Acesulfame K sweetener

[chocolateorangeinhaler]

Hi everyone.

Sorry to post on AIBU but can't see the correct section to post so mods please move as appropriate.

So a few years ago a nephew of mine had trouble wetting himself way beyond when he shouldn't be. Cue doctors and hospital trips. Long story short his bladder was getting stimulated by artificial sweetener in drinks.

I've started to notice I can't drink anything with acesulfame K sweetener added. Which is now in virtually every single carbonated drink or fruit squash.

I've monitored it. If all I drink is water I can be like a camel all day long, don't feel the urge to go at all. Grab a can of cola with lunch and an hour later I have that 'urgent' need to pee. Then I can be up and down all afternoon. I spent all this morning looking at labels in the supermarket to find only Robinsons barley water (which ive hated since being a child) seems to be the only thing that doesn't have it in, although I haven't researched properly yet.

Interestingly a google search brought up a lot of negativity about it. Some scientists theorize that it even alters gut bacteria allowing the gut to absorb more calories than usual. So fizzy drinks with artificial sweetener can actually be making us all fatter.

So has anyone else had any peeing problems with artificial sweetener and do you now just drink water? Sometimes I really fancy a cola or lemonade at lunch but darent if I have meetings in the afternoon as I'll have to sit there all uncomfortable or worse, have to get up for the loo multiple times.

I try to avoid having it and giving it to DC as there are many studies showing it's harmful to health. No idea about bladder issues though, not heard that before. Personally I find it makes me want to eat more sugar, when I avoid it, my cravings go.

All artificial sweeteners make me have migraines and vomiting. The brands I’ve found that don’t have them are: Bottle Green, Belvoir Farm, Rocks, Soda Folk, Cawston Press, Virgils, Teiessere (sp?). If you have any Polish shops near you, they have a cordial called Lowicz which is also sweetener-free.

Roses Lime Juice is the only one we've found now that is free of it. I think the government haven't thought through the implications of the sugar tax which is driving more and more use of artificial sweeteners. I feel certain that this will be a future health scandal and people
will look back and say 'what were they thinking?'

Yes, it's a definite issue with me as well.
Irritates my bladder, and I need to go every 20 minutes. Also getting up during the night two or three times. When I don't drink it, same as you, fine for several hours; and also don't need to get up at all during the night at all.

@MovingSwiftlyOn

Roses Lime Juice is the only one we've found now that is free of it. I think the government haven't thought through the implications of the sugar tax which is driving more and more use of artificial sweeteners. I feel certain that this will be a future health scandal and people will look back and say 'what were they thinking?'

Agreed.

Ooh, that's good to know @ChrissyPlummer. Our local supermarkets are small so choice is a bit limited here, but thank you! I know what to order now.

There are a few squashes that are sweetner free : rocks cordials , roses lime cordial , PLJ , M&S orange squash and orange and mango.

I use my soda stream and add something to make a safe fizzy drink

Interesting! I dislike artificial sweeteners in any case. They taste rank to me. I’ve not noticed this but I do get mouth ulcers from Aspartame. I only buy high juice squash drinks for DD. I’m gutted all my canned fizzy faves are now sweetener-tainted apart from full fat coke. Soda stream cordials aren’t though!

Yabu not to like barley water-reminds me of my Nan!

@MovingSwiftlyOn

Ooh, that's good to know *@ChrissyPlummer*. Our local supermarkets are small so choice is a bit limited here, but thank you! I know what to order now.

Happy to help! You can order direct from Cawston Press & Soda Folk. Ocado stock Tieserre too.

I also think we’ll look back and wonder what we were thinking. I’ve noticed when I’ve been abroad that 7Up (for example) is still the original version and only drinks marketed as ‘diet’ contain sweetener.

San Pellegrino fruit drinks are sweetened with Stevia which I don't find as bad as other sweeteners.

It's funny I should see this. I've had a lot of diet lemonade over the past few days and it's made me so unwell. I've had terrible migraines which stopped a few hours after drinking the lemonade. Looks like that's me off diet drinks and I can't tolerate full sugar drinks.

@ChrissyPlummer yes, now you mention it we used to go to France a lot and all their Teisseir syrups and supermarket equivalents were sweetener free much to DH's delight. (Sweetners taste foul to him and he says he's not grown up enough yet to drink tea or coffee.) We used to bring carloads of it home with us.

Artificial sweeteners give me bad diarrhoea. As you say it is getting increasingly difficult to get soft drinks without them. Original Coke has no sweeteners but I don’t have it often. My go to drinks are any of the Fever Tree sodas or tonic waters and the Bottle Green cordials. M&S do a nice lemonade that is artificial free.

My big danger is medications. I had two Halls soothers a couple of years ago and spent the afternoon on the toilet.

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I succumbed to buying some robinsons orange barley water. Tried some and bingo no urge to pee every five minutes. So I'll have to be wary of this sweetener from now on.

All Robinsons has been contaminated for years.

I mainly buy Rocks for squash (Sainsbury's) or Coca Cola.

It's done a lot to put me off going to pubs as if I'm not drinking the choice is extremely poor and I have ended up washing down dinner with tap water because the options are that dire. I'm prepared to pay the few pence extra for actual sugar (and not have hours of aftertaste and thumping headaches) and it's infuriating that that choice is rarely present or is premium niche brands.

Rocks from Sainsburys, a couple of high juices from Sainsburys and M&S, Roses lime cordial, anything from Bottlegreen or Belvoir. Asda do one high juice (blackcurrant). The worst offender is Tesco. Everything in their own brand range is full of the crap. Waitrose, fortunately, do quite a range of sweetener free high juice. The pink grapefruit one is the best! They also do sweetener free cloudy lemonade. The only sweetener free fizzy orange is from M&S and it is bloody lovely. Can you tell I fucking hate sweeteners?! We all drink a lot of water, but sometimes I just want a glass of Ribena and I will always mourn the loss of my beloved Ribena 😢

I hate sweeteners! I honestly think sugar is better for us than that shite.

@ChrissyPlummer

All artificial sweeteners make me have migraines and vomiting. The brands I’ve found that don’t have them are: Bottle Green, Belvoir Farm, Rocks, Soda Folk, Cawston Press, Virgils, Teiessere (sp?). If you have any Polish shops near you, they have a cordial called Lowicz which is also sweetener-free.

Tesco do Lowicz, and it's really nice. I put fizzy spring water and crushed ice with it for a refreshing summer drink.

www.chelsea.co.nz/browse-recipes/homemade-lemonade/ I'm another that loathes artificial sweeteners including Stevia. If I can't get the brands mentioned by pp I make my own. Lemon is the easiest, but I've also got recipes for strawberry, redcurrant or rhubarb cordial.

Acesulfame is known to increase the contractility of bladder muscle (in rats, at least). So are other artificial sweeteners like aspartame.

I avoid any "zero", "no added sugar", etc. soft drinks, but the ones with sugar still contain artificial sweeteners, as it's simply not possible to dissolve sugar at a high enough concentration to achieve the levels of sweetness we now expect in soft drinks.

A bit off-topic, but please remember never to allow dogs to eat anything containing artificial sweeteners (e.g. cake dropped on floor by children). Some - particularly xylitol - can be lethal to dogs.

When my children were little i did quite a lot of research into artificial sweeteners and found they were banned in lots of other countries due to being linked to dementia and cancer. I was very strict with what my kids could have and banned a long list of nasty chemicals including msg.

Like PP, I have to avoid them due to migraines. Annoying as they are in so many things now - pickles, yogurt, Worcester sauce, many medicines. I literally check everything.

Aspartame causes my DD to have D&V. Awful stuff

I’ll try that @beautifullymad. I love the raspberry & lemon one 😊