5 ms·

Take this with a grain of aspartame, but I was also very gung ho on artificial sweetners and swept all the fear mongering in with gluten and msg. Aka bullshit.

Take this with a grain of aspartame, but I was also very gung ho on artificial sweetners and swept all the fear mongering in with gluten and msg. Aka bullshit. For years, I was drinking tons of diet soda. Maybe 2L per day of diet root beer. For whatever reason, 4 years ago, I became super sensitive to aspartame. It would make me hyperalert like a more subtle version of caffeine. I had insmonia for random days. It took me forever to isolate it to aspartame, since I've never had a problem, nor suspected there could even be a problem. I don't have pku but it is what it is. Sucralose, stevia, regular sugar still fine. Bodies are weird. I still believe in science but the older I get, the more I give credence that in some people things just work differently. I don't just jump to the conclusion that they're making something up just because official scienctific papers say it's 99.999% safe.

tuatoru 4y ago
I don't know what artificial sweeteners are used in NZ, but they trigger my asthma. I mostly stick to soda water (only carbon dioxide, no flavorings) these days.
jansan 4y ago
I drank a lot of Coca-Cola life (the one with stevia) and thought that I may have found a drink with a good-enough taste/sugar balance for me. Then, from one day to the other, I got absolutely disgusted by one part of the drink's taste, most probably the sweetener. I could not drink a single glass anymore and today when I even think about Coca-Cola life, it sends me a shiver down the spline. I can drink infinite quantities of drinks made with cheap sugar-free lemonade sirup, so other sweeteners seem to be fine for me, but not stevia.
- purplerabbit 4y ago
  Fascinating. It's like your body gradually figured out that you were trying to fool it, and revolted. I'd bet there are digestion processes that "start up" in response to taste. Maybe your body detected that stevia was regularly "starting up" one of these processes and then withholding the expected glucose spike, and got upset about the pattern
  - jimmywetnips 4y ago
    I think that was some of the findings in the linked research. Certain artificial sugars were changing insulin response in subjects. I'm just a sample size of 1, and they're a sample size of 100 but I think it's clear that the beliefe that ALL the artificial sugars are inert and pass right through us is false... sometimes.
- layer8 4y ago
  Stevia has a bitter-ish side taste that is truly awful.
  - duderific 4y ago
    Totally agree, I can't drink anything with Stevia. I can taste it immediately. My father in law thinks it's the greatest thing ever, doesn't bother him at all. Go figure.
    - layer8 4y ago
      There are genetic differences in how one tastes bitterness (e.g. the TAS2R38 gene), so that might be one factor.
- kyriakos 4y ago
  Stevia when used on it's own as a sweetener leaves a bad after taste of bitterness. It's better be used in combination with another sweetener or sugar (just to decrease the amount of regular sugar in a product). Most products advertised containing stevia usually include an additional sweetener if you pay attention at the ingredients list.
- gilrain 4y ago
  To me, stevia tastes distinctly like the aroma of burnt hair. It’s intolerable.
zrm 4y ago
> It would make me hyperalert like a more subtle version of caffeine. I had insmonia for random days. That's phenylalanine. Its metabolites are interesting. One of them is tyrosine, which itself is the precursor to dopamine and adrenaline. Another is phenethylamine. That's a fun class of drugs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substituted_phenethylamine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substituted_phenethylamine Phenethylamine itself becomes N-Methylphenethylamine, not at all dissimilar to its structural isomer, A-Methylphenethylamine, better known as amphetamine. How much phenylalanine is metabolized into each of these is complicated and depends on a lot of things, but sounds like you did something to cause it to be more.
- jimmywetnips 4y ago
  whaaaaat? Dude you're blowing my mind. I remember diving deep on PKU to see if maybe I had that. I think I remember "clearing" myself by checking 23and me and I didn't have the bad genes? I also eat plenty of phenylalanine so I don't think I have issues with that per se, but maybe like you said, one of the other metabolites is being wonky in me. Thanks so much for the info, I'm gonna read into this more
finger 4y ago
Lots of sodas contain caffeine. If you drank 2L of any sodas containing caffeine then that would likely be equivalent of a few cups of coffee per day.

tuatoru 4y ago

I don't know what artificial sweeteners are used in NZ, but they trigger my asthma. I mostly stick to soda water (only carbon dioxide, no flavorings) these days.

jansan 4y ago

I drank a lot of Coca-Cola life (the one with stevia) and thought that I may have found a drink with a good-enough taste/sugar balance for me. Then, from one day to the other, I got absolutely disgusted by one part of the drink's taste, most probably the sweetener. I could not drink a single glass anymore and today when I even think about Coca-Cola life, it sends me a shiver down the spline. I can drink infinite quantities of drinks made with cheap sugar-free lemonade sirup, so other sweeteners seem to be fine for me, but not stevia.

purplerabbit 4y ago
Fascinating. It's like your body gradually figured out that you were trying to fool it, and revolted. I'd bet there are digestion processes that "start up" in response to taste. Maybe your body detected that stevia was regularly "starting up" one of these processes and then withholding the expected glucose spike, and got upset about the pattern
- jimmywetnips 4y ago
  I think that was some of the findings in the linked research. Certain artificial sugars were changing insulin response in subjects. I'm just a sample size of 1, and they're a sample size of 100 but I think it's clear that the beliefe that ALL the artificial sugars are inert and pass right through us is false... sometimes.
layer8 4y ago
Stevia has a bitter-ish side taste that is truly awful.
- duderific 4y ago
  Totally agree, I can't drink anything with Stevia. I can taste it immediately. My father in law thinks it's the greatest thing ever, doesn't bother him at all. Go figure.
  - layer8 4y ago
    There are genetic differences in how one tastes bitterness (e.g. the TAS2R38 gene), so that might be one factor.
kyriakos 4y ago
Stevia when used on it's own as a sweetener leaves a bad after taste of bitterness. It's better be used in combination with another sweetener or sugar (just to decrease the amount of regular sugar in a product). Most products advertised containing stevia usually include an additional sweetener if you pay attention at the ingredients list.
gilrain 4y ago
To me, stevia tastes distinctly like the aroma of burnt hair. It’s intolerable.

zrm 4y ago

> It would make me hyperalert like a more subtle version of caffeine. I had insmonia for random days. That's phenylalanine. Its metabolites are interesting. One of them is tyrosine, which itself is the precursor to dopamine and adrenaline. Another is phenethylamine. That's a fun class of drugs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substituted_phenethylamine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substituted_phenethylamine Phenethylamine itself becomes N-Methylphenethylamine, not at all dissimilar to its structural isomer, A-Methylphenethylamine, better known as amphetamine. How much phenylalanine is metabolized into each of these is complicated and depends on a lot of things, but sounds like you did something to cause it to be more.

jimmywetnips 4y ago
whaaaaat? Dude you're blowing my mind. I remember diving deep on PKU to see if maybe I had that. I think I remember "clearing" myself by checking 23and me and I didn't have the bad genes? I also eat plenty of phenylalanine so I don't think I have issues with that per se, but maybe like you said, one of the other metabolites is being wonky in me. Thanks so much for the info, I'm gonna read into this more

finger 4y ago

Lots of sodas contain caffeine. If you drank 2L of any sodas containing caffeine then that would likely be equivalent of a few cups of coffee per day.