Hi Granmums--

I've traveled in many parts of the world where canned beverages are the only source of safely drinkable liquids. Even bottled water can be suspect in areas where the financial incentive is so great to refill and reseal bottles!

I recall reading an article which mentioned that Dr. Atkins had removed caffinated beverages from his list of acceptable foodstuffs only after 25% of his clinic patients reported some degree of cravings for sweets after drinking them. This tells me that you have 3 chances in 4 of being okay with your Diet Pepsi from that aspect. As for the aspertame content, I think it is unlikely that a week or two of drinking aspertame-containing beverages could pose any significant health risk.

I'd say you will be doing a marvelous job if you can stay close to your LC menu while far from North America. There are plenty of things to worry about for the traveler these days, and diet sodas would probably be pretty far down on my list of perils if I were returning to the Middle East right now!