Monday, February 15, 2010

Aspartame Allergy

I really miss chewing gum. Not that I chew it all of the time, but I like to put a piece in my mouth every once in a while to get fresh breath and keep myself from eating instead.

The problem is, I'm allergic to aspartame (Nutrasweet). I don't think that there is any gum out there that isn't sweetened with it. Maybe Hubba Bubba. I really don't want to be chewing on a wad of bubble gum like an 8 year old. :)

I first noticed that I was allergic to aspartame when I was a teenager. I was having chest pains and shortness of breath that I couldn't explain. The doctor I spoke to thought that I might have an allergy to Nutrasweet. It was summer and I was drinking a lot of diet sodas.

I cut it out of my diet and the pains went away.

Fast forward to this winter. I was eating Yoplait Light yogurt and drinking Crystal Light Peach Tea. I was also chewing sugarless gum.

Major chest pains. And pains throughout my veins. I felt awful. I don't know why it took me a month or two to remember that this was due to what I was eating. I was really starting to think that there was something seriously wrong with me. It freaked me out.

I started paying very close attention to the ingredients in what I was buying and found that aspartame is in so many things!! I am being very careful now and checking ingredients before I buy things.

And I'm feeling SOOOOOOOO much better!!!

1 comment:

abba12 said...

Aspartane is an awful thing, diabetic friends are only just figuring out that it's screwing with their blood sugar readings, masking the sugar apparently, despite being told to always drink diet coke and stuff, which contains it. My dad, a diabetic, went off it for a week, immediatly saw the change in his blood sugar, as it stableised completely, and hasn't touched it again since.

But it's so hard to find out if it's in the food we eat. I'm trying to avoid it myself but it's getting harder. It upsets me so much, this thing that people are becoming more and more convinced is dangerous is being put in our food and we can't do a damn thing about it.