Eat Real Food.

I've done some thinking about our use of artificial sweeteners.  100 years ago when my ancestors came up with this great idea to immigrate to America, they ate seasonal and regional (what us trendy folk call local).  They spoke broken English and then the 1970's came along with the 1980's and we all sorta loved the heck out of Diet Coke, trans fats, and cheese in a can.

During college I could kill a pound of Splenda per month along with my 3-4 Diet Cokes and I figured once I got through I'd get off it (I think there's a 12 step program for me somewhere).  According to the National Cancer Institute: "There is no clear evidence that the artificial sweeteners available commercially in the United States are associated with cancer risk in humans."

In my 45 second Google search, I didn't come up with any excitingly credible resources (OK a Jillian Michaels rant).  Now, if I spent 2 minutes probably but for the sake of this blog post I'll stick with what the government says for now (despite the fact that the artificial sweetener industry probably has some kind of say in this topic, as the grain industry did in the food guide pyramid).

Other than that, going off artificial sweeteners is difficult.  From personal experience, you become accustomed to the taste and then want more..and more...nothing is sweet enough and you go after the multicolored packets like an addict on The Wire.

That being said I did something crazy.

I made brownies.

Not from the box.

Like real brownies.  Thank you Hershey's.

Sugar.  Cocoa Powder. A stick of butter.  Flour.  Sugar.

Tasty single serving size.

It really didn't take that much more of my life than opening a box.

{162 Calories of childhood happiness.}