Sugar-free: How strict do I need to be?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FWIW-- one of my best friends has a DD who is 6 weeks younger than my son. She drank one diet coke everyday during her pregnancy. When her daughter was 18 months old, she started to physically regress and shake. Upon getting her a cat scan, they discovered an ependymoma (a cancerous tumor) at the base of her skull. After 13 months of hell - radiation, chemo, multiple brain surgeries - her DD is cancer free, for the meanwhile, but with the physical capabilities of a 7 month old. My g/f is convinced it was the diet-coke-a-day. You don't need to tell me to stay away from artificial sweeteners twice during preg.

Not to at all minimize what your friend and her family have gone through, but for this one child with cancer, there are probably thousands if not millions whose mothers drank a diet soda a day with no harmful consequences. Are there studies linking the artificial sweetner in diet coke to cancer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIW-- one of my best friends has a DD who is 6 weeks younger than my son. She drank one diet coke everyday during her pregnancy. When her daughter was 18 months old, she started to physically regress and shake. Upon getting her a cat scan, they discovered an ependymoma (a cancerous tumor) at the base of her skull. After 13 months of hell - radiation, chemo, multiple brain surgeries - her DD is cancer free, for the meanwhile, but with the physical capabilities of a 7 month old. My g/f is convinced it was the diet-coke-a-day. You don't need to tell me to stay away from artificial sweeteners twice during preg.

Not to at all minimize what your friend and her family have gone through, but for this one child with cancer, there are probably thousands if not millions whose mothers drank a diet soda a day with no harmful consequences. Are there studies linking the artificial sweetner in diet coke to cancer?

Agree. I am so sorry for what your friend went through, but skeptical it was the Diet Coke. Choosing one thing to blame for something bad that happens is a classic coping mechanism (for example, Jenny McCarthy and the autism/vaccine thing). People who go through bad experiences usually need something to blame so that life doesn't seem so random.

[Anonymous]

I have about one cup of diet coke or ginger ale a day (sometimes none), have my morining coffe with 2 packs of Splenda, and try to get the light version of things as much as I can - yesterday I choose light cramberry juice instead of regular one.

So, I guess that for DC Urban mom's standarts I am a pretty bad future mamma

[Anonymous]

PP with friend story. I don't disagree with you 13:00 and 13:05, at all, but I won't negate her belief either. As for me, I do not have the constitution to deal with the "what if's" so I stay away from artificial sweeteners for 9 months. It won't kill me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are two kinds of artificial sweeteners - those that have been found to cause cancer, and those that will be found to cause cancer.

If it has zero calories, it is not food. Pregnant or not, you shouldn't be consuming it.

Yes, just like there are two types of food, food containers, and air that you breathe: those that have been found to cause/contribute/correlate to some disease, and those that will be found to cause/contribute/correlate to some disease.