artificial sweeteners = headache?

judywoody

Full Member
It seems that in my case artificial sweeteners, especially splenda, trigger headaches...and sometimes even a full on migraine...

I'm not a big fan of sweeteners anyway but I do fancy something sweet every now and then..i don't like the taste, so I sacrifice a few syns and add sugar to cover the taste..also I think the stuff is no that good for you anyway...

I only get headaches if I eat a lot of it. The odd diet coke or muller yogurt doesn't bother me. But if I drink 2 litres of squash instead of water or add splenda to certain desserts, then I get a massive headache. Anyone else had a similar experience? Thinking about ditching it all together and just have sugar if needed...but I can't find 'no fat' yogurts without sweeteners. Don't want to sacrifice too many syns...any idea?
 
Headaches are a well known side effect of aspatame, my daughter hasnt been able to eat/drink it since she was about 5 ( she was getting loads of headaches, went to the Drs but he couldnt find anything wrong, opticians said the same, but coincidently i was sat in the Drs waitibg room with her again, reading a woman's weekly type mag and read a small article about aspatame and headaches! Stopped it from her diet and it cured her!!!) if she accidently has some now the headaches come back!
 
Circes said:
agave nectar? not free but some people use it instead of sweetener

Yes tried it...although it claims to be sweeter than sugar and therefor you need less I don't feel that's the case. I always need more and it's expensive too :-(

Splenda is made of succralose and actually it's tescos own brand that gives me a headache...lol

Maybe I just have to stop using it...
 
I now won't buy anything with it in. The only thing I do still buy is mullerlight but I don't have them everyday. My little girl was getting headaches so we only buy the high juices that don't contain it. I sometimes drink one of these a day and don't syn it as only have one, rest of the time I just drink water now. Its funny as since not buying it I cannot bear the taste or smell of most things with it in. It used to give me terrible headaches too :( So you are not alone. I syn the sugar or use that lighter sugar.... Normal granulated but lighter, forgotten what its called now
 
Splenda does not agree with me either. I stick to 0% Greek yoghurt and add fruit to sweeten it. Bit pricey maybe, but all free and no artificial anything. For tiny syns, I sometimes add lemon curd or jam.
 
I can't eat or drink anything with any sweetener in it. Aspartame gives me severe, blinding headaches; splenda gives me the runs! (TMI - sorry!) This evening I've had a meringue nest (2 1/2 sysn), Total 0% fat and some raspberries. Sometimes I have a digestive biscuit (3 1/2 syns), quark and little bit of sugar-free jam - it's a bit like cheesecake. I've learned to live without much sweet stuff though tbh.

Trace xxx
 
Sweeteners don't give me a headache but they make my skin look terrible. My eczema flares up and my skin just looks dull and rashy and totally depleted of any vibrance. I actually look OLDER, its really weird. So now I just use sugar or honey and syn it. Very occasionally I use the splena brown sugar blend, in the last year I've used it once. Funnily enough things that contain sweeteners like sugar free yogurts etc don't bother me, , though I try to avoid them as much as I can. I just stick to water, unsweetened teas and coffees and greek yogurt with honey. You're probably better off avoiding sweeteners altogether, use some sugar instead and syn it and gradually reduce how much you use and eventually you'll probably not need it! That's what I did, now I eat my porridge without any sugar, just chopped fruit.
 
Thank you for this thread! I have been getting terrible headaches on and off for last 2 years. Tried everything, including acupuncture which helped but was so expensive. Going to ditch the sweetner tomorrow and see if that helps- dread to think how much I have as I have sweetners in tea, coffee, squash, yoghurts- can't believe I haven't thought if this before!
 
Thank you for this thread! I have been getting terrible headaches on and off for last 2 years. Tried everything, including acupuncture which helped but was so expensive. Going to ditch the sweetner tomorrow and see if that helps- dread to think how much I have as I have sweetners in tea, coffee, squash, yoghurts- can't believe I haven't thought if this before!

Do you drink alot of tea and coffee? I only ask as I am also sensitive to too much caffeine, so I now have two real mugs of coffee a day in the morning and then drink juice or water. xxx
 
Honeyoc said:
Sweeteners don't give me a headache but they make my skin look terrible. My eczema flares up and my skin just looks dull and rashy and totally depleted of any vibrance. I actually look OLDER, its really weird. So now I just use sugar or honey and syn it. Very occasionally I use the splena brown sugar blend, in the last year I've used it once. Funnily enough things that contain sweeteners like sugar free yogurts etc don't bother me, , though I try to avoid them as much as I can. I just stick to water, unsweetened teas and coffees and greek yogurt with honey. You're probably better off avoiding sweeteners altogether, use some sugar instead and syn it and gradually reduce how much you use and eventually you'll probably not need it! That's what I did, now I eat my porridge without any sugar, just chopped fruit.

I don't even put sugar in anything like teas or porridge...i just put it in sw desserts like scan bran cakes etc... And in order to make it taste like a dessert you have to sweeten it quite a bit...it's really a pain in the rear haha...
I only noticed because I would get headaches immediately after eating these desserts.
Maybe I should just use golden syrup or something similar and syn it.
 
Thanks for this....I thought it was only me that had trouble with sweetners. I stick to plain yogurt (full fat) and syn it (it is very low) I find that using fruit to sweeten it is delicious. I would love to eat muller lights but they just don't agree with me. I bought muller activia (ithink that's the name) yesterday as they have no sweetner and low in syns.
 
Circes said:
Easiyo fat free yoghurts are unsweetened and syn free :)

Is that the flavoured ones also? I have avoided them as I just assumed they must have sweetener in them. If not, that'll teach me!
 
Easiyo stuff is sold at Lakeland and also Julian Graves. Maybe other places too but those are the ones I know of!

Activia Intensely Creamy yoghurts are nice too and only 2 1/2 syns. :)
 
Hi,
I too get headaches from sweeteners that contain aspartame, I rarely eat anything with them in except the odd yoghurt, but avoid them as much as possible, but even with that I have tried and tried to take my tea and coffee (I only have a couple of cups a day, mostly drink water), without sweetener but have never been able to. Anyway, a friend recommended that I buy Cologran sweeteners from Lidl (don't know if they do them in a sugar/powder form), they are tablets but do not contain aspartame and are the nicest sweetener I have ever tasted and no more headaches...they come in pots of 1200 tabs for if I remember rightly £1.68...but don't quote me on that, and that was a couple of months ago as I stock up on a few pots at a time. Will look next time I go and see if they do the sugar/powder form and let you know x
 
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