sugar-free candies often have a laxative effect if eating in excess. I asked him if he ate any of the lemon candies. He ate all the lemon candies on his way home.
Oh boy! What he learned from this experience. Just another valuable lesson this young man learned. He has never touched another piece of sugar-free candy since this incident. He reads the packaging on everything now!
What a way to go! Learn how to identify sugar-free candy on the label without eating it! I had good intentions. I just gave him the wrong bags of candy.
When you gotta go, you gotta go!
braininjuryselfrehabilitation 
markinidaho
August 22, 2012 at 6:46 pm
No wonder. They are sweetened with Sucralose. Sucralose is sucrose with three organic chlorine molecules added. This tricks the body from recognizing the sugar. But, most chlorinated compounds are used as poisons or solvents. The makers of Sucralose refuse to comment on the comparable risk of the chlorine in Sucralose. They just say that is is safe. The FDA term is GRAS, Generally Regarded As Safe. “Generally Regarded” sure gives me confidence. Aspartame was GRAS and was saccharine.
Sucralose was first developed in an attempt to make a pesticide. One of the researchers ask the other “Have you tested it yet?” He though the question was “Have you tasted it yet? So, he tasted it and found it to be very sweet. Voila, a prospective pesticide could be sold as an artificial sweetener.
Everybody and especially those with compromised brains, should avoid Sucralose along with the other artificial sweeteners. Stevia based no or low calories sweeteners do not exhibit these negative characteristics.
brain injury self rehabilitation (BISR)
August 23, 2012 at 7:27 pm
Thank you for explaining the poisons that are in different types of additives. I’m hoping others read all the information you provided. I’m grateful for all those who respond and add to educating others.
Three Well Beings
August 23, 2012 at 1:34 am
I recall a time this happened to my husband after eating quite a few sugar-free gummy bears! Your heart was in the right place! A great mother to son gift, ordinarily! Perhaps those delays made him drive slower…you may have contributed to his safety. I’d tell myself that! 🙂 Debra
brain injury self rehabilitation (BISR)
August 23, 2012 at 7:25 pm
I love your response to this. You are right I was contributing to his safety and making sure he had frequent stops too!lol Please read the comment from markinidaho…i hope everyone reads this response! I’ve read this before but I didn’t recall it until I saw it again.