Guest guest Posted January 10, 2008 Report Share Posted January 10, 2008 http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSL1021384320080111 A long time ago I went on a liquid diet - optifast, like Oprah once did. As the months went on I subconsciously needed more but didn't want to eat and found myself using sugar-free gum, sugar-free soda and sugar-free mints to take the edge off. These are things I seldom use normally. But I didn't take as many as the people in the article. Probably a couple pieces of gum, several mints and several (12-oz cans) sodas a day at most but usually less most days. I don't know what type of artificial sweetener was used in them, probably different ones. I began to have a lot of gas and diarrhea but not lots as I wasn't eating anything. I had small amts rather frequently though and it was unpleasant (guess it always is, lol). I told the doctors about it and their response was that it had nothing to do with the diet and left it at that. I went on vacation where I didn't have access to those things and by time I returned home after a week, symptoms had gone away. Later I took a nutrition class in which the teacher talked about artificial sweeteners and how the different in time they spend in the bowel than regular sugar does, has an effect on the bacteria that lives there. Actually I guess it's the effect bacteria has on the artificial sweetener. I thought of what had happened when I began consuming more artificial sugar and right away knew that is what happened. Probably I was affected more due to the lack of food in my stomach but there are people who consume great quantities of diet soda in a day and it must affect them the same way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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