I came upon your website and found the information interesting. I am an ICU RN for 30 of my 33 years as a nurse. I used to drink Diet Coke all day long. At least a 6 or more pack a day. My internist told me to stop drinking it because I was having such leg cramps especially at night. It was worse with increased activity at work being on my feet. I stopped for a while, and my cramps got somewhat better. I then started to drink flavored water when I went swimming in the aqua therapy pool at the YMCA.
I used to drink at least 2 liters of that stuff. It was delicious. But my leg cramps came back again. I then realized that the sparkling flavored water had Aspartame in it. The cramps I had were not the usual uncomfortable walk it off cramps. They were severe almost called 911 severe cramps. Like someone took molten broken glass and was ripping my legs from the groin muscles to my inner leg. They would also come in my calves and in my feet. It was like someone took a ratchet and was cranking up the muscle and the pain. You could feel it tightening. It would last for 15- 20 minutes, crying in agony.
Then it would start to go away. When you think it was gone you could feel the muscles cranking up again. This would go on for 3-4 times a night. The next day your legs muscles would be hurting from the tightening process. When I stopped all Aspartame products the cramps mostly went away. I rarely have them and not the extent as when I was drinking the drinks. I can only assume that the cause was from those drinks.