Hi! I have been giving up artificial sweeteners/stevia since May 1 to find out if they cause cravings and urges in me. Before that I drank tea sweetened with sucralose, aspartame or stevia all day long. Even though I haven’t had sweetened drinks for ten days, I often think very negatively about giving them up (that it doesn’t do any good, that my urges and cravings are just conditioned and have nothing to do with sweeteners, etc). I also think that sweetened teas taste better to me and I don’t want to give up sweeteners and stevia in the long run anyway.

Sometimes I almost feel a little depressed because I don’t drink sweetened drinks. I know it’s actually because of my thoughts. These thoughts don’t cause any real urges in me to want to sweeten my tea right away. It’s more that I think that I don’t want to do without sweeteners and stevia in the long run, so it’s not a matter of immediately giving in to an urge.

Is that normal? Is this the river of misery Brooke is talking about? Can I condition my brain to like unsweetened drinks better than sweetened ones over time? Is this really possible? I remember Brooke say that desire is not innate but conditioned. Thanks in advance!