My Science Experiment

I am here to confess that I am a Diet Coke lover. I only have one a day….well, maybe two….but that’s it. I swear.

But I’ve come to find out that Diet Coke doesn’t love me.

A few years ago, I found I was disoriented, dizzy, “out to lunch”, and had lots of headaches. I finally realized it was the aspartame (Nutra Sweet) in the Diet Coke that was causing this. When I switched to regular (full strength!), all these symptoms went away. It was wild.

After a while though, I missed my old friend so switched back. I thought I’d be clever this time and outfox my Diet Coke. I started drinking Diet Coke with Splenda. It was a new product and rated to be much safer than aspartame.

Perhaps nine months have gone by since I made the switch. Maybe a year…I am not sure.

Ah, a year of bliss. I was in heaven.

But then strange things began to happen.

I noticed that my vision was blurry. It was only in one eye at a time and never the same one. Odd. I thought it was my contacts but when I took them out and wore glasses, nothing changed.

Hmmm.

I noticed other things too: breakouts on my face, headaches, foggy brain, and fatigue.

Hmmm.

I chalked it up to stress. After all, my life can be stressful.

I happened to mention to my principal about my weird eye thing….had to wear my glasses to school that day. First time in ten years. She immediately called in the school nurse who took my blood pressure.

Guess what? My blood pressure was elevated.

Another hmmmm.

The nurse said, “Well, it’s not like you’re stressed or anything, right?”

(insert tongue in cheek)

I know I’m stressed, don’t sleep extremely well at times, have not been exercising, and probably don’t eat the best (especially when life is really busy), but I had not expected this. Before running to the doctor, I thought I’d make a few life-style changes to see if that helped.

Well, two days ago, I got the brilliant idea to google Splenda.

Guess what I found? In some cases, people are super sensitive to this additive.

Guess what else? They display the same symptoms I have…including increased blood pressure. Toss in the headaches treated with ibuprofen, there is another blood pressure increase.

So, I kissed my old friend goodbye and will never return.

Forty-eight hours after being Splenda free, I had no vision issues at school today. None.

Kinda makes me wonder.

What about you?