Can’t blame pred this time; it’s something else.

[Karenjaninaz]

I’ve been feeling a lot better mornings and taking prednisone at one or two in the morning.. Since I have hypoglycemia I can’t really drink juices or sodas so I like flavored waters with nothing else in them. I ordered, online, without checking the ingredients, some flavored water. When I took a sip it was quite sweet. It says sugar-free. In the meantime I drank maybe have a glass because I was very thirsty. Shortly afterwards I broke out into an itchy rash all over. I was so itchy that I took a Benadryl before going to bed. Well it turns out The culprit is sucralose.(Splenda) Next morning I felt so unwell: the trots, high sweats dizzy. I decided to do a literature search. There’s been a lot of anecdotal reports of the things I’ve described. There are only two studies on this substance. One by the manufacturer says it wasn’t metabolized and another by a research organization which said indeed it is metabolized and actually stays in the body quite a while. So there you have it.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Far too much of the "sugar-free" and "no added sugar" cover-up of them feeding chemicals to us in disguise. Have you tried putting cruched mint leaves in plain water? Or a slice of citrus fruit will really flavour quite a large amount of water without too much fructose

[Karenjaninaz in reply to PMRpro]

I have delicious well water but I was in the mood for something a little different.

[HeronNS]

Further to PMRpro's comment, quite popular here are cucumber slices, or lemon slices, just placed in a jug of water to be savoured all day. I quite enjoy this as a treat but personally perfectly okay with plain old tap water, which has been in a jug for a time (overnight) to let the chlorine evaporate.

On a related note, disturbed to observe both my dietitian daughter, and my similarly qualified daughter in law (although she is not a practising dietitian), big fans of carbonated flavoured and unflavoured water, and my daughter already allowing her two-year-old to drink as much of the flavoured stuff as she wants. Of course I'm only an old woman, what do I know about the modern way of raising children. But....

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to HeronNS]

I agree with you - have they read the contents?

[HeronNS in reply to PMRpro]

I looked at the contents of one and I have to say it looked really innocuous, only carbonated water and "natural flavour", can't remember exactly about the flavour, possibly derived from the actual fruit. No sweetener, no other ingredients. But even plain carbonated water is implicated in dental issues. Softens enamel or something. My main objection is one is priming the child to drink soda pop. Yet, although I definitely didn't allow this, here they are, scarfing it themselves. On the other hand all my kids are foodies, and excellent cooks, and their diets seem very healthy so I guess something rubbed off!

[Blearyeyed in reply to HeronNS]

I freeze some of my garden borage flowers for winter , a combo of borage cucumber and a slice of orange and lemon and it tastes like summer ... Pimms on the lawn anyone?

I often use semi sparkling water and add chamomile flowers and mint , or dried rose buds and dry strawberry pieces.

[AdoptMeow]

It is a wise decision to stay away from artificial/manufactured sweeteners. It has been known for at least 20 years that aspartame (Equal and Nutrasweet in US) is a neurotoxin. I have read of a number of people diagnosed with multiple sclerosis who found that their symptoms were caused by drinking daily aspartame products. Some people like stevia, but to me it tastes bitter. I very much like the taste and sweetness of monkfruit (Lakanto brand in US).