I would like to add my own story to that of the growing list of people who have suffered adverse reactions to Aspartame. My story is actually an old one. Back when the cola companies first started putting NutraSweet in their drinks I decided that it was a good time to begin the use of artificial sweeteners. Up until then I had avoided diet sodas because I didn’t like the taste of saccharin.
Well, I came home with my first can of Diet Coke. I drank it with dinner – around 7 p.m. At around 10 p.m. as I lay down beside my husband to go to sleep I began to feel strange. It felt as if electricity was building up in my limbs and the next thing we knew I was having seizures in both arms and both legs. My limbs jerked around uncontrollably. My head swung from left to right as I lay on the bed. My husband was very upset; so was I. The seizures continued intermittently for two hours, lessening with intensity as the time went by.
I told my husband that I thought it had to be the soda doing it to me because I’d never had any kind of seizure in my life.
Needless to say I did not have any more of the Diet Coke. I allowed a month to pass. During that time my husband waited to see if the seizures would reoccur. They did not. I was convinced that it was the Aspartame; he was not convinced. As an experiment, after one month had passed, I purchased a diet-Pepsi. I drank it in the presence of my husband one Saturday afternoon. The adverse reaction proceeded just as it had the month prior with the diet-Coke.
After waiting a few months I tried diet 7-UP. I really did want to lose weight without giving up sodas. Again, the same reaction as the first two instances.