Sugar Free - Aspartame = migraines

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Starfish1125
Starfish1125 Posts: 169 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hello All

I'm considering starting the South Beach program because I need to cut down signficiantly on sugar/carbs, etc. However, my concern is that SB does allow you "sugar free" foods.

Unfortunately I get migraines from SF products :sad:

Stupid question - can you be successful with SB without SF products?

Replies

  • smr071165
    smr071165 Posts: 4
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    I don't know the answer to your question, but it sure made me feel better that someone else gets migraines from apertame! I had a doc tell me that she had never heard of that before.

    I would be interested in the responses as well. I have been advised by someone I trust in the nutrition world that I should really cut back on my carbs and make up the calories with protein. But that means, no bread, rice, pasta or potatoes. (hmmm...any wonder why I'm so fat?)

    I found out my oatmeal has too many carbs. So...I'm on the hunt for a carb-friendly breakfast.
  • brower47
    brower47 Posts: 16,356 Member
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    Aspartame give me headaches too but if you don't have a problem with artificial sweeteners in general, I've had good experiences with splenda. Just check out the rest of the sweeteners out there and see what works for you.
  • DeserveVictory
    DeserveVictory Posts: 133 Member
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    Fake sugars give me horrible headaches! They give some of my friends headaches too.

    Can I ask what you are using the sugar for? I've been able to adjust my diet so I barely need sugar. I've slowly weened myself off most of the sugar I put in my coffee (I'm down to half of what I used to use) and have taken to using fruit in cereal or oatmeal instead of sugar or honey. Can you make something like that work? If you can't/don't want to, have you tried Stevia? In a nutshell, it comes from the stevia root, has no calories and isn't manufactured like Splenda and such are. However, I have found it has a bit of a weird after taste. But it shouldn't give you headaches :)

    Good luck!!
  • sethandjane
    sethandjane Posts: 74 Member
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    Yes - there's no reason to do "sugar free foods" on South Beach...

    If I could offer an alternative to South Beach - look up Primal/Paleo instead. Very similar (low carb), it highlights whole, unprocessed foods and thus doesn't even allow "sugar free" foods with that yucky a-word in it :)

    That's what I've been following and been pretty successful.

    And if you do want to do South Beach - I would use Stevia.

    Good luck!
    :) Jane
  • jasmine_noel
    jasmine_noel Posts: 62 Member
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    Aspartame is the worst for me... you can absolutely do South Beach without the allowed SF products. When I did it I would just savor my fruit serving as dessert. Phase 1 allows 100 cals worth of SF snacks, I think - but I would much rather have 100 cals of good chocolate or even an apple instead. (And as others have said, Splenda and stevia don't seem to cause the same headaches that aspartame does.)

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