My mom continues to drive me nuts. She reads somewhere on the internet that aspartame (nutrasweet) can cause these auto-immune diseases. RA, Lupus, etc. She even says that nutrasweet may cause MS in someone who is suscectable. I love my diet pepsi and cannot live without it. My Rheumy says nutrasweet is NOT a cause, but what do you the experts think?!?I sure hope it's not true - my Diet Coke and I are inseparable! I don't drink coffee, so I need to get caffeine somewhere to run my engine!My own opinion..is to get off all the chemicals. My diet coke has absolutely no nutritional value so I cut it out of my diet. I cheat with popcorn and a soda at an occasional movie. It was hard but I did it. I try to stay away from coffee as well. I now have hot water with lemon in the am. It helps detox the liver. When my bloodwork results come back high on liver functions....I detox with lemon water, colonics, and raw juices. My rheumie is amazed at how fast I can bring down the blood work numbers. I used to drink diet pepsi quite often, but now I only have it occasionally. Aspartame is just not good for anyone. But there are a lot of things that aren't good for me that I still have, I just don't over do it with those things.NUtrasweet has been proven to cause higher seizure activity in some people and none of the sugar subs are good for you. On top of it sodium benzoate added with another chemical in diet pop can cause the chemical benzonite(?), please excuse my spelling, it is a chemical in dry cleanning, which in turn can cause cancer.
Try regular soda and maybe she will leave you alone for awhile.Just trust your Rheumy. It doesn't cause Ra but it does cause inflammation, so be careful. Also additives like the carmel color in sodas are things that cause inflamm as well.
The only thing that I have ever heard about being problematic is phosphates which can cause bone density...but the truth is that anything in moderation is okay and anything in excess can hurt you. People have died from drinking too much water. A diet soda, cup or two of coffee, or a glass of milk is not going to make anyones RA worse unless there is some sort of food intolerance or allergy there. I think that there is often a tendency for people to want to find a scapegoat, something to blame the symptoms on. It is understandable because we all would love find that magic factor that makes the difference, but the reality is that there is nothing at this point that has been proven to cause or relieve symptoms in a significant number of people. And I dont think you have to give up your diet Pepsi just yet.
Before I went on pred. I was warned about the weight gain, so I cut out all sugar products and switched to diet soda, and sweet-n-low in my coffee, I was...am... a sugar junky, so I hope that it doesnt cause anymore flaring just cutting all the sweets out and trying to be good! Everything with this disease has a catch-no-? Take the med. feel better, get huge, cut out sugar to be healthy and flare.....sigh.....someday there wont be a catch! or a trigger! Im hopeful!!!!
DC