Aspartame
Here’s a shocking discovery I made in the past few days. There’s the saying of: “you are what you eat.” With RA or in life, it’s what you drink too. I formerly thought that clean up food and beverages minus gluten, etc. You’re good…. Nope. I’ve been diagnosed with RA for about 1 year now and I live with a: “clean” diet minus most allergens = gluten, soy, minimal nightshades. Despite being relatively healthy and remission, I’ve had irregular flares and general illness sometimes. I was absolutely puzzled what was causing it whether cross contamination, environmental effects, etc. It turns out that aspartame/ artificial sweetener used in diet sodas was sickening me. I’d go to a restaurant and order a gluten free dish and get a soft drink, then have a flare. All of the soft drinks come from the same soda fountain and are cross contaminated with aspartame. The same goes with attending a concert, etc. The full realization came when attending a party where there were only diet sodas available. I walked in feeling well and the next day woke up feeling terrible. I tested the hypothesis by drinking a diet soda and within minutes I felt much worse.