Stevia and aspartame.. the things i learn

[pennink]

I have been having headaches for a week, so I thought I'd check to see if it was stevia (poor little stevia). Then I realized after reading many many articles, that it's the aspartame in the sf jellos and flavoured waters...

must be...

I'm starting a ban on them for a few days to see. Oh sigh, why is my body so sensitive.

I found this http://www.vegsource.com/davis/sweeteners.htm

[tom sawyer]

And why have you focused on only two of myriad potential causes? People seem so quick to convince themselves that something artificial is causing them some problems. And of course you can find something wrong with ANYTHING if you look on the web.

Consider allergies, stress, possibly a slight pulled neck muscle, maybe your glasses are not fitting right or you need a prescription changed. Could be a brain tumor. Heck it might even be a coincidence.

But yeah I'm sure its Aspartame.

[pennink]

LOL, why?

because it's the only thing I haven't considered yet! LOL

(no stress... happiness; glasses are cool; brain tumor.. gee thanks)
I usually get them from the weather, but it's been getting more clear.

[Whoa182]

I have some doubts over the mostly anecdotal evidence of sweeteners... In animal studies massive quantities are needed to produce any sort of toxix effect... but isn't this true of many things in our diet. And plus in animals they are typically given more than anyone would consume. The evidence so far doesn't seem consistent, as many studies have shown no negative effects.

When I had a bad time with headaches I tried to put the blame on anything other than myself... but even stopping having a sweetener in your diet can produce a placebo effect, where you expect things to improve and they do.

TBH i'm not convinced

[pennink]

now I've REALLY got a headache... geesh

[Nancy LC]

I think it was Dr. Eades that dug into the Italian Aspartame rat study and found the aspartame rats actually lived LONGER than the other ones. :lol:

[Whoa182]

Maybe a mild toxic effect producing a beneficial stress response?

hormetic mechanism maybe?... lol

[revcharlie]

Penn, I use aspartame even though I am convinced it is wrong. Have you been using it all along? Also, if your weather is anything like ours 40 miles away, the barometric pressure has been all over the map for the last week.

[pennink]

Thanks Charlie, I just added a bit more splenda than usual. I had been using only stevia for about a month.

But you might be right. It might be the weather (although it's usually better when the sun is out). I know it's not my bp any more (phew). My doctor told me Advil is out as it messes with BP, and I am getting no relief with anything else. I've always taken vitamins and that's not helping.

I used to have these massive cluster headaches, with auras, etc. when my bp was so high, then they went away after avapro.

I know what it is... too much time reading posts! That's it! LOL
Thanks for your reply. Much appreciated.

I was shocked though about how aspartame was invented.

[ReginaW]

And why have you focused on only two of myriad potential causes? People seem so quick to convince themselves that something artificial is causing them some problems. And of course you can find something wrong with ANYTHING if you look on the web.

Consider allergies, stress, possibly a slight pulled neck muscle, maybe your glasses are not fitting right or you need a prescription changed. Could be a brain tumor. Heck it might even be a coincidence.

But yeah I'm sure its Aspartame.

It very well could be - setting aside all the anecdotes online - I do get a headache if I have aspartame in any quantity...I rarely ever get headaches and almost every one I've had in the last few years has been connected with eating something with aspartame - I avoid the stuff like the plague and if I do get a headache....well, it's happned more than once now that something I ate had aspartame in it and I didn't know it, so no placebo effect there, the headache was real and my eating it wasn't by choice!

[ItsTheWooo]

LOL, why?

because it's the only thing I haven't considered yet! LOL

(no stress... happiness; glasses are cool; brain tumor.. gee thanks)
I usually get them from the weather, but it's been getting more clear.

Sure it's not the caffeine in sodas?

Most drinks with aspartame also have a hefty dose of caffeine.

The newer drinks which are caffeine free also are typically splenda sweetened.

The correlation between headaches and aspartame is most likely related to caffeine; it just so happens caffeine comes with aspartame and caffeine free drinks come with splenda (or stevia, if sweetening your own). When you start drinking "aspartame drinks" regularly, you are also drinking caffeine more regularly, and regular caffeine drinking leads to headaches.

http://www.headaches.org/consumer/educationalmodules/caffeine/fast.html

http://www.headache.com.au/hachehtm/dietprbs/caffadd.html

This is even assuming it is related to anythign consumed at all which it very well might not be.

[anja247]

I have no opinion on aspartame and headaches.
I do have an opinion though, on the effect of aspartame on my guts.
I have IBS and simply cannot consume aspartame without it having a negative effect on my guts.

I was an aspartame convert when it first came out, and shortly after became quite sick. On the advice of my doc, I kept a food diary and selectively excluded an item a time from my diet. The correlation between aspartame and my gut problems was quite clear when I did that.

I was quite sorry about that because it tastes so good.
Now I'm back on saccharine. Blech.
At least my IBS is under control this way.

Whatever the cause of your headaches, I hope you figure it out quickly.

[bluesmoke]

When i used to drink aspertame flavored sodas, I always had to limit the amount I drank at any one time because I would get headaches. Ironically, the headaches got worse when I started low carb. Caffine wan't the issue for me as I always drank caffine free sodas. Besides if caffine was the issue, coffee has far more than any soda and no one sems to be reporting coffee related headaches. Nyah Levi

[revcharlie]

Most drinks with aspartame also have a hefty dose of caffeine.

The newer drinks which are caffeine free also are typically splenda sweetened.
I drink aspartame sweetened soft drinks, much more than I should, but none of them contain caffeine. And I have yet to find a soft drink in Canada that is sweetened with splenda. We get american tv and magazines so I kept looking for "**** free" soft drinks and in Canada they are still sweetened with aspartame.

[pennink]

I never drink soda. yuck. and only one 4 oz coffee as I have for my entire adult life.

[ysabella]

I have heard of people having headaches from aspartame before.

I would suggest you read the labels of anything artificially sweetened, though - even if they say "Sweetened with Splenda™!" in big letters on the label, they may be sweetened with a blend of sweeteners and may include aspartame.

[bsenka]

The "Aspartame effect" is all placebo/nocebo. Anecdotal accounts and internet urban legends abound, but no one is ever able to reproduce them in a double blind study.

Drink it if you want to, don't drink it if you don't want to. But for the love of god stop with this "Aspartame is toxic" propaganda.


I have yet to find a soft drink in Canada that is sweetened with splenda.

Diet Orange Crush is sweetened with Splenda in Canada. Some of the Diet Root Beers and Diet Iced Teas are as well.

[KarenJ]

I only get a headache once a month, corresponding to my regular cycle. If caffeine caused headaches, I'd get them every day cuz I drink way more coffee than any human should drink.

As far as Aspartame, I'll drink it if I have to, but can't stand the aftertaste. I'd rather drink boiling hot asphalt.

[LukeA]

Diet Orange Crush is sweetened with Splenda in Canada. Some of the Diet Root Beers and Diet Iced Teas are as well.

Also there are others in canada sweetened with sucralose:
Diet cream soda crush, diet grape crush, and many varieties of sugar free jones soda's, and diet rite soda, as well as great value brand diet colas (made and sold for walmart).

[Newbirth]

Hey, Celesial Seasoning now has tea-on-the-go packets (similar to the Crystal Light ones) except they are green tea and lighly sweetened with Stevia. I bought one box and I'm already in love with it. Check the tea section at the grocery store.

[Galliard]

Like ReginaW., I never, ever get headaches. Then I bought some new low-carb orange juice and had a big glass and came down with a miserable headache. I checked the label and it had aspartame in it. I didn't connect the two at the time, but several months later I tried a new recipe using Jello with aspartame in it, which I never use. Again, I got a bad headache and felt really slow and sleepy. I didn't connect the two at the time, but I noticed that everytime I ate the new recipe, even though I was feeling great before, I started feeling bleary and sleepy and would get a bad headache. I slowly figured out that it was the aspartame. I have since noticed that one small serving of something with aspartame in it will usually not bother me, but it tends to accumulate, and the more of it I eat, the worse it gets -- which may be why reactions to aspartame can't be proven in clinical trials because your body may have to develop a significant concentration of it to have a reaction.

[deirdra]

The "Aspartame effect" is all placebo/nocebo ... but for the love of god stop with this "Aspartame is toxic" propaganda.Phenylketonuria (PKU) is a very real genetic condition, well documented in the literature, and aspartame IS toxic to people who have it (many do not realize it until they have a reaction to aspartame or other substances). If aspartame-containing products were not toxic to some, why do they have warning labels?

It doesn't bother me.

[LC_Dave]

I can't believe there are so many aspartame apologists out there!

I also had no affects for many years - over a decade.

Now it gives me a headache - as soon as I consume it.

If you don't want to listen - that's fine, but there are a lot of us affected by it!

[Groggy60]

Aspartame has always given me a head ache right away. I once tried to switch to diet soda but got a headache everytime I had one. Splenda does not bother me, but it has that terrible aspartame after taste.

I seem to survive fine without any sweetner, drinking water. If I happen to eat something carby like ice cream, I make sure it has sugar (no HFCS).

[Nancy LC]

It doesn't give me a headache.

[pennink]

It's like anything. Red wine (basically anything with too much tanin) gives me a migraine.

had the neurologist plot my migraines... I know what does it, and what doesn't. This was new, so now I'm not worried, I'm on water and use stevia if I need something to sweeten. (Learning to live without anything chemical is a good thing)

[Nancy LC]

(Learning to live without anything chemical is a good thing)
If you learn to live without chemicals, you'd be able to survive in a vacuum. :p

[pennink]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... uh okay... by eating as few as possible then! :lol:

[ValerieL]

RevCharlie,

Check out Costco, too, their Kirkland brand of diet cola doesn't have aspartame. Others have mentioned some of the orange & rootbeer sodas that are available in Splenda versions. If aspartame is a thing you want to avoid, you can.

Val

[tom sawyer]

The dihydrogen oxide in your water has caused more deaths than almost any other chemical.

I don't know about the wisdom of eating sugary foods rather than artificially sweetened stuff. Isn't that what got most of us in trouble to begin with? And exactly how is Splenda supposed to have an aspartame aftertaste?

I didn't think rebutting bad science, constituted "apologizing" for artificial sweeteners. If I thought they gave me headaches, of course I'd quit using them. And I do wish I didn't have such a sweet tooth, but that comes from years of sugar and is slow to change. As such, artifical sweeteners are a useful crutch.

[Nancy LC]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... uh okay... by eating as few as possible then! :lol:
Ok, I can't help being a smart-ass. Chemicals make up everything you eat, drink, breathe, etc. In fact, they make up YOU! :lol:

I'd like sugar to apologize for all the trouble it has wrought in my life.

[Newbirth]

I tolerate all the artificial sweeteners well. I try to get soda sweetened with Splenda, but don't mind buying it with aspertame. I have sugar free Jello every night before bed and it has aspertame.

I'm thankfully not alergic or sensitive to much. My only health issue is depression and my medication takes care of that pretty well.

I do know one woman at church who gets a headache after she eat Splenda so she has to avoid that. She's also sensitive to gluten and makes homemade bread without it.

[bsenka]

Phenylketonuria (PKU) is a very real genetic condition, well documented in the literature, and aspartame IS toxic to people who have it (many do not realize it until they have a reaction to aspartame or other substances). If aspartame-containing products were not toxic to some, why do they have warning labels?

Are you just joking around here? If Aspartame is toxic by your definition, then so is a chicken breast.

If someone has phenylketonuria, aspartame is the least of their problems. People with PKU can't have meat, chicken, fish, dairy, nuts, and a host of other foods either, because they are all high in the amino acid phenylalanine too. The PKU warning is on aspartame because people who know what foods to avoid might not know that aspartame also contains phenylalanine. People with PKU still need to get some phenylalanine, but they have to be careful not to get too much.

[2bthinner!]

I'd just like to say that aspartame is exlax to my digestive system. :help: I don't know if you'd call that an allergy or a sensitivity or what have you. I have to watch closely for it. And I've been surprised sometimes by where I've found it. In regular gum for instance. My dd has the same reaction. Dentyn sugarless "Ice" has aspartame, Dentyn sugarless "Fire" does not....yet.

[Whoa182]

I did see that study with a survival graph on mice on high dose aspartame. The male male aspart group lived exactly the same as the controls. But it was the females that lived longer when getting a high dose of aspartame :)

I think the whole 'sweeteners are dangerous' is way over the top