Stevia and headaches

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mjhines15
mjhines15 Posts: 1 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have a history of migraines and finally have them under control by staying away from aspartame and sucralose. Which means reading every label before putting anything in my mouth...even English muffins, gum, orange juice that horrible stuff is in everything...parents beware. I have been using SweetLeaf Sweet drops SteviaClear in my morning tea. For the past 2 weeks I have been having migraines again. I have been associating them with the spring weather, but am starting to wonder if it is the stevia. They are starting to get worse and I have decided to just use plain old sugar in my tea and eliminate the stevia for awhile and see what happens. I hate to give up my stevia but need to stop these headaches.

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  • moira1968
    moira1968 Posts: 17 Member
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    I also suffer migraines and chronic headaches that have been uncontrolable for years so I can totally relate to how you are feeling.
    My migraines are very well controlled at the moment and I think it is because I started to drink 1 or 2 cups of cappuccino (Nescafe sachets) with sugar per day. I drink decaf tea the rest of the day. I've never been a coffee drinker until a friend introduced me to these. I'd been drinking them everyday for a few weeks when it suddenly dawned on me that I hadn't had a headache or migraine in ages.
    I tried stevia in the coffee, but the aftertaste is appalling, so I just decided to use sugar. The extra calories are not that many and I'd rather drink something I enjoy than put up with the after effects.
  • kikicooks
    kikicooks Posts: 1,079 Member
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    If the stevia is causing headaches, then the obvious is to stop using it. If you must have a sweetener in your coffee just make room for it in your calories, that's what I do. I do not like the taste of any artificial sweeteners. I use agave or coconut sugar in my coffee usually.
  • Keapix
    Keapix Posts: 92 Member
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    I can't have sweeteners, so I just got used to having my drinks without any sweetness. I occasionally put a sugar in, just to see, and it just tastes wrong to me now!
  • ronjsteele1
    ronjsteele1 Posts: 1,064 Member
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    Some people's bodies just don't like different sweeteners. It can be an allergy, it can be a weird chemical reaction between your body chemistry and the sweetener, etc. But obviously, if stevia is triggering your migraines (and I do know people that is true for), then you just have to stop using it. Use sugar and account for it in your daily calories. Honestly, unless you drink coffee all day long, even 3 cups of a coffee a day with a tsp. of sugar each is not that many calories out of your day. Be kind to your body and stay away from it if it doesn't like it. And I totally agree with you on artificial sweeteners! They are in everything. Argh.

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