Bitter Sweet
I've been meaning to blog about this for a while, but let's just say that there aren't enough hours in the day and this one could take a while.
Earlier in the year some of you might remember I was very sick. I was dealing with a horrible stomach illness and wasn't quite sure what was going on. With a history of the horrible Crohn's Disease in my family, I decided I really needed to get checked.
I went through horrible tests-- colonoscopy, MRIs that required me to drink gross liquid solutions, CAT Scans that also required me to drink horrible liquids and many days of having to take off from work to visit the doctor, get poked with needles or just lay in bed with horrible pain among other things. Some of you might be wondering why I'd be writing all this, but I know many people who have went through this and somehow (like it or not) over time it becomes normal to talk about it without reservations.
After what seemed like forever all my tests results were back, and although I should have been happy that they were normal and nothing was wrong with me--I was miserable. Something was seriously wrong! The doctor thought it was maybe stress since we all know I am slightly high strung on a daily basis. But I knew there had to be more to it. How is it possible that after months of monitoring my eating and exercise patterns that every food I put in my mouth could bother me. Not just dairy, not raw foods--everything! The doctor decided she wanted to run more tests but I had enough of being a lab rat for the time being, so I decided to take a break and hopefully something would change.
Then October rolled around and I went on vacation. It was lovely and I wasn't sick for a second of the trip. So I convinced myself it must be stress and that maybe it was work getting to me.
Then one day it dawned on me. When on vacation, anything goes...fast food, junk food and here's the kicker...regular soda. No diet coke, no crystal light packets and no diet Snapple's. I finally figured it out, this whole time ASPARTAME was ripping me apart. Although I was monitoring my food for so long, it never occurred to me that what I was drinking was making me sick.
After thinking this through I did some research and found that Aspartame could affect you physically, psychologically, and neurologically. I cannot get over some of the articles I read and how hard it hit me, what I was doing to my body all to save a few calories here and there. This article in particular made me see the light. Of course (thank God) I don't have all the symptoms listed there, but since I figured this out in October:
1. My stomach is 99% better. I can actually eat food, and then go out! There's no more severe cramping every time I eat and I can enjoy almost all of the foods I was thinking were the culprits.
2. My vision is better. My contacts were getting a sticky film on them all the time and getting very dry. I switched to glasses for a long time and blamed the problem on allergies.
3. My headaches are gone! After really thinking about the past year or so, it dawned on me that I was taking at least 2 aspirin a day!!! I also blamed this on allergies.
4. Mood swings have improved. Of course I'm still irritable from time to time like everyone else, but nothing close to what I was feeling for so long. I've been much happier!
5. I'm sleeping better. I was spending nights in bed just tossing and turning, literally staring at the clock all night until it was time to go to work.
6. My clothes fit better. I haven't lost weight but I must have been bloated.
7. My Epstein-Barr is not kicking in and I have more energy!
I could go on and on, but these are the most notable differences. If it didn't happen to me, I would never believe that all this could occur from drinking diet stuff--but it did!
Not sure if anyone out there is going through anything similar but after putting all this together a few friends stopped drinking it and noticed they feel differences too. I wish it was something I had realized sooner to save myself alot of time, energy, and pain, but I'm here now and I can go back to living my life. So if you're a diet soda drinker, keep this in mind...
Earlier in the year some of you might remember I was very sick. I was dealing with a horrible stomach illness and wasn't quite sure what was going on. With a history of the horrible Crohn's Disease in my family, I decided I really needed to get checked.
I went through horrible tests-- colonoscopy, MRIs that required me to drink gross liquid solutions, CAT Scans that also required me to drink horrible liquids and many days of having to take off from work to visit the doctor, get poked with needles or just lay in bed with horrible pain among other things. Some of you might be wondering why I'd be writing all this, but I know many people who have went through this and somehow (like it or not) over time it becomes normal to talk about it without reservations.
After what seemed like forever all my tests results were back, and although I should have been happy that they were normal and nothing was wrong with me--I was miserable. Something was seriously wrong! The doctor thought it was maybe stress since we all know I am slightly high strung on a daily basis. But I knew there had to be more to it. How is it possible that after months of monitoring my eating and exercise patterns that every food I put in my mouth could bother me. Not just dairy, not raw foods--everything! The doctor decided she wanted to run more tests but I had enough of being a lab rat for the time being, so I decided to take a break and hopefully something would change.
Then October rolled around and I went on vacation. It was lovely and I wasn't sick for a second of the trip. So I convinced myself it must be stress and that maybe it was work getting to me.
Then one day it dawned on me. When on vacation, anything goes...fast food, junk food and here's the kicker...regular soda. No diet coke, no crystal light packets and no diet Snapple's. I finally figured it out, this whole time ASPARTAME was ripping me apart. Although I was monitoring my food for so long, it never occurred to me that what I was drinking was making me sick.
After thinking this through I did some research and found that Aspartame could affect you physically, psychologically, and neurologically. I cannot get over some of the articles I read and how hard it hit me, what I was doing to my body all to save a few calories here and there. This article in particular made me see the light. Of course (thank God) I don't have all the symptoms listed there, but since I figured this out in October:
1. My stomach is 99% better. I can actually eat food, and then go out! There's no more severe cramping every time I eat and I can enjoy almost all of the foods I was thinking were the culprits.
2. My vision is better. My contacts were getting a sticky film on them all the time and getting very dry. I switched to glasses for a long time and blamed the problem on allergies.
3. My headaches are gone! After really thinking about the past year or so, it dawned on me that I was taking at least 2 aspirin a day!!! I also blamed this on allergies.
4. Mood swings have improved. Of course I'm still irritable from time to time like everyone else, but nothing close to what I was feeling for so long. I've been much happier!
5. I'm sleeping better. I was spending nights in bed just tossing and turning, literally staring at the clock all night until it was time to go to work.
6. My clothes fit better. I haven't lost weight but I must have been bloated.
7. My Epstein-Barr is not kicking in and I have more energy!
I could go on and on, but these are the most notable differences. If it didn't happen to me, I would never believe that all this could occur from drinking diet stuff--but it did!
Not sure if anyone out there is going through anything similar but after putting all this together a few friends stopped drinking it and noticed they feel differences too. I wish it was something I had realized sooner to save myself alot of time, energy, and pain, but I'm here now and I can go back to living my life. So if you're a diet soda drinker, keep this in mind...
posted by JJ at 6:52 PM
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