There isn't much caffeine in a diet Coke. I think it is around
30mg/can.

I do know many people complain of headache with aspartame.
That is the most common thing I hear about it.

Diet Coke is addicting to some. We have a cousin who consumes tons of it. Also I had a chronic pain patient who consumed several 2 liter bottles a day!

There is a caffeine withdrawal headache, but you'd have to consume alot of Diet Coke to get into that range. Caffeine withdrawal happens more commonly with coffee drinkers.
I've had minor type symptoms from tea withdrawal at times. (2 strong cups/day can affect me).

Drinking alot of cola type sodas gives people too much phosphate. This can affect calcium levels in some people.
Some believe that this can affect bone metabolism. However, there are not typically noticeable symptoms from elevated phosphates.

I find that artificial sweeteners affect my PN adversely,
so I do not use them, or buy products with any type
of artificial sweetener in them.

Sweeteners of any kind has never affected me. We use Splenda for most purposes but also keep regular sugar on hand. Soft drinks, as we call 'em in the south, are rarely consumed by me/wife but we keep a variety on hand for company. My fav is Root Beer.

Hi Aussie, as we are not all the same you can only go by what you know affects you, the aspartame in coke may be the culprit, i haven't seen any favorable comments about it anywere, although i drink heaps of diet soft drinks including all the diet coke variations, it doesn't affect me in any way but i don't doubt i could affect others.
I did read somewere that caffeine could affect blood sugar levels, so i went caffeine free for a while but it didn't make one bit of differance to me either, but again that is only me.

Brian

Hi Brian,

The Aspartame has a bad reputation. There's this book out called Sweet Poison about the toxic eefects of this stuff. But it's almost hard to beleive how dangerous it is yet it is still being sold. They could easily replace it with something like Stevia sweetener.

Thank you,
Aussie

Dan it's nice to hear from you.

I also use Splenda, but I have recently heard reports that Splenda is also toxic. I can't imagine it being like Aspartame. I just don't know what to drink to replace me diet coke. I don't like just drinking water. It seems that everything we drink or eat these days is bad for us. I don't drink alcohol because of the meds I take and my HBP, so at social gatherings I was very happy with a diet coke with ice and a lemon. Now I need to find a new drink.

Hi Bob,

Thanks for reply. Can I ask you if this happens quickly or is it a compound eefect over time. Do you drink the stuff and notice right away that your nerves are firing? I got my headache almost right away. I am trying to cut it out for a few weeks and see how I go.

Within an hour or so.My wife drinks diet everything and sometimes I'll take a sip of something that's new, but it takes a 12-16 oz dose of diet soda for me to notice it.
It's sometimes hard to tell, like when she makes a pitcher of diet lemonade from a package, but a large full glass, is enough.
I don't know if its cumulative as I've never 'accumulated' more than one 12-16 oz portion at a time, since I've had PN.

is composed of two amino acids.

Phenylalanine + aspartic acid.

Aspartate and glutamate both are neurostimulants.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NMDA_receptor

Aspartate is less active than glutamate, but the receptor is
involved with pain perception.

And some consider phenylalanine a trigger for migraines:
http://familydoctor.org/online/famdo...rders/127.html

I read an article over two years ago now about how a bunch of people who had been diagnosed with MS based on symptoms and had been avid diet soda drinkers found their symptoms completely resolved when they quit drinking diet soda. I'll look to see if I can find the article again and post it if I do. I remember it b/c my BF at the time was a chain diet coke drinker and was having MS-like symptoms so I took note and asked him to cut out the diet coke and see what happens. I don't think he ever tried it though.