[ImaGraftedBranch]

laugh all you want. My oldest son has had two day-long, deblitating, hospitalized migraines, coupled with nausea and loss of equilibrium. Both times after ingesting this "food additive."

Not funny.

[Unassuaged]

I am not laughing, I also have (mild) reaction to nutrasweet.

[MEG33]

Some people have a dangerous allergy to peanuts or shellfish.

[coder2]

I too had experienced severe migraines when I switched from regular Coke to diet Coke (a very short period of time). Never had one before, and never had one since...

I stay far away from nutrasweet... The memory of feeling a cleaver going through my head has not faded much over the past 13 years...

[redangus]

everybody reacts differently to different things. I am sorry about your son, but I have used Nutrasweet since it came out and have had no ill effects.

[sweetliberty]

"My oldest son has had two day-long, deblitating, hospitalized migraines, coupled with nausea and loss of equilibrium. Both times after ingesting this "food additive."

Different substances effect different people in different ways. But I could tell you that I used to get unrelenting migraines, sometimes for days, even weeks on end, one right behind another and was also prone to occasional dizzy spells. Back then I drank regular coke and never used aspertame. For the past 2 years I have been drinking nothing but Diet Coke or Diet Dr. Pepper and I use an aspertame sweetener in my coffee. I don't have dizzy spells any more and I haven't had a severe migraine in at least that long. Now, I'm not suggesting that the sweetener was the difference, but that is the problem with anecdotal evidence; it really doesn't take other factors into account.

[Tauzero]

"My oldest son has had two day-long, deblitating, hospitalized migraines, coupled with nausea and loss of equilibrium."

I on the other hand have gotten the majority of my fluid intake from diet pepsi since grad school. I did subsequently become a freeper...

If it's not properly stored, aspartame does break down into wood alcohol. Maybe your son got a bad batch?

[Wiser now]

Nutra-sweet gives me migraines too. And I'm a diabetic. Too many recipes for diabetics call for Nutra-sweet. Foods I would like to enjoy, like sugar-free pudding, contain this "additive". My beverage choices are limited to Diet-Rite cola, unsweetened iced tea, coffee, and water. Aspartame is always listed way at the bottom of ingredient lists and that list must be read. I've come across too many products that claim "no added sugar" or "sweetened with maltitol", etc. only to find aspartame listed there still, albeit dead last.

[rdb3]

laugh all you want. My oldest son has had two day-long, deblitating, hospitalized migraines, coupled with nausea and loss of equilibrium. Both times after ingesting this "food additive."

Ask your physician if these headaches are called "cluster" or "executive headaches" instead of migraines. You can ready about them here.

I've suffered from these for 18 years.

[DLfromthedesert]

We are not all the same, and what might affect one person adversely does not necessarily apply to another.

A lot of people have horrible reactions to peanuts, so should I give up my peanut butter?

If your son is adversely affected by this product, then by all means he should avoid it.

[Protagoras]

Was it tuesday? Because when headaches happen on tuesdays, I'm pretty sure it's caused by the day of the week.

[fabriclady]

You are so right.
This is nothing to laugh about.
I first tried Nutraweet when it was first on the market, I believe in 1983.
I used it daily, within one month I was admitted to the hospital with migraines, so bad I could not see and had a loss of equilibrium.
I was released, the doctors did not know what caused the migraines. I was 43 and had never had a migraine before.
One week later I was admitted again. One of my doctors had read a news article about a lady that had lost her vision and it was determined Nutrasweet caused the loss of vision.
I was relesed and told to throw away the Nutrasweet.
I was on the Federal Food and Drug review until 1990.
If you are drinking diet sodas and feel dizzy, stop the sods for a few days and feel the difference.