Allergic To Something.

This train of thought came about when I was looking into different chemicals that are in the foods we eat, because I know I am allergic to something. 

I think that I have narrowed it down to either Stevia, Splenda, or something that is in a new brand of creamer that I bought.

Note: Stevia is in the sunflower and aster family (Asteraceae for those of you into botany). If you have an allergy to those flowers, you might react to stevia.
Read more: http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2006/09/sugar-blues.html#ixzz0cv9eet3j
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Flavored Coffee:
“How do they get those nuts in there?
There are some things in this world that were meant to taste like hazelnut. Actual hazelnuts, for instance, and also Aunt Sylvia's famous holiday pralines. Maybe even a hot cocoa or a cookie batter that has a dash of extract in it.    But what about coffee beans?
Think of it this way: Does a quality butcher marinate his best cuts of meat in soy sauce before laying them out for sale? Do any world-class vintners reserve their best grapes for wine coolers?”

“Many flavored coffees contain propylene glycol, a form of antifreeze that is regarded as "safe" enough to consume in small quantities. You can find this on ingredient lists on some company websites. On the other hand, if you look up propylene glycol on the manufacturer's product safety data pages, you see that the manufacturer does not claim it is safe to drink. Look up the possible side effects and you will stay away from it. (P.S. It's in fast food cocoa and many salad dressings too.)”

“Pre-flavored coffee tastes like chemicals. I sometimes add a shake of cinnamon and a dash of pure vanilla to a basket of ground coffee right before I brew it and it tastes great- just like French vanilla.”
From: http://www.slashfood.com/2010/01/12/leaving-a-bad-flavor/?icid=main|htmlws-main-n|dl5|link6|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.slashfood.com%2F2010%2F01%2F12%2Fleaving-a-bad-flavor%2F
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PROPYLENE GLYCOL is even in Wendy’s Twisted Chocolate Frosty:
Chocolate Frosty (milk, sugar, corn syrup, whey, nonfat dry milk, cocoa (processed with alkali), guar gum, mono and diglycerides, cellulose gum, carrageenan, calcium sulfate, disodium phosphate, artificial and natural flavoring, vitamin A palmitate). Coffee Syrup (water, high fructose corn syrup, PROPYLENE GLYCOL, caramel color, cocoa powder [processed with alkali], natural flavoring, potassium sorbate [preservative], instant coffee, citric acid. May contain xanthan gum). CONTAINS: MILK.


Some other Surprise Ingredients in Fast Food:
“Some of these food additives are not foods at all, but are chemicals that are generally recognized as safe. Most of these additives cannot be found at your local grocery store, probably because they aren't food. But some can be found at your local hardware store, though in inedible products like low tox antifreeze, silicone caulk, soap, sunscreen, and play sand.” From:  http://www.naturalnews.com/022194_sodium_food_Wikipedia.html
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http://www.womentowomen.com/healthyweight/splenda.aspx  has a lot of information about sugar and sugar substitutes, here are just a few of the items:

“Excess sugar consumption also upsets the balance of intestinal flora in your digestive tract and can cause symptoms of intestinal distress such as bloating, cramping, and gas (for more on this, see our section on digestion). Other symptoms of sugar sensitivity are headaches, insomnia, aggression, panic attacks, irritability, mood swings, and depression. Too much sugar can deplete levels of serotonin, the neurotransmitter whose deficiency is linked to depression. What’s worse, low levels of serotonin actually trigger more sugar cravings.
New studies in accelerated aging link elevated sugar intake with a process called glycosylation: proteins in our bodies morph into AGE’s, or advanced glycosylation end-products, a kind of metabolic debris that collects in our organ, joint, and skin tissues.

Artificial sweeteners are chemicals, not food! They have no calories because they don’t nourish your body in anyway — they’re toxins your body has to clear, or, depending on how well you detoxify, store them.

At our practice, we encourage our patients to build their snacks and meals from whole food, which means food that has not been processed and manipulated. Your food should resemble its source as closely as possible (e.g., fresh fish, not fish sticks). And this includes sugar.

Even if you don’t have a reaction or sensitivity to sugar, continue to use refined sugar rarely, if ever. Instead, sweeten sparingly with the more nutritionally complex natural sugars such as honey, rice syrup, molasses, and maple syrup.”
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http://www.realage.com/tips/why-sugar-is-not-always-sweet   The dangers of sugar.

Even most of the brown sugar available today is regular refined white sugar with molasses added for texture and color.  So which is the best sweetener for me?

So I guess I will be going back to using good old honey with no chemicals, or refining, in my coffee, as of today.