Shortly after Aspartame came on the market I started using it frequently. In 1983, desperate to take off some weight, I gave in to all the commercial hype and started using it regularly – everyday. I had gone to Florida to start a future there. I was consuming products with NutraSweet in many of the things I ate daily. I started to feel like I was moving in slow motion. The headaches – they were unbelievable. I would just lie on the bathroom floor (closest proximity to toilet) and just cry and throw up.
Finally, one night, after being in terrible pain and confusion my roommate took me to Boca Raton Hospital. I thought my head was about to explode. Before being shot up with Demerol, the doctor asked what I had been eating.
I told him I was dieting and he immediately asked how much NutraSweet I was consuming. I was honest and told him I had been passing over healthy foods for things like pudding with Aspartame in it or Jell-O. As a compulsive eater, I couldn’t settle for just one serving, I would eat the box at one setting instead of a regular meal. Then I ended up with what I call the NutraSweet hangover. It took me days to get back to normal. That was it for me.
I moved back to Buffalo shortly after that and went back to college. I did my own little study for a graded project, which was videotaped. I got an A. After reading some of the stories, I’m really glad my professor kept my project to show to future classes.
Every once in a while I used to tempt fate and see just how much I could get away with. I would actually try to consume a can of pop, and naturally, I would get sick.
My sister, who is very athletically inclined, used to drink diet pop on the volleyball court. She told me how she would start to feel like her body was slowing down, as well as her reaction time. I certainly made a believer out of her. She won’t go near the stuff.
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