Aspartame poisoning! and diet sodas

I used to have severe headaches too. My friend suggested I stop drinking crystal light with aspartame and when I did the headaches went away.

when I drink diet soda or anything like that - I have incontinence.   In my house we say: you can give her Pepsi max, and make he laugh, but please don't do that at the same time" 

The stuff in diet soda drinks irritate my bladder badly and does something to my muscles that I can't "hold it" . 

I always take these things with a grain of salt, since they often seem aimed at making people panic. 

That being said, I do not drink artificial sweeteners. They all make me sick - headache, nausea, misery. That's why I'm so thrilled with Stevia. Even though it's processed to death, it doesn't make me ill, so it's a life-saver. I just wish they made more things with it. None of the light versions of yogurts or candy or anything around me seem to have Stevia. I did, however, find that Sobe Lifewater does, so that's my go-to when I want something sweet to drink.

I don't believe it's because of the aspartame as much the carbonation. The bubbles will over time stretch your pouch. I know for a fact me and another person had RNY SAME day in 2000. That person drinks soda like it's going out of style stretched pouch now. I have had 1 drink in 14 years by mistake my pouch was still in tact. Also alot of WLS SURGEONS now limit the artificial sweetener drinks stating it can hinder weight loss.

Personally I dont know how Rny ppl do it. When I drank a drink of soda I had to pull over on the freeway and lay down. But I thank God because had it not made me beg for death I probably would have been drinking it. Lol but serious

No, for the 752nd time on this forum, carbonation CANNOT stretch your pouch.  It would require the carbonation to defy the laws of Physics for the gas to build up in the pouch rather than exit out of one -- or BOTH -- of the openings in the pouch.  It is not physically possible for enough pressure to build up within the pouch to cause the muscle (the least stretchy part of your stomach, BTW) to expand even temporarily let alone permanently.

Also, drinking diet soda in and of itself does NOT hinder weight loss.  It only hinders weight loss if it causes you to eat things you would not be eating if you weren't drinking the soda or if it causes you to overeat.  I find it interesting that the people who condemn diet soda with artificial sweeteners give a complete pass to coffee drinks with SF flavoring with the very same sweeteners OR to foods with those same sweeteners!

Lora

OMG!! Thank you Lora, my god  this is like the old rumor mill!!! try and set it right and no way!!! I am 10 years post  and was told Yes i could have diet soda, I have NO streached pouch, no migraines, no weight gain, i have 1 or 2 a day.  CARBONATION WILL NOT STRETCH YOUR POUCH!!!!    and Yes i have the coffee with the S/F  and S/f pudding, jello, come on people, wake up, see what you are being told!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I would give anything to drink a nice cold diet Coke I can give up certain foods but the diet coke has been the hardest!!!!

Note that NOT ALL diet soda contains aspartame, and NOT ALL DOCTORS make them "off limits".  Does the fact that you have never heard these things before you read this blog not give you some pause about the validity of the information in this BLOG?  If I write a convincing sounding blog post that provides a lot of bogus "research" and scientific information that shows that eating a specific food can cause us to boost our metabolism to five times its normal level, which you have never heard before, would you also believe that?

Your OH posts are normally very sensible, so I am confused as to why this has you so wound up that you would believe a blog post over scientific data.

Lora

I am not a scientist I am only repeating what the surgeon told this person. Or let me say what she told "me" the doctor stated after her EDG when he found it was stretched. As far as artificial sweetner. DR K is the one who told me no. Dr. Blackstone in Az also gives out literature on No artifical sweetner. Even my diet in hospital I was not allowed artifical sweetner.

To have a physician encourage patients to eliminate ALL artificial sweeteners makes far more sense than the "cherry picking" and only warning of the sweeteners in diet soda.  My surgeon -- who would prefer that we give up diet soda entirely, but is realistic enough to know that many patients will not, so she strongly encourages moderation (in all things) -- also discouraged use of "sugar free" items, including the flavored coffee creamers.

I am not doubting that someone had a stretched pouch/stoma, but there are MANY things (routine overeating being the foremost) that can cause stretching.  carbonation just isn't one of them.  Any surgeon who says that it was caused by diet soda is talking out of his or her ass (it isn't like there is a stamp on it that says "XYZ caused me to stretch", so any absolute reason for the stretching is nothing but a pure guess on the surgeons's part).

Lora