Hi guys,

A few weeks ago, desiring something sweet, I started drinking a diet cola beverage (caffeine free!) called TAB. I love the stuff! It REALLY hits the spot and is incredibly satisfying.

However, I wonder if I have some sort of addiction to it. I find myself craving it. Or do I just crave something sweet? Or something fizzy? I don't know. I wonder if aspartame affects anyone here in this way? I also think it might make me a bit depressed sometimes. But I'm not sure.

Incidentally, I have found two awesome sweetners:
Xylitol (Candida friendly, super-low GI, apparently doesn't use insulin when metabolised, anti-bacterial, and tastes very similar to real sugar with the same granularity! But it does count as a carb, so watch quantities)
And Lactulose. Lactulose is actually marketed as a laxative (e.g. Duphalac). It's a synthetic disaccaride that your body can't digest! It's also a prebiotic fiber that is preferentially eaten by good bowel flora and helps to restore the pH balance of your bowels. Can have a laxative effect if you take lots though, but it is not habit forming. A very good type of laxative as it helps your bowels. However, I doubt it's SCD friendly. Doesn't make me sick though, and I have terrible bowel dysbiosis.

But that's just by the way stuff.

SCD doesn't approve of alcohol sugars because they are digested by the bacteria in your gut. You never know if you're feeding the good ones or the bad ones, so they must all starve! Bwahahaha!

You make me smile Nancy.

I can't help but smile seeing a picture of a bunny stealing a cookie saying "bwahaha" :-)

What worries me about SCD is that it seems to bring remission, but not provide a cure (well, sometimes). At some point, you need to create an environment hospitable for good bacteria. SCD yoghurt won't do that by itself, I think. I've read that yogurt bacteria are transient (don't take up residence easily). But I don't know if that's true or not.

Sooner or later, you have to eat prebiotic fiber (FOS, lactulose or something) to start a new environ in your gut. But yeah, if you are infected while you try, it might be a very bad idea. However, I am quite confident my gut infection is fungal, not bacterial having just finished a course of tetracycline and Flagyl... I also have found that lactulose and indeed FOS never affect me adversely (haven't tried FOS in a while though...). They don't help much either though :-) Nothing good down there to eat them...

So are you bascially doing a LC SCD. Good luck with that! Let me know how it goes...

I am sorta.

I think the idea is that you get the intestines healthy first, which takes about a year. Then you can start to introduce the other sorts of things. I haven't read that part of the book yet. I think she probably believes if you go back to the same sort of diet that encouraged the growth of the bad stuff that you'll end up in the same spot again.

My own personal twist on the diet is that I probably have to stay away from starches forever for another health issue.

I have Elaine's book, but only read summaries of it (no time- I get the basic idea). I have three ambitions in life, and one of those is to be able to eat cake again. I'm determined to get past this thing, restore my bowel flora, and get to a point where I can hang out with my friends and not have to keep saying "no sorry, I can't eat that either...".

Not sure it's possible though. Every time I start reintroducing more carbs I feel like trash.

Wow, I just went thru something similar with aspartame. I generally do not buy diet soda, I drink water, or mineral waters. But I was visiting family back east last weekend and they had Fresca and I remembered liking it. So I had some. Upon returning home, I found a new peach Fresca and bought a pack.
I had one for a couple of days. Then the other day I had a pretty strong depression/sadness that was sort of overwhelming.
I started having a cocoa drink, using unsweetened cocoa, hot water and veg glycerin as the sweetener. That helped with the sad feelings, but I realized it was probably the aspartame! No more diet soda for me, and so far so good. Just wanted to add that cocoa is supposed to have tryptophan, so it can help ease depression.

Unfortunately cocoa also has some form of sugar/starch and I can't have milk either so I tend to stay away from it. Love the stuff though! Good for you heart

Yeah, I also was feeling a bit tired, think it's the cocoa also. Going without that now also. Maybe it's ok just for very occassional use for me. I was trying to do it without milk, using hot water and the sweetener. Think the cocoa makes me break out also....but whatever, no aspartame for me.....

aspartame has bad effect on me. gives me diarrhea. i use stevia, and it works fine. whenever i want sweetener i use it. sascha

aspartame gives me unbelievable headaches can't drink it at all
never was much of a water drinker but i am getting some contol on that a try to drink as much as possible

We were discussing aspartame at work the other day. I was talking about the hard time I was having kicking the dt. dr. pepper and the caffeine, due to the really bad headaches. My boss told me it wasn't just the caffiene, but the aspartame I was having a problem kicking. that he ahd read that aspartame could be addictive. He has a theory about it. Apparantly, when aspartame is overheated, it breaks down into formaldehyde. He thinks that is what is causing things like gulf war syndrome. All those sodas sitting in the extreme heat, only being refridgerated when they are about to be consumed. (Please keep in mind this is a theory and not even my own ) It is something to think about. Living in the south, I'm sure the sodas that I drink sit in warehouses, then travel in those hot trucks before being put in the cooler at the nearest store. Makes you wonder.....

When aspartame is heated it loses it's sweetness, so you'd definitely know for sure if your aspartame had "broken down" because your sweet diet drink would taste like crap.

Gosh, then every soda I've tasted that uses aspartame must have been broken down !

There are diet drinks that use Splenda, which has none of that yucky aftertaste that I taste with aspartame... or if I am feeling like I need to be more natural, there's herb tea and stevia... both of which could help with the psychological addiction...

I really like the Hansen's Diet soda (all natural flavors and Splenda for sweetener) but I limit my intake, for a while I was having several every day!

Began 10/16/2006, 257 pounds; ultimate goal 135 pounds

I have started using Splenda and only buying pop that is flavoured with it. I am trying to avoid aspartame at all costs due to the reading I have done that list it as having inflammatory possibilities.

Fortunately, the range of products using splenda in lieu of aspartame is increasing. I also make cocoa using rice milk, and splenda. I am trying to stay away from dairy right now. Soy and rice milk products are fine for my cereal, etc, but straight? YUCK! OH may I also ask,,what is SCD?