I am a 38 year old diabetic woman (been diabetic since giving birth to my seven year old daughter).
I have been drinking diet pops, mainly Diet Coke or Pepsi max, for most of the last 25 years. I started drinking diet pop when my mum used to tell me about the ill effects of ingesting sugary drinks. I must admit that I drank up to 2 litres of pop daily for a lot of years, containing both Aspartame and caffeine.
I heard of an Italian research into the side effects of Aspartame, and decided last year that I would reduce the intake of diet pops to be only for festivities.
Then in about April this year I started feeling quite depressed, nauseated, irritable and I felt that my heart seemed to be beating harder, and went to the doctor. She suggested that because of my last few years,- losing my husband, father-in-law and grandparents, breaking up with my new partner, deciding to move back to Norway to my own family etc. would all be contributing factors of my feeling “down”. But I am not the depressive type, so when I went home, I looked up on caffeine on the internet, to see if that could have anything to do with it, which it had in a big way. I’d stopped drinking it approximately 3 weeks previous. But to my horror it also stated that Aspartame as a sweetener could also make me feel this bad.
I asked my doctor about the effects of Aspartame in the body a year ago after reading about the Italian research, but he laughed at me and asked where I’d heard of that, and said anything in moderation is fine. I went home and continued drinking diet pop, but not as much as before. However I stopped drinking that and coffee at the same time; went cold turkey, and got the withdrawal from both at the same time. I went through hell, but I made it through to the other side feeling on top of the world, and I only have small periods of “depression” if I drink big amounts of pop in one day. A few days after drinking a lot of pop, I get one or two days feeling a little down again.
But the biggest proof I could get came when I had my 6 monthly diabetes checkup. Every time before the nurse asked me if I drink a lot of alcohol which I do not. Nevertheless the liver tests they do have showed up that my liver is abnormal, and shows symptoms as if I drink a lot. Every test that is, apart from the one taken approximately 3 months after stopping drinking diet pop. Now my liver is normal. I told the nurse I have stopped drinking diet pop, and she agreed with me that it could well have been the Aspartame, and that the doctors don’t know everything.
The Italian research showed among other things that Aspartame could turn into some form of alcohol in your liver! I think that just proved it in my case. I also had a lot of problems losing weight before when I drank diet pop, but when I stopped I lost nearly 5 kilos in 2 months. I also feel like I have a lot more energy, I don’t snap at my daughter as much, I am over all a lot happier and feel great about life in general. So Aspartame really played a big role in my life making me feel lethargic, out of puff and short tempered, and also gave me a lot of tummy problems. I’ve got IBS, but since I stopped taking Aspartame, my symptoms have reduced a lot. I say “taking” on purpose, as I now class it as a type of drug.
But be aware all you people out there, there are other sweeteners on the market which can be just as harmful as Aspartame, so be very careful what you switch over to. The only one that I have found so far that can seem to be safe at the moment is STEVIA which is an old plant which the Japanese have used for nearly 20 years, and people in Brazil and Paraguay have used it for hundreds of years. I have a sister who is a homeopath, and she recommended stevia to me a little while ago, as an alternative to Aspartame and other sweeteners.