Good of you to post your experience — I had a similar one, only my symptoms were really terrifying. At first, I thought I had developed an allergy to nitrated pepperoni, since the worst attacks always happened after I’d eaten pizza, which I always ate with diet peach or raspberry soda. I quit the combination until I had a SEVERE attack (pounding heart, irregular, weak pulse – weird since my heart was *hammering* – difficulty breathing, dizziness, nausea, headache) after downing about 12 ounces of diet Pepsi. The next day I ate some of my favorite pizza with a glass of water and nothing happened. A couple of days later, I drank 6 ounces of peach soda, had a reaction, and haven’t touched the stuff since.
It was quite a shock to “suddenly” develop such a reaction to something I had been drinking for several years, especially since it had been touted as NATURAL, and I had no allergies up to that point. My doctor tells me it is not unusual, and that people often just chalk it up to caffeine (which I still drink fearlessly and painlessly along with my tea and coffee), without actually BOTHERING to find out for themselves. There are reams of terrifying legal and research material out there for anyone who doesn’t just want to snort at the idea of Aspartame being dangerous. I cringe when I see clueless parents feeding this poison to their toddlers, but after an experience with an utterly indifferent mother, I don’t bother telling them they might be ruining their kids’ health. Nobody wants to hear bad news. But hey, the vision in my left eye quit deteriorating ABRUPTLY when I quit Aspartame (I lost about 50 feet of vision in it). Makes me kind of suspicious!
And I feel *so* much better! My craving for sweets left me as well. Isn’t it a relief?! 🙂