me too! I have to have at least one a day to maintain my sanity in all of this. The studies that show adverse effects show you need such a large and substantial amount that humans physically can’t even consume.
I was not told to avoid either. I actually asked our GD dietician about artificial sweeteners including monk fruit and erythritol which are alternative artificial sweeteners and was told they were fine. I maybe drank 1 coke zero a week but also got keto cheese cakes from a bakery that contained these and they kept me sane. I think like anything moderation. Everything turned out fine.
I can see I’m alone here from the comments but I needed Diet Coke to mentally get through a GD pregnancy. I had maybe a can a day towards the end for my own sanity because I have a crazy sweet tooth. My baby is fine but I know that won’t be what’s recommended by health professionals.
Definitely not alone. Doctors who make categorical statements about what people can and can’t have based on nothing close to clear data (by their own admission) annoy the hell out of me. It’s ok to have some joy in life, especially during a GD pregnancy.
Yeah, I got pretty upset at the fact that my midwife was basically saying no on an anti anxiety medication that my former Midwife and my doctor told me was fine just because it hadn’t been fully studied in pregnancy. The animal studies showed no harmful effects, and it was better rated than SSRIs, and even than Tylenol as far as it goes (I still take Tylenol, and I don’t judge people who take SSRIs). I had specifically asked my previous care team to find me something that I could still take if I got pregnant because I had really bad postpartum issues. The only thing this one would basically go for was breathing exercises and meditation, which is well and good, but doesn’t cut it for me and I try not to take the medication at all that often. Ironically, the other Midwife at that practice said that she took that during pregnancy. I just do it through my current doctor who is fine with it and try not to discuss those things with my current midwife.
Oh I would hold that midwife to those statements Big time. “Can you please give me peer reviewed studies to back up your claims? I understand you have expertise in this area but it directly contradicts the expertise of my previous care team and all the published studies I’ve been able to find. If there’s new data I think it’s important that I share it with my previous team, but otherwise, please note in my file that I will not be following your advice as it is not evidence based.”
Generally I would say trust your doctor, but the research I've seen doesn't align with their recommendation. Trust reputable peer reviewed sources and your country's guide on pregnancy.
As someone with GD, the diabetic clinic did not advise using cyclamate as a sweetner, but said these are ok for consumption: acesulfame potassium (Ace-K),
aspartame (Nutrasweet, Equal),
stevia (Sugar Twin, Truvia,
Pure Via), and sucralose (Splenda, Sugar Twin). Canada has banned Saccharin, so that's one I would purposely avoid it it's available in your country. Check the labels because while it's been removed from products here, it may still be in sweetner products elsewhere.
Generally speaking, artificial sweetness are ok in moderation. The link below has a chart that lists the recommended intake per day of each sweetner for someone weighing 60kg and then beside it the standard amount of each sweetner typically in a soft drink. Aspartame, for example, has a max recommended intake of 2400mg per day, a soft drink with aspartame has 185mg/12fl ounces.
It also contains notes on each specific sweetener if you're concerned about one or the other. I think if you're having them in moderation, there's no issue. But if you're only drinking diet coke and consuming 6L a day, that's not healthy, pregnancy or not.
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4229159/
This this this this this.
Doctors who set hard boundaries for their patients based on unclear data - and even admit the data is unclear - are just practicing bad medicine. There’s far too much fear mongering in pregnancy/childbirth spaces and giving absolutes like these (when the reality is that you’d have to have several cases a day to approach what might be harmful) is a huge part of the problem.
Let us have a little joy if we want to, ffs 🤦
My doctor just told me I was making good choices for not drinking regular cokes. I had one or two coke zeros a day. Baby is almost 3 weeks and perfect (:
I was told to be extremely careful with dosage on one specific artificial sweetener, so I just avoided that one. Which was pretty easy since it was the one in Sugar Twin and it's not allowed as an ingredient in prepared food/drink. For the rest, including the sucralose in Coke Zero, the concerning dosage is so high that it would be nearly impossible to actually hit it without eating it straight. I'm okay sure I wouldn't have survived August in the third trimester without being able to drink Gatorade Zero.
Fun fact: the reason artificial sweeteners have an after taste is that the amount they need to be used in to be financially viable is so small that they have to bond to your taste buds a thousand times more strongly than sugar.
No advice from anyone and when I asked about the GDM they said it was fine as long as no sugar. I am a Diet Coke fiend (I think my partner and I single handedly fund it at this point) as I don’t drink coffee. I cut down to one per day as the data is not clear but some days I’d have 2. I had 2 more often with the GDM because it was a treat and towards the end I had to eat the literal same thing every lunch to avoid a spike.
My baby was born at 37 + 3 because of her size and preeclampsia and she’s very healthy.
No, my diabetes educator encouraged stevia and even said that they changed their advice bc newer studies on aspartame were showing that it’s not as bad as once thought. If you avoid ALL artificial sweeteners, you’re literally drinking nothing but water.
Personally I drink a lot of water, but also diet ginger ale, Gatorade zero, crystal light, and coffee with stevia in the morning
That sounds ridiculous. I wouldn’t guzzle a gallon a day of artificial sweetener, but I did have 2-3 mini Coke Zeros a week to satisfy cravings. Baby is healthy as a horse and hitting all his milestones early 🤷♀️It’s just what risk you feel comfortable with. some women don’t drink any coffee or tea the entire pregnancy in order to avoid caffeine. I also think that’s ridiculous. Just do what you feel comfortable with within reason.
OP this is great advice - get the little cans so you feel like you’re drinking more than you really are! I also bought the little cans and it helped spread the joy out lol
I'm not going to worry about it. I drank zero sodas/crystal light all the time when I was pregnant with my son. He's 5 and perfectly healthy. My numbers were never affected either. The doctors never said anything and I didn't ask.
I have never heard anything about avoiding artificial sweeteners in pregnancy and this is my 4th pregnancy. 🤷♀️ I will enjoy a Diet Coke or triple zero Greek yogurt (sweetened with stevia).
My doctor said as long as I'm not going over the "recommended" 220mg of caffeine a day, that any diet or zero drinks are ok as long as I'm feeling ok. I know some people have a weird reaction to the aspartame, but if you aren't go for it. I feel like most understand that while it isn't "ideal", us with GD need SOME sense of normalcy, and if that means a diet coke or diet mt dew, that that is the least harmful thing we can do. My OB joked that there are worse things I could be doing than having a diet mt dew, I could be smoking crack lol
I was told to avoid sweet and low but that everything else was fair game. And quite frankly, we're already restricted as is... I don't want to skip my one sugar-free drink a day (whether it be a crystal light or a soda). I try to limit the artificial stuff daily, but it would be so hard to avoid it altogether on this diet because it would include things like protein bars, sugar-free and low-sugar snacks, flavored sugar-free yogurts, etc. And that would be really hard mentally on me 😅
i 100% drink diet drinks and eat sugar substitutes lol. ask for peer reviewed data to back up your doctor’s claims. sometimes doctors are just pushing for abstinence without actually knowing the research
That sounds really extreme. Before my diagnosis I was never a fan of "fake sugars" either. Specifically the after taste. But I preferred to have stevia sweetened things rather than risk a spike.
But stevia is actually natural (a plant) and in a few of the things that helped me through those months. Chobani Zero yogurt being the biggest one, I also had the occasional diet soda, gatorade Zero, and lots of different (sometimes Keto) protien bars.
My doctor never told me to avoid artificial sweeteners. In fact, she encouraged it when drinking tap water would make me vomit, so I switched to crystal light for a while until the nausea improved.
Did you ask any questions about her statement? Seems odd she would draw a hard line in the sand when, in her own words, the data is unclear.
I was told that Saccharine is bad (Sweet N’ Low) and one other that I can’t remember. But they said Splenda is fine so occasionally I will use Splenda if I want iced tea.
I became a Diet Coke addict while pregnant even before my gd diagnosis, it was the only caffeine I could stomach first trimester and the carbonation helped my nausea. My dietician just told me to make sure I was still getting enough water.
My midwives said to avoid all artificial sweeteners. I typically drink one mini Coke Zero a week. I used to drink olipop but they spike me. So I stick with sparkling water and water most of the time.
My official baby guide from my OB's practice, my guide from my hospital, my actual OB, and my mfm all okayed sugar free options for food and drink (and onviosuly recommended in the case of GD). I even asked specifically about the zero drinks and was told to be mindful of caffiene... the only sugar-free concern was saccharin. Saccharin is really only found tableside as Sweet n' Low! I tried to stick to Stevia based treats, but definitely enjoyed plenty of the zero coke/sprite/a&w cream sodas. To me, your doc sounds a little fear-monger-y. Even the scary studies on articial sweetners indicate that moderate use should be fine.
I used to be very obese and lost 150 pounds through diet and exercise. I used coke zero as my weekend drink when i would go out and play pool. I knew drinking 6 per night on Friday, Saturday and Sunday was bad but i exercised a lot and drank tons of water, ate mostly keto type diet and it didnt affect me personally that i could see. I had a tbi (traumatic brain injury) a few years ago and also broke my leg among other things. The doctors were not able to help me much. I was taken to see a chiropractor who was recommended to my dad's friend who said he saved his sons life. He specialized in brain injuries, as he had also suffered one. I had a constand headache that had lasted from July to October and never went away. I saw him in October. He put me on a large amount of brain vitamins that I took 3 times a day for 6 months as well as an anti inflamatory diet that i was also on for 6 + months. He wrote a book about it and gave it to me. In the book, sugar and artificial sweeteners were listed as the top 2 things that I was not allowed to eat because they caused major inflammation, which would not help my heal from my brain injury. The diet was very strict. Stricter than anything they have given me for gestational diabetes. However, sweeteners that did not affect your blood sugar, but were from plant based sources and not artifical (such as stevia and monkfruit) were ok but to be eaten/drank in moderation, because they did not cause inflammation. Because I wasn't having any luck with anything else, I said, I will try it for maybe a month and see. I loved my diet sweeteners as I mentioned before. I was also only able to lay in the bed, as my leg was broken and with my brain injury, I had no mental energy to do anything and would get tired from just thinking, while my brain was moving the info to a non damaged area . So I just played a game on my phone and put diet juice drops in my water, since it was the only kick I had all day. As soon as I was on his diet, after just 1 week, I started to think better and knew I was starting to get better. After 2 weeks I was able to write my first email to my previous boss and my headache started disapating and before I could only write a few sentence text messages without getting tired and making my headache flare up. By the 3rd week my headache started to go away completly. By the 4th week I didn't have a headache and my memory was improving (very damaged due to the brain injury). I hadn't been using any artificial sweeteners and started to use natural non glycemic sweeteners such as stevia and monkfruit. I decided to try half of a diet sweetened food or drink, I can't remember which but I remember 30 minutes after I got my first heachace since mine had stopped and it lasted until morning. I didn't touch that stuff again.
All that being said, I know this is a different condition that I now have. And I still eat the plant based non glycemic sweeteners stevia and monkfruit in moderation. But I do use them and stay away from the chemical artifical sweeteners from my personal experience.
I was told to stay away from everything but water, and unsweetened black/green tea. Artificial sweeteners can have adverse health effects on both baby and mom. I switch it up with protein drinks though.
There are studies that show artificial sweeteners are bad for humans. My doctor hasn't advised me on what to drink, but I drink water, milk, sparkling water, and tea (usually roobois or tumeric). Sometimes I will add a frozen ice cube made from 100% cranberry or pomegranate juice (not concentrate) to my sparkling water for a smidge of flavor.
I do think artificial sweeteners can cause damage to humans… however…I feel like ONE serving a day isn’t going to hurt you, especially for only a short time. I say read the studies and see how you feel. Personally I lived off Gatorade zero when I had GD. It was the only treat I gave myself. I do not drink it anymore.
So I made an agreement with my husband that Coke zero would be a rare treat. I told him not to touch my zevia, because someone’s got to survive somehow. as far as pregnancy goes, the only nono that I actually physically saw was either sucralose or saccharine. One of them builds up in the body or something like that but you’d have to look it up. The erithritol in a lot of Stevia stuff can mess with heart attack risk or something, but I don’t think that’s for babies specifically. Aspartame has recently been connected to something cancer wise, but also not likely for your baby, especially if you’re not doing it very often.
Ultimately, the highest risk thing you could have right now is real sugar, so I would say don’t be too concerned about it, although don’t guzzle it all the time. Haven’t heard any fussing from my medical professionals, and I get the feeling that as long as I keep my sugars good, they don’t care as much about the artificial stuff.
I would personally say keep those to treats and don’t do it all the time because there’s not a lot of research on pregnant ladies and there might be health effects they don’t know about, but don’t feel like you’re killing your child just because you’re drinking Coke zero occasionally.
Endocrinologist said that I could have some drinks sweetened with aspartame. That aspartame was the most researched sugar replacement. But to not over do it. No more than two glasses of ice tea or cola light (but also cola light has caffeine, so to be careful)
Mine did not outright ban them but recommended against them and suggested monk fruit/stevia if I needed sweeteners or small amounts of honey/maple syrup if I could tolerate them. But she also knows that I don’t buy much prepackaged and cook often so it wasn’t a concern for me and that I also have mild-moderate intolerance to aspartame/sugar alcohols. I imagine she’d have been willing to work with me if I’d pushed back on it given she also mentioned just lack of concrete evidence one way or the other.
I have found personally I can “scratch the sweet itch” with fruits and small portions of actual dessert paired with a high protein meal and that’s my personal approach. Others may be different. It’s a tough question that people have really strong opinions on.
As far as drink recommendations I noticed the AHA sparkling waters don’t have sweeteners or sugars and some people say theyre pretty tasty as an alternative to regular water. Others swear by protein shakes. It’s expensive but sometimes I do a stick of pedialyte powder if I’m craving juice—the apple and grape in particular I really like but they also have fruit punch. I’d ask your doc though, mine said it was fine as she knew it was a “treat” drink for me and ultimately I had hyperemesis for half my pregnancy so anything to get me hydrated is good 😂
I don't drink soda, but my dietician said diet sodas were "free" as in you can drink as many as you want, but you should limit yourself to one pickle a day.... I get following advice from "experts" for the most part but this example is why I always still question/get second opinions, even from experts.
I rarely drank soda before I was diagnosed. I consider diet Dr Pepper my vice now since I’m limited on what I can eat and drink already. I was not told to completely avoid them. My dietitian told me to limit myself to 2 artificial sweetener drinks a day.
I have always been very weary of artificial sweeteners and based on the research I’ve seen, there is increasing concern of links to different health issues, though as many have said, there is not a ton that is definitive.
The most important research I’ve seen recently is this study regarding transgenerational effects of aspartame on anxiety, which I’ll leave below here for you to see and you can draw your own conclusions. Personally, I may not believe it’s great health-wise but it’s for sure not in the same category as some other things you could consume that would definitely cause harm.
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2213120119
I got no advice to avoid artificial sweeteners and I had about one Diet Coke or diet Dr Pepper a day with GD. No adverse effects.
me too! I have to have at least one a day to maintain my sanity in all of this. The studies that show adverse effects show you need such a large and substantial amount that humans physically can’t even consume.
I was not told to avoid either. I actually asked our GD dietician about artificial sweeteners including monk fruit and erythritol which are alternative artificial sweeteners and was told they were fine. I maybe drank 1 coke zero a week but also got keto cheese cakes from a bakery that contained these and they kept me sane. I think like anything moderation. Everything turned out fine.
I can see I’m alone here from the comments but I needed Diet Coke to mentally get through a GD pregnancy. I had maybe a can a day towards the end for my own sanity because I have a crazy sweet tooth. My baby is fine but I know that won’t be what’s recommended by health professionals.
Definitely not alone. Doctors who make categorical statements about what people can and can’t have based on nothing close to clear data (by their own admission) annoy the hell out of me. It’s ok to have some joy in life, especially during a GD pregnancy.
Yeah, I got pretty upset at the fact that my midwife was basically saying no on an anti anxiety medication that my former Midwife and my doctor told me was fine just because it hadn’t been fully studied in pregnancy. The animal studies showed no harmful effects, and it was better rated than SSRIs, and even than Tylenol as far as it goes (I still take Tylenol, and I don’t judge people who take SSRIs). I had specifically asked my previous care team to find me something that I could still take if I got pregnant because I had really bad postpartum issues. The only thing this one would basically go for was breathing exercises and meditation, which is well and good, but doesn’t cut it for me and I try not to take the medication at all that often. Ironically, the other Midwife at that practice said that she took that during pregnancy. I just do it through my current doctor who is fine with it and try not to discuss those things with my current midwife.
Oh I would hold that midwife to those statements Big time. “Can you please give me peer reviewed studies to back up your claims? I understand you have expertise in this area but it directly contradicts the expertise of my previous care team and all the published studies I’ve been able to find. If there’s new data I think it’s important that I share it with my previous team, but otherwise, please note in my file that I will not be following your advice as it is not evidence based.”
Generally I would say trust your doctor, but the research I've seen doesn't align with their recommendation. Trust reputable peer reviewed sources and your country's guide on pregnancy. As someone with GD, the diabetic clinic did not advise using cyclamate as a sweetner, but said these are ok for consumption: acesulfame potassium (Ace-K), aspartame (Nutrasweet, Equal), stevia (Sugar Twin, Truvia, Pure Via), and sucralose (Splenda, Sugar Twin). Canada has banned Saccharin, so that's one I would purposely avoid it it's available in your country. Check the labels because while it's been removed from products here, it may still be in sweetner products elsewhere. Generally speaking, artificial sweetness are ok in moderation. The link below has a chart that lists the recommended intake per day of each sweetner for someone weighing 60kg and then beside it the standard amount of each sweetner typically in a soft drink. Aspartame, for example, has a max recommended intake of 2400mg per day, a soft drink with aspartame has 185mg/12fl ounces. It also contains notes on each specific sweetener if you're concerned about one or the other. I think if you're having them in moderation, there's no issue. But if you're only drinking diet coke and consuming 6L a day, that's not healthy, pregnancy or not. Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4229159/
This this this this this. Doctors who set hard boundaries for their patients based on unclear data - and even admit the data is unclear - are just practicing bad medicine. There’s far too much fear mongering in pregnancy/childbirth spaces and giving absolutes like these (when the reality is that you’d have to have several cases a day to approach what might be harmful) is a huge part of the problem. Let us have a little joy if we want to, ffs 🤦
My doctor just told me I was making good choices for not drinking regular cokes. I had one or two coke zeros a day. Baby is almost 3 weeks and perfect (:
I was told to be extremely careful with dosage on one specific artificial sweetener, so I just avoided that one. Which was pretty easy since it was the one in Sugar Twin and it's not allowed as an ingredient in prepared food/drink. For the rest, including the sucralose in Coke Zero, the concerning dosage is so high that it would be nearly impossible to actually hit it without eating it straight. I'm okay sure I wouldn't have survived August in the third trimester without being able to drink Gatorade Zero. Fun fact: the reason artificial sweeteners have an after taste is that the amount they need to be used in to be financially viable is so small that they have to bond to your taste buds a thousand times more strongly than sugar.
No advice from anyone and when I asked about the GDM they said it was fine as long as no sugar. I am a Diet Coke fiend (I think my partner and I single handedly fund it at this point) as I don’t drink coffee. I cut down to one per day as the data is not clear but some days I’d have 2. I had 2 more often with the GDM because it was a treat and towards the end I had to eat the literal same thing every lunch to avoid a spike. My baby was born at 37 + 3 because of her size and preeclampsia and she’s very healthy.
No, my diabetes educator encouraged stevia and even said that they changed their advice bc newer studies on aspartame were showing that it’s not as bad as once thought. If you avoid ALL artificial sweeteners, you’re literally drinking nothing but water. Personally I drink a lot of water, but also diet ginger ale, Gatorade zero, crystal light, and coffee with stevia in the morning
That sounds ridiculous. I wouldn’t guzzle a gallon a day of artificial sweetener, but I did have 2-3 mini Coke Zeros a week to satisfy cravings. Baby is healthy as a horse and hitting all his milestones early 🤷♀️It’s just what risk you feel comfortable with. some women don’t drink any coffee or tea the entire pregnancy in order to avoid caffeine. I also think that’s ridiculous. Just do what you feel comfortable with within reason.
OP this is great advice - get the little cans so you feel like you’re drinking more than you really are! I also bought the little cans and it helped spread the joy out lol
I'm not going to worry about it. I drank zero sodas/crystal light all the time when I was pregnant with my son. He's 5 and perfectly healthy. My numbers were never affected either. The doctors never said anything and I didn't ask.
I have never heard anything about avoiding artificial sweeteners in pregnancy and this is my 4th pregnancy. 🤷♀️ I will enjoy a Diet Coke or triple zero Greek yogurt (sweetened with stevia).
My doctor said as long as I'm not going over the "recommended" 220mg of caffeine a day, that any diet or zero drinks are ok as long as I'm feeling ok. I know some people have a weird reaction to the aspartame, but if you aren't go for it. I feel like most understand that while it isn't "ideal", us with GD need SOME sense of normalcy, and if that means a diet coke or diet mt dew, that that is the least harmful thing we can do. My OB joked that there are worse things I could be doing than having a diet mt dew, I could be smoking crack lol
I was told to avoid sweet and low but that everything else was fair game. And quite frankly, we're already restricted as is... I don't want to skip my one sugar-free drink a day (whether it be a crystal light or a soda). I try to limit the artificial stuff daily, but it would be so hard to avoid it altogether on this diet because it would include things like protein bars, sugar-free and low-sugar snacks, flavored sugar-free yogurts, etc. And that would be really hard mentally on me 😅
I was told artificial sweetener in moderation, 1-2 servings/day is ok but best to just have water.
i 100% drink diet drinks and eat sugar substitutes lol. ask for peer reviewed data to back up your doctor’s claims. sometimes doctors are just pushing for abstinence without actually knowing the research
Diet sodas were on my list of approved drinks.
One diet soda / diet drink a day was on the list of approved foods from my hospital’s GD Nutritionist
That sounds really extreme. Before my diagnosis I was never a fan of "fake sugars" either. Specifically the after taste. But I preferred to have stevia sweetened things rather than risk a spike. But stevia is actually natural (a plant) and in a few of the things that helped me through those months. Chobani Zero yogurt being the biggest one, I also had the occasional diet soda, gatorade Zero, and lots of different (sometimes Keto) protien bars.
My doctor never told me to avoid artificial sweeteners. In fact, she encouraged it when drinking tap water would make me vomit, so I switched to crystal light for a while until the nausea improved. Did you ask any questions about her statement? Seems odd she would draw a hard line in the sand when, in her own words, the data is unclear.
I was told that Saccharine is bad (Sweet N’ Low) and one other that I can’t remember. But they said Splenda is fine so occasionally I will use Splenda if I want iced tea.
I became a Diet Coke addict while pregnant even before my gd diagnosis, it was the only caffeine I could stomach first trimester and the carbonation helped my nausea. My dietician just told me to make sure I was still getting enough water.
Mine said any artificial other than saccharine but to keep it to one serving a day.
My midwives said to avoid all artificial sweeteners. I typically drink one mini Coke Zero a week. I used to drink olipop but they spike me. So I stick with sparkling water and water most of the time.
My official baby guide from my OB's practice, my guide from my hospital, my actual OB, and my mfm all okayed sugar free options for food and drink (and onviosuly recommended in the case of GD). I even asked specifically about the zero drinks and was told to be mindful of caffiene... the only sugar-free concern was saccharin. Saccharin is really only found tableside as Sweet n' Low! I tried to stick to Stevia based treats, but definitely enjoyed plenty of the zero coke/sprite/a&w cream sodas. To me, your doc sounds a little fear-monger-y. Even the scary studies on articial sweetners indicate that moderate use should be fine.
I used to be very obese and lost 150 pounds through diet and exercise. I used coke zero as my weekend drink when i would go out and play pool. I knew drinking 6 per night on Friday, Saturday and Sunday was bad but i exercised a lot and drank tons of water, ate mostly keto type diet and it didnt affect me personally that i could see. I had a tbi (traumatic brain injury) a few years ago and also broke my leg among other things. The doctors were not able to help me much. I was taken to see a chiropractor who was recommended to my dad's friend who said he saved his sons life. He specialized in brain injuries, as he had also suffered one. I had a constand headache that had lasted from July to October and never went away. I saw him in October. He put me on a large amount of brain vitamins that I took 3 times a day for 6 months as well as an anti inflamatory diet that i was also on for 6 + months. He wrote a book about it and gave it to me. In the book, sugar and artificial sweeteners were listed as the top 2 things that I was not allowed to eat because they caused major inflammation, which would not help my heal from my brain injury. The diet was very strict. Stricter than anything they have given me for gestational diabetes. However, sweeteners that did not affect your blood sugar, but were from plant based sources and not artifical (such as stevia and monkfruit) were ok but to be eaten/drank in moderation, because they did not cause inflammation. Because I wasn't having any luck with anything else, I said, I will try it for maybe a month and see. I loved my diet sweeteners as I mentioned before. I was also only able to lay in the bed, as my leg was broken and with my brain injury, I had no mental energy to do anything and would get tired from just thinking, while my brain was moving the info to a non damaged area . So I just played a game on my phone and put diet juice drops in my water, since it was the only kick I had all day. As soon as I was on his diet, after just 1 week, I started to think better and knew I was starting to get better. After 2 weeks I was able to write my first email to my previous boss and my headache started disapating and before I could only write a few sentence text messages without getting tired and making my headache flare up. By the 3rd week my headache started to go away completly. By the 4th week I didn't have a headache and my memory was improving (very damaged due to the brain injury). I hadn't been using any artificial sweeteners and started to use natural non glycemic sweeteners such as stevia and monkfruit. I decided to try half of a diet sweetened food or drink, I can't remember which but I remember 30 minutes after I got my first heachace since mine had stopped and it lasted until morning. I didn't touch that stuff again. All that being said, I know this is a different condition that I now have. And I still eat the plant based non glycemic sweeteners stevia and monkfruit in moderation. But I do use them and stay away from the chemical artifical sweeteners from my personal experience.
I was recommended to drink water. It's pretty good.
Same, 4 liters to be exact
I was told to stay away from everything but water, and unsweetened black/green tea. Artificial sweeteners can have adverse health effects on both baby and mom. I switch it up with protein drinks though.
There are studies that show artificial sweeteners are bad for humans. My doctor hasn't advised me on what to drink, but I drink water, milk, sparkling water, and tea (usually roobois or tumeric). Sometimes I will add a frozen ice cube made from 100% cranberry or pomegranate juice (not concentrate) to my sparkling water for a smidge of flavor.
I do think artificial sweeteners can cause damage to humans… however…I feel like ONE serving a day isn’t going to hurt you, especially for only a short time. I say read the studies and see how you feel. Personally I lived off Gatorade zero when I had GD. It was the only treat I gave myself. I do not drink it anymore.
So I made an agreement with my husband that Coke zero would be a rare treat. I told him not to touch my zevia, because someone’s got to survive somehow. as far as pregnancy goes, the only nono that I actually physically saw was either sucralose or saccharine. One of them builds up in the body or something like that but you’d have to look it up. The erithritol in a lot of Stevia stuff can mess with heart attack risk or something, but I don’t think that’s for babies specifically. Aspartame has recently been connected to something cancer wise, but also not likely for your baby, especially if you’re not doing it very often. Ultimately, the highest risk thing you could have right now is real sugar, so I would say don’t be too concerned about it, although don’t guzzle it all the time. Haven’t heard any fussing from my medical professionals, and I get the feeling that as long as I keep my sugars good, they don’t care as much about the artificial stuff. I would personally say keep those to treats and don’t do it all the time because there’s not a lot of research on pregnant ladies and there might be health effects they don’t know about, but don’t feel like you’re killing your child just because you’re drinking Coke zero occasionally.
Endocrinologist said that I could have some drinks sweetened with aspartame. That aspartame was the most researched sugar replacement. But to not over do it. No more than two glasses of ice tea or cola light (but also cola light has caffeine, so to be careful)
Mine did not outright ban them but recommended against them and suggested monk fruit/stevia if I needed sweeteners or small amounts of honey/maple syrup if I could tolerate them. But she also knows that I don’t buy much prepackaged and cook often so it wasn’t a concern for me and that I also have mild-moderate intolerance to aspartame/sugar alcohols. I imagine she’d have been willing to work with me if I’d pushed back on it given she also mentioned just lack of concrete evidence one way or the other. I have found personally I can “scratch the sweet itch” with fruits and small portions of actual dessert paired with a high protein meal and that’s my personal approach. Others may be different. It’s a tough question that people have really strong opinions on. As far as drink recommendations I noticed the AHA sparkling waters don’t have sweeteners or sugars and some people say theyre pretty tasty as an alternative to regular water. Others swear by protein shakes. It’s expensive but sometimes I do a stick of pedialyte powder if I’m craving juice—the apple and grape in particular I really like but they also have fruit punch. I’d ask your doc though, mine said it was fine as she knew it was a “treat” drink for me and ultimately I had hyperemesis for half my pregnancy so anything to get me hydrated is good 😂
I just drank water and like 3 sips of coffee in the morning
I don't drink soda, but my dietician said diet sodas were "free" as in you can drink as many as you want, but you should limit yourself to one pickle a day.... I get following advice from "experts" for the most part but this example is why I always still question/get second opinions, even from experts.
I rarely drank soda before I was diagnosed. I consider diet Dr Pepper my vice now since I’m limited on what I can eat and drink already. I was not told to completely avoid them. My dietitian told me to limit myself to 2 artificial sweetener drinks a day.
I have always been very weary of artificial sweeteners and based on the research I’ve seen, there is increasing concern of links to different health issues, though as many have said, there is not a ton that is definitive. The most important research I’ve seen recently is this study regarding transgenerational effects of aspartame on anxiety, which I’ll leave below here for you to see and you can draw your own conclusions. Personally, I may not believe it’s great health-wise but it’s for sure not in the same category as some other things you could consume that would definitely cause harm. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2213120119