Diet Pepsi Addiction
Aspartame, the sweetener in many diet products, such as diet colas, has been found by many studies to be linked to depression, anxiety, and other issues. Confession: I am completely addicted to Diet Pepsi. I know it’s not good for me. If I drink too much of it, I get a tremor. I am fairly certain it has done irreparable damage to my teeth. I drink an embarrassing six cans per day. In fact, I think I maybe drink more than that, but I stop counting at six cans because it’s too embarrassing to keep counting after that.
As many of you know, I have binge eating disorder and I suffer from depression and anxiety. What I found out a while ago is that aspartame, the artificial sweetener in Diet Pepsi, is known to increase anxiety. I found this out when I was reading an article about aspartame on Medscape.com, and about 20 or 30 physicians left comments about this fact. What surprised me was that my own doctor never mentioned this to me. You would think that in 25 years of battling depression and anxiety, it might have occurred to either my physician or psychiatrist to mention that aspartame can have a negative impact.
Sweet Drink of Death?
I don’t know what is in this stuff because I am taking another sip as I write this. It makes me think I must have gone clean off the deep end. However, that is not surprising. I mean, I have long suspected that I lost my mind, so this is not news to me. What was news to me was that aspartame breaks down into methanol and formaldehyde in the body. I read that on healthline. Well, no wonder I am so messed up! Apparently, the amount of methanol and formaldehyde has been deemed safe. First of all, what amount of methanol and formaldehyde are actually safe for human consumption? Secondly, I don’t think they realize how much Diet Pepsi I consume! According to the healthline site, a 150lb person (which I certainly am not) would have to consume 18 cans per day to exceed the FDA safety guidelines. So, I am technically within their safety parameters. However, how healthy can it be?
Sugar is Bad, but is Aspartame Worse?
Obviously, I started drinking this junk because I wanted to avoid sugar. Is it better than sugar? I mean, is this more beneficial for my body than sugar? I have come to believe that sugar has many toxic effects on the human body, especially in large amounts, but so does aspartame. Moderation is certainly the key, but is there a moderate amount of methanol or formaldehyde that I really feel comfortable consuming?
According to many articles, such as this one at https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28198207/, aspartame has been linked to a variety of cognitive and behavioral issues such as learning disorders, headaches, seizures, migraines, irritability, anxiety, depression, and insomnia. So, in other words, while it might not actually be ruining my life, it might well be adding to my self-destruction. It certainly is not helping.
Conclusion: I have Convinced Myself to Stop the Madness (for Now?)
Okay, Harlow, you have convinced yourself. I think I need to start re-establishing my tea drinking habit. I especially like green tea. While tea has caffeine in it, tea, especially green tea, has many positive side effects whereas this Diet Pepsi is expensive and is doing nothing for me. For a while, I was drinking Hibiscus tea, which is a sour tea that is refreshing to drink cold or iced. It has no caffeine (to my knowledge) and it lowers blood pressure (allegedly).
Suddenly, this Diet Pepsi I am drinking seems less appetizing as I consider the methanol and formaldehyde I am adding to my body and the anxiety, depression, and sleep issues I am magnifying by drinking it. The question I have, though, is why isn’t this something people are more aware of? This is not something most doctors even mention if you say you are suffering from depression, anxiety, or insomnia, and aspartame is 100% legal. I guess the cola industry has a lot of power, but I am still surprised, given the number of studies on this, that it is something that people still consume in large quantities. I have read that the studies are not “conclusive.” However, as someone who has read a lot of scientific studies, I have to say that I am not sure what more it would take to make these studies “conclusive.” In fact, science is rarely 100% conclusive. This comes pretty close.