Obviously when I was diagnosed as diabetic I looked at the foodstuffs I was throwing down my neck. I wasn't concerned about soft drinks as I only drank water or diet cola (various brands, decaf diet coke when I can afford it, otherwise supermarket brands,) and in the evening I would add a dash (!!) of rum to the diet cola.

Since then, having decided that I already had a low sugar, low salt and low fat diet, I haven't really revisited what I ingest. Until now. Something caught my eye about diet drinks and sugar substitutes, and what I read is quite scarey. Look at the following symptoms:

Abdominal Pain
Anxiety attacks
arthritis
asthma
Asthmatic Reactions
Bloating, Edema (Fluid Retention)
Blood Sugar Control Problems (Hypoglycemia or Hyperglycemia)
Brain Cancer (Pre-approval studies in animals)
Breathing difficulties
burning eyes or throat
Burning Urination
can't think straight
Chest Pains
chronic cough
Chronic Fatigue
Confusion
Death
Depression
Diarrhea
Dizziness
Excessive Thirst or Hunger
fatigue
feel unreal
flushing of face
Hair Loss (Baldness) or Thinning of Hair
Headaches/Migraines dizziness
Hearing Loss
Heart palpitations
Hives (Urticaria)
Hypertension (High Blood Pressure)
Impotency and Sexual Problems
inability to concentrate
Infection Susceptibility
Insomnia
Irritability
Itching
Joint Pains
laryngitis
"like thinking in a fog"
Marked Personality Changes
Memory loss
Menstrual Problems or Changes
Migraines and Severe Headaches (Trigger or Cause From Chronic Intake)
Muscle spasms
Nausea or Vomiting
Numbness or Tingling of Extremities
Other Allergic-Like Reactions
Panic Attacks
Phobias
poor memory
Rapid Heart Beat
Rashes
Seizures and Convulsions
Slurring of Speech
Swallowing Pain
Tachycardia
Tremors
Tinnitus
Vertigo
Vision Loss
Weight gain


Or have the following conditions become worse ??

Fibromyalgia
Arthritis
Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
Parkinson's Disease
Lupus
Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS)
Diabetes and Diabetic Complications
Epilepsy
Alzheimer's Disease
Birth Defects
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Lymphoma
Lyme Disease
Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
Panic Disorder
Depression and other Psychological Disorders

Quite a long list is it not. It seems (according to THIS website) to be linked to aspartme (nutrasweet) and a side effect of methane poisoning that can occur when aspartme is used as a sugar substitute. Again according to the website, this is what happens:

How it happens:

Methanol, from aspartame, is released in the small intestine when the methyl group of aspartame encounters the enzyme chymotrypsin (Stegink 1984, page 143). Free methanol begins to form in liquid aspartame-containing products at temperatures above 86 degrees F.. also within the human body.

The methanol is then converted to formaldehyde. The formaldehyde converts to formic acid, ant sting poison. Toxic formic acid is used as an activator to strip epoxy and urethane coatings. Imagine what it does to your tissues!

Phenylalanine and aspartic acid, 90% of aspartame, are amino acids normally used in synthesis of protoplasm when supplied by the foods we eat. But when unaccompanied by other amino acids we use [there are 20], they are neurotoxic.

That is why a warning for Phenylketonurics is found on EQUAL and other aspartame products. Phenylketenurics are 2% of the population with extreme sensitivity to this chemical unless it's present in food. It gets you too, causing brain disorders and birth defects! Finally, the phenyalanine breaks down into DKP, a brain tumor agent.

In other words: Aspartame converts to dangerous byproducts that have no natural countermeasures. A dieter's empty stomach accelerates these conversions and amplifies the damage. Components of aspartame go straight to the brain, damage that causes headaches, mental confusion, seizures and faulty balance. Lab rats and other test animals died of brain tumors.

So I guess the case for much more research into Lo Han Gua fruit as a sugar substitute gains strength. Now all I have to do is weigh up the risks and see what drink to add my rum to, and especially if I can find a diet cola brand that does not use Aspartme, rumour has it that Sainsbury own brand diet cola uses an alternative to Aspartme called sucralose, a low-calorie sweetener made from sugar. Now, how would that affect my diabetes I wonder? Here is a wiki article on sucralose. And to be evenly balanced, here is a page about the 'dangers' of sucralose, apparently it is in the same chemical family as DDT.

What a minefield! Perhaps I should just give up drinking liquids. (Have you seen what is in 'clean and safe' water? No? Perhaps you ought to ask your local University Chem labs to analyse it for you. You might just be very very very suprised, (just how many drug addicts bodies has a pint of water already passed through before it gets to you?)