Hi everyone,
on nearly completing week two of induction, I have found myself drinking all the water I can, and encourage the same to all starting out, helps with the headaches, cravings and keeps you hydrated, I drink around 4 + liters of water everyday.

Now my question is this, as I don't drink tea or coffee, what else in your opinon can I drink safely, most if not all of my favorite zero carb sparkling/diluting drinks contain "Aspartame" is this going to effect the rate of progress, or am I just being over cautious? lets face it they are all zero carbs.

The same applies to suger free jelly again contains "Aspartame" what do you all think, do you drink/eat such products and is there little need to worry?

I do enjoy my blackcurrant and orange drinks, but willing to leave them out if I have to.

Thanks

Graeme.

It's one of those "your mileage may vary" issues. Soft drinks with aspartame have a negative effect on some people, but not on others. If you want to try soft drinks with aspartame, you can always experiment and see what they do to you.

I, personally, drink more caffeine-free diet Cokes than I want to admit and I don't thnk they interfere with my rate of weight loss, but I also don't think they are very good for me (which is why I am trying to cut them out). The are the one unnatural, unhealthy, fake food left in my diet and they are definitely an addiction.

I don't know if it is available in Scotland, but if it is, Diet Rite Cola is made wth Splenda, not aspartame. Personally, I think it tastes awful, but a lot of peopel on this forum like it. A lot of people (including Dr. Atkins) also think that Splenda is better for you than aspartame.

Hello,

My personal experience with jellies and drinks has been that they have in no way slowed my loss. I find that a sweet drink really satisfies any craving I might have. I have found that the LC candies etc. send me into an instant stall so I stick with the SF jellies and drinks. I do so miss the diluting drinks after having lived in England though. We have one store here that sells them but at an outrageous price. So when we go to england must fill up suitcase with goodies and bring back with us. I'd start out having one drink a day and see how it goes. Good luck with it.

Hi Graeme,

I use aspartame products fairly regularily, I enjoy a couple of 600ml bottles of diet coke each week (I limit myself to two a week) and use some s/f jelly that has aspartame. I do try however to buy stuff that hasn't been sweetened with aspartame but its rare down here to find much else....

And I've seen no problems in myself with using it, maybe if I was drinking diet coke everyday and eating jelly daily I would change my habits but I don't so I'm ok with that ....

Fiona

EAS and Twinlab make carb free soft drinks. The one I saw from EAS is "women's formula", but i don't see what makes a drink formulated for a woman. It's not like they put estrogen in it or something. Both drinks are VERY VERY good. They are sweetened with sucralose so you don't have to worry about the aspartame stalling you. Bother drinks have no calories, no fat, no carbs and no sugar, plus they are supposed to boost your energy (ginseng, green tea, and caffiene- the only bad part- are added). I got both at a local grocery store (Pathmark), but you can probably find them in GNC, too.

I, alas, am sensitive to aspartame -- gives me headaches & jitters -- although I did try this last week to incorporate a couple of diet Dr. Pepper's into my diet. Big mistake! Not only did I still experience the anti-aspartame symptoms from my old WOE, but the scale didn't move this week -- since adding the aspartame is the only thing I did differently, I've gone back to tea & water.

Hi Graeme

I do not have a lot of aspartame in my way of life, but have not found it stalled me. I used to eat Rowntrees sugar free jelly every day, usually mixed with cream cheese, without any problems.

Every day I put some sainsburys sugar free squash in my water bottle and then when I have almost finished it I fill the bottle up again so there is just a taste of the squash. In that way I don't drink lots of aspartame.

I suggest you give it a try. If further down stream you find there is a problem then this is something you can cut out to see if it has an effect.

I was never one for fizzy drinks and so have no experience there. Of course, splenda is not in our drinks yet.

I love drinking blackcurrant tea. I get my T-bags from Sainsburys.

Contnued success.

Hi all,
thanks for taking the time to reply, I guess the message accross the board is morderation.

I am going to enjoy these items above, as ocassional treats and will continue to drink water as my first choice, but when required drink a little sweet stuff, to keep up the fluids.

Thanks

Graeme PS have a great week

While at the grocery store the other day I was looking at the labels on a lot of the sodas. Diet Rite uses sucralose (splenda) to sweeten its sodas. I've tried the diet red raspberry and I LOVE it. They also make diet cola, but I haven't had that one yet. Check it out, it's yummy!

All along I have been drinking soft drinks with nutrasweet and lost with no problem. Now I am not stalled justing getting closer to my goal and have decided to try no nutrasweet for a while.

i drink iced tea with saccarin tablets---the tablets have much less carbs than the packets.

I've noticed less headaches lately but I've had headaches my whole life so maybe its related maybe not.

Well I am losing well so i am going to keep it up for a bit.

BeccaResRN,

I have headaches as well. Since I've started LCing and keeping track of sweetener usage, I have noticed a correlation between some of my headaches and Aspartame usage.

I've still had a few migraines, but I was getting a different type of headache during the early afternoon that seems to have vanished (I had been chalking it up to tension). Now it only seems to happen if I have Aspartame (and pretty darned quickly afterwards as well - about 20-30 minutes).

I also drink Diet Rite products to some degree. It's not that I don't like them, but I drank a hell of a lot of them so I got kinda burned out on them. I'm almost always drinking water these days.

I do occassionally allow myself a diet coke or some such thing sweetened with aspartame. I don't think it's caused any stalls or cravings. But again, I may have one or two a week. YMMV.

Can't beat water!

Donald

How are you doing on your first 2 weeks of Induction ? I eat the Jello with nutrasweet every night as my sweet treat with whipped cream on top. It doesn't appear to stall me. I drink maybe 2-3 diet cherry Coke per week, the rest of the time it is water, water, water. I think I will make some lemonaid/ice tea for a change of pace. I like the Crystal Light, but again that has Nutrasweet.


Looks like Nutrasweet grabbed the market as it was out before Splenda. I read that it costs millions to the diet soft drink industry to change over to Splenda, they have to reformulate, etc. Also a lot of them are tied into long term contracts with Nutrasweet. I don't expect to see Coke or Pepsi switch for a long time.

I personally can't handle any soft drinks no matter what the sweetener. I end of with edema and terrible cravings.

I drink Dasani water which is very soft and to me has a great taste. I sometimes will drink some green tea or put lemon on my water but I have resigned myself to natures bounty and drink water.

I have switched over from diet coke to diet RC and I think it is just as good. It is made with Splenda also like the diet rite. Also, a sweet treat is to get WASA bread (which is acceptable) spread cream cheese on it with Spenda on top. MMMM yummy it will satisfy my craving for sweets.