Happy Asparatame Day!

I find that the older I get, the more interested in food I become. I don't know if it is a direct result of not being such a picky eater, or if my mind just needs to replace old means of entertainment with new ones. I used to play with Legos, now I eat. Maybe it's that simple? (OK, so I still want to play with Legos. I'm just too cheap to spend $100 on the latest cool set).

With my increased interest in food comes an increased awareness of what I am putting into my body. I find myself paying the whopping extra 20 cents per pound for organic. I also figure if nature created it, it's most likely better for me. That's why I still go for butter over margarine (the "M word", as my Mom likes to call it), sugar over Nutrasweet, and oranges over candy bars.

So I was a little bummed this morning with Yoplait when eating my new Light Thick and Creamy Key Lime Pie yogurt. I noticed mid-bite (or perhaps mid-slurp?) that on the front of the container it advertised Aspartame as an ingredient. Now, I don't know about you, but I've never heard anything good about Aspartame. A quick search yields pages and pages of people arguing for and against the product.

Does it cause brain cancer? Seizures? Migraines? Does it cause people to line up at 7:30 in the morning to wait for dentures?

One of my friends used to suffer from migraines. She tried medicine after medicine and nothing would help. Finally, one day her doctor asked her if she drank diet sodas. She said yes. The doctor told her to cut out all artificial sweeteners. She's been migraine-free ever since.

My point to this rambling? When buying your last minute Valentines Day chocolates, don't go for the "sugar-free/fat-free/zero-calorie" kind. It's chocolate. Go for the healthy stuff -- sugar and fat.