Artificial sweeteners causing an energy slump?

(Bruce) #1

Things have been going great since I started keto as another of my posts testifies.
However, today I needed a cold drink and all that was on offer was sugary soft drinks or sprite with only artificial sweeteners which I naturally chose. Twenty minutes later I felt like I’d been run over by a truck- no energy whatsoever!
Is this a common problem or am I just weird or is it totally unrelated?

(Doug) #2

Bruce, I have not seen many people at all describe that happening. It seems plausible that you had an insulin response that dropped your blood sugar down a good bit, from your account of it. I think it’s an individual thing - that some people don’t react much to artificial sweeteners, and that certain ones affect some people and not others.

(Bruce) #3

Thanks very much Doug for your input. It is greatly appreciated.

(Adriana) #4

It happened to me on my second week, I tried a diet coke, just two sips, and a few minutes later I started to get cold sweats and nausea, my friends told me I looked really pale; I ate some cheese, drank water and a while later I those symptoms passed and I just felt very tired. I realized I’m pretty sensitive to artificial sweeteners (diet coke is sweetened with aspartame in my country), currently I only take stevia with no ill effects.

(Bruce) #5

Thanks Adriana, sprite has aspartame and acesulfame here so that’s interesting. Will have to try others if I want sweet items, but to be honest I’ve not really missed it and thought the drink was horribly sickly!

(Adriana) #6

Yes, after that I haven’t been tempted to try more artificial sweeteners, besides I only took two sips because I found the drink terribly sweet!

I have been wanting to get a blood glucose meter to evaluate my response to different sweeteners, but until then I just avoid them.

(Chris) #7

I wouldn’t put anything past artificial sweeteners or zero carb beverages. Best to avoid all together

(Bruce) #8

Seems to be the route I’ll be going down Chris. Thanks.

(John) #9

I’ve found it works better for me to avoid diet soft drinks. They seem to keep my desire for sweet-tasting foods active. If I cut them out completely I lose that craving and my taste buds adapt (for lack of a better term) to a non-sweetened world.

I tried a diet Coke a couple of days ago and it tasted really bad - I could taste all of the chemicals and the flavor which I had been so used to (I used to drink 4+ a day) was very offputting. This is not a bad thing - there’s nothing good for you in a diet soda (other than the water) so I view having a negative taste reaction as a good thing - it reinforces not wanting to drink them.

(Omar) #10

artificial sweetners kill the good bugs and increase intestinal permeability.

I feel extremely sleepy when I drink diet sprite last week.

first time it happened though

https://bodyecology.com/articles/is-this-“diet”-food-causing-you-to-gain-weight-and-kill-the-good-bacteria-in-your-gut

(What The Fast?!) #11

This totally happens to me. If I drink something with artificial sweeteners (EVEN STEVIA), I get super sleepy for like 15 minutes.

(Bruce) #12

Thanks John. Great to hear I’m obviously having a normal reaction.

(Bruce) #13

Omar, that’s really scary stuff! Thanks.

(Bruce) #14

What the fast. I think I went one stage further, almost felt like I’ve heard hypoglycemia described!

#15

Never gotten sleepy/energy slump from it but aspartame gives me the mother of all headches.

Saying that, ive avoided it like the plauge since well before I went paleo and then keto so dunno what kinda effect it would have now… not intrested in finding out though.

(Bruce) #16

Fair do rundwithdogs. I’m beginning to realise that if it is in any way buggered around with then I should probably avoid it.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #17

There might be some artificial sweeteners that don’t provoke that reaction in you, and I guess it would depend on how much you care, whether you want to experiment or not. It seems to be completely individual, but a lot of people on these forums have come to the conclusion that one or another of the artificial sweeteners provokes a reaction in them. It seems to be different for everyone.

(Bruce) #18

Indeed Paul. I hadn’t really had artificial sweeteners much before and I can’t say I’ll be having them again either!