Suddenly obsessed with aspartame

nancy324

Cathlete
One day a few weeks ago I suddenly and finally lost my taste for diet soda. I know it's weird for someone who generally takes good care of herself to have been drinking so much diet soda for so long. I think of myself as smart, but I must have been in denial. :-(

Today I received an email from a website I trust with an article entitled "Artificial Sweetener Raises Lifelong Concerns". I know there are a lot of alarmists out there, but this is a real down-to-earth website. The article contained the results of a recent South African study. It named a laundry list of long-term damaging effects on the brain and body too numerous to list here. The worst part is that the effects build up over time. And of course, the more you consume the worse the effects. I remember a time when I was drinking a 6-pack of diet Coke every day at work. x(

I can't change the past. I'm not drinking diet soda anymore, and that's all I can really do. But still, I can't help wondering (and obsessing) about the damage I've already done to myself. What an idiot I am. x(

If there's anyone reading this who is still drinking diet soda, please STOP!! It doesn't even help control your weight, so it has no redeeming value.
 
Nancy, try not to stress too much. Health is so rarely A + B = C, I am sure you will be fine. After all, you take care if yourself in so many other ways. Besides, stressing is probably even worse than aspartame! :)


My aspartame story:

In high school I drank a ton of Diet Coke. Had blazing headaches all the time. One night I was talking to my dad - who's a food scientist - and mentioned the headaches. He asked me, "do you drink diet soda?" I told him I did, he said "stop." I did. Headaches went away.

I've been a straight-up regular Coke drinker ever since. :)

Sparrow

"The winds of grace are always blowing but it's you who must raise your sail." - Sri Ramakrishna
 
Sparrow - I get evil headaches from Aspartame too, so I avoid it like the plague. Now if only I could kick the straight-up, regular Coke habit. At least ours here doesn't have HFCS in it.
 
Nancy,

It does you no good to beat yourself up about it. After all, stress is bad for your health too. I've been in the grips of such fears before, and I know how it can just take over your mind and make you so anxious, but if you try to think rationally about it you'll realize that it's really unlikely that you significantly or permanently harmed yourself. All of the good things you've done for your health do matter. And now, you should just try to be happy that you're doing another good thing for yourself by kicking aspartame.
 
Yep, me too. I gave up Diet Coke (and Diet Coke w/ lime, my absolute favorite!) a year ago in January. I haven't had any in ages and just had a sip of one a few weeks ago- blech!!!!!!! I'm also one that was getting headaches from aspartame. (I suffer from migraines anyway!)

Oh well, you're right that we can't change the past. We can just make better choices in the present. ;-)
 
We have also kicked out the diet coke :( too. We have a few cocktails on the weekends and I am finding it very hard to drink the coke. I find the sugar really makes my mouth all raw a fuzzy. I think I might try some club soda or some other alternative. ??? Any other ideas?

My husband recently passed some kidney stones and for some reason I truly believe it was from those crystal lite or nestea water things. He is in construction and added this to all the water he drank during the day. Whatever they put into those was giving me headaches and I just didn't feel right after drinking them.
 
yep I avoid it like the plague also. I'm sure we've all had it even unintentionally. Its in a LOT of foods. One key word is "sugar free" alotta times it will have aspartame or another artificial sweetener. I avoid them all. I just try to eat things naturally low in sugar if possible.
diet sodas taste REALLY strange to me so I never drink them.. but also regular sodas kinda make me sick too so I rarely drink them either. (I'm kinda sensitive though and get headaches/nausea from much caffiene too)
But an occasional dr pepper fixes me up for a long time.
My thing now is I make this strawberry/jasmine green tea into iced tea with a bit of organic raw sugar. I'm thinking of trying agave nectar but I don't know much about it yet.
good on you for kicking the diet sodas. I'm sure you'll feel a difference too!
I wouldn't worry too much about the damage. Gosh there are so many things that can freak you out about what is in our food/drinks that its hard to be "perfect". Just do the best you can.
 
I avoid it now too but I had no idea it was potentially so dangerous! I've been reading lately about how fake sweeteners can contribute to weight GAIN. Something about how the body realizes it's not getting calories when it should be and makes up for it later. That was enough for me. I've decided that when I want a soda, I'll have the regular stuff (which isn't that often anyway). Now, if I can just get DH to kick his Diet Coke habit....

Carolyn
 
>We have also kicked out the diet coke :( too. We have a few
>cocktails on the weekends and I am finding it very hard to
>drink the coke. I find the sugar really makes my mouth all
>raw a fuzzy. I think I might try some club soda or some other
>alternative. ??? Any other ideas?
>
>My husband recently passed some kidney stones and for some
>reason I truly believe it was from those crystal lite or
>nestea water things. He is in construction and added this to
>all the water he drank during the day. Whatever they put into
>those was giving me headaches and I just didn't feel right
>after drinking them.
>
>
I can't help you with the cocktails, but I will recommend what the Germans call Apfel/Orangen saftschorle. It's half a glass of apple or orange juice with half a glass of sparkling water. It's delicious! I'm sure you could use any juice with it.

Carolyn
 
I am another one who was lucky enough to get headaches from Aspartime. I gave up all artificial sweeteners, but I had a long history with them.

As a kid my mom would make orangeade by making diluted orange juice and saccharin for us kids. We practically lived on it. She thought it was better than koolade. And of course I did years of coffee as a kid with a saccharin tablet in it! At least I started liking my coffee not sweet 25 years ago.

Nancy you have been a great inspiration for clean eating around here. In fact your are the one who convinced me to choose Lara bars for their whole food appeal. Thank you!

It seems like the change to cleaner eating is a process. The more we learn, and become aware the more changes we make. One change at a time is more likely to stick than a cold turkey total switch. JMHO

Congratulations to everyone who has kicked the diet soda/ artifical sweetener habit!


[font color=lime green][font size +3]Judy "Likes2bfit"



***Eat Food. Not too Much. Mostly plants. Michael Pollan[/font]

http://img109.mytextgraphics.com/myrainbowtext/2008/01/24/c07d67f3a8d2bfed065f377ce1494b6c.gif
 
Thanks so much, Judy. As it turned out, I believe saccharin was a lot less harmful than aspartame.

In any event, I actually LIKE water now. I never used to, probably because I was trying to drink tap water. I really can't stand the taste of tap water, but now we have a Poland Spring water cooler at work and I have cases of bottled water delivered at home. (My next problem will be trying to figure out how to drink delicious water and not harm the environment with the bottles. That's a whole nother thread, though. ;))
 
>I avoid it now too but I had no idea it was potentially so
>dangerous! I've been reading lately about how fake sweeteners
>can contribute to weight GAIN. Something about how the body
>realizes it's not getting calories when it should be and makes
>up for it later. That was enough for me. I've decided that
>when I want a soda, I'll have the regular stuff (which isn't
>that often anyway). Now, if I can just get DH to kick his Diet
>Coke habit....
>
>Carolyn

Here's a link to the article, Carolyn:
http://newsletter.vitalchoice.com/index000258649.cfm
 
Nance, we have a reverse osmosis drinking water system and absolutely LOVE it! I think the water tastes fantastic -- better than any bottled water I've ever tried. The unit, which consists of a tank for the water and a filter system, was installed in the cabinet under our kitchen sink, and is dispensed through it's own faucet. I highly recommend RO systems.

Now, if only I could get my DH to stop drinking Diet Coke. He's completely addicted to Diet Coke with lime ;(
 
>>
>I can't help you with the cocktails, but I will recommend what
>the Germans call Apfel/Orangen saftschorle. It's half a glass
>of apple or orange juice with half a glass of sparkling water.
>It's delicious! I'm sure you could use any juice with it.
>
>Carolyn
>
>

I do this with cranberry juice. It is delicious!
 
I drink flavored selzers (no artificial flavors or any sweeteners; and zero calories) with a couple tablespoons pomegranate/mango juice. Yummy!

Jonahnah
Chocolate IS the answer, regardless of the question.
 
I am a water junkie-I drink a gallon plus each day, which leaves room for little else. Thank goodness I can take or leave soda-I take a sip and then toss the rest, so don't even bother.

I do use Splenda in my coffee though or sweetnlow...my trainer is totally against aspartame...good grief. He put the fear of god into me about this evil substance.

Nancey, love the new pic! What a bunch of lovely ladies.:)
 
Nancy,
Congrats on giving up the artificial sweeteners. I've long avoided avoided them, and haven't missed them a bit.

I'm sure most any damage caused by them can be offset by a healthy lifestyle and diet (you didn't drink a six-pack a day for 20+ years, I hope).

I like to take a glass carafe of water (distilled in my home distiller) and slice in a whole, organic lemon (washed, but not peeled, seeds taken out, squeezed a bit before adding to the H20) and just leave it in the fridge to drink. Same thing can be done with fresh mint leaves: take a few sprigs of fresh mint and crush them a bit, then add to the water. Doesn't add a strong taste, but is pleasant.
 

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