Thanks, Lynnet.  I was already thinking about that.  I guess I'm really just intuitively buying into the idea that we've been too casual about assuming it's ok to ingest large amounts of chemicals our systems are not tuned for. My curiosity may cause me to keep everything pretty much as is for 3 months to see what happens, then begin to tinker, but the idea of dropping artificial sweeteners and probably caffein, was high on my list.  BTW, the diet drinks are non-caffeinated.  We cut those out years ago when my wife was first pregnant.

Lynnet Bannion <[log in to unmask]> wrote:David Shearon wrote:

>I've only been on this list a few weeks, but I can already tell there are a lot of knowledgeable people participating. So, I'm soliciting help to understand a jump in my cholesterol levels. Background: I started eating low-carb about 2/11/03, and went mostly to paleo within two weeks are so. I'm not "pure": diet soft drinks, 2 cups decaf and 2 cups regular coffee most days (with Splenda)
>

Aspartame causes significant problems to some people; I don't think it
is healthy for anyone.
It increases appetite and insulin, and can cause neurological symptoms.
Try dropping the diet sodas.
If your diet sodas are also caffeinated, you are getting a big slug of
caffeine every day. That could also affect
your lipids.

Don't worry about the organic/conventional meats or the small quantities
of soy oil. Eventually you
can finetune this if you want to. But it is important to get off the
caffeine and artificial sweeteners.
(You should phase back on caffeine gradually to avoid the killer
"caffeine withdrawal" headache).

Congratulations on your weight loss!

Lynnet

Dave Shearon
Nashville, TN
www.ShearonForSchools.com
"Quality Learning Through Quality Work"

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