B****y aspartame!

I'm beginning to wonder if aspartame is partly responsible for my IBS, Mishap. I have cut out bread - apart from the occasional slice of gluten free toast and that has helped a lot but now I've noticed I get stomach cramps if I've been drinking slimline tonic.

It's not just G&T....honest Last summer was hot and humid and we got into the habit of having a long, cold drink of slimline tonic with a small dash of fruit juice every lunchtime.

I'm going to have to discipline myself to reading labels so I can cut it out but like you, I've noticed it's in just about everything.

I'm another hater of aspartame. I don't pay much attention to all the horror stories that it causes cancer and goodness knows what else, but I do know for sure that it gives me what I call an "aspartame headache" within an hour of having it.

I used to be fooled in the beginning by the cooldrinks labelled "No Added Sugar" until I learnt that is code for "Contains aspartame" (or other sweeteners).

Down with aspartame. I hate the stuff.

I'm sure that we used to prescribe Questran that didn't contain aspartamine, then we couldn't get it at all and then could only get it with aspartamine which, as you say defeats the whole object. I know that because the S.O. used to work for a company that had a shop selling off various things and one year he got several boxes of diet chocolate bars that were so small I ate them like sweets. Of course, they were full of aspartamine and were, to put it mildy, a shock to the system.

DH is borderline type 2 so I do everything I can to make sure our diet is as sugar free as possible. The problem is he has a sweet tooth so thinks that anything containing sweeteners is the answer.

Can't win.

I don't think that fever tree slimline tonic contains aspartamine

OH has been to big chemists in town who have looked it all up and the Questran without aspartame is no longer manufactured. Sigh.

Could you ask for a different powder or pill that has the same effect but no aspartame, mishap?

Thanks, Galen I'll check it out when I'm in Sainsbury's or Waitrose. I've always bought their cheap own brand tonic but it'll be worth paying more if it doesn't contain aspartame.

Questran is the only formulation of this colestyramine in Britain. There are others in US and Canada; but I have no choice here. It's a blessed nuisance.

Aspartame gives me headaches.

I am intolerant to artificial sweeteners and have a terrible hangover the next day. I made the mistake of buying the low sugar Ribena for the children and had a couple of cups hot recently - I have never been so sick.
I try to be careful to avoid "sugar free", "diet" or "slimline" products and usually stick to tea, coffee, water or wine when out!

I was quite shocked to discover that the 'no added sugar' Robinsons fruit cordial I buy for my GC contains aspartame!

If you look online there are lists of the foods and drinks which contain it - very long lists.

I'm addicted to the aspartame in diet Coke

Yes, I read that thread vampirequeen and I remember Richard Madeley admitting on TV that he'd been addicted to diet coke several years ago.

It's very worrying that aspartame is in so many drinks, especially those targeted at children.

I've never given much thought to sweeteners but over the last couple of years we began to notice that DH (who's condition is very up and down, depending on how his chemo is going) did seem to be particularly bad at times. It seemed to be when he'd eaten a lot of sugar free sweets which were lagged with aspartame. He tended to rely on them because of his diabetes, but he does seem to have been better since we cut out the aspartame.

It is worrying that it is in medication. If you cannot tolerate it, you cannot take necessary medication.

It worries me that the Gov is pushing artificially sweetened drinks at children with their healthy eating campaign, Sugar Swaps.

Has anyone tried Stevia or other natural sugar alternatives?

Stevia taste awful. I used the leaves of Sweet Cicily to sweeten stewed fruit in crumbles etc.

I am also addicted to aspartame in diet coke and sugar free mints. I have tried to cut out both with no success, and this addiction scares me but as yet, I haven't managed to conquer it.

I have contacted the best pharmacist in town and he has rung the company. It seems that the Questran (with or without the aspartame) has been withdrawn from sale because several batches were contaminated with I think E-Coli. He has given me the company number so that I can get in touch with them and find out when it is being re-issued. The only other company that used to make it has also withdrawn theirs as a precaution.

He was surprised that I had been able to get the box of it that I have.

I will just have to keep on squitting. Sigh.

It is a crazy situation as there is no other treatment for what I have - it is like insulin being withdrawn and no-one an get hold of it. I am very frustrated about it.