Artificial sweeteners are a GI tract irritant. Plain and simple.
I can tell you my experiences:
- Aspartame (Equal) and sucralose (Splenda) give me excruciating abdominal pain after more than a day of use.
- The sugar alcohols (maltitol, mannitol, xylitol, sorbitol, etc) have been well-proven to cause diarrhea in even people who don't have IBS. They give me D within an hour of eating them. My stepmother, who doesn't have IBS, ended up with severe D and cramping after eating some Atkins candy bars, which contain maltitol.
Drinking caffeinated soda is like playing Russian roulette - I know you say you're more or less under control symptom-wise, but it's going to bite you in the butt sooner or later. Just a friendly warning from someone who was in the same denial and finally had to give up even one single daily Coke for good.
What I've been doing for beverages lately is a half-and-half mix of Gatorade and flavored seltzer. Now, obviously, first you need to try Gatorade and see if it bothers you or not, but I've found I'm a-ok with it. 8oz of Gatorade has half the calories of 8oz of soda, and then if you cut it with seltzer, you lose the (dangerous) carbonation, keep the zing, and cut the calories in half again.
Drinking water is still the best, of course, but that might help wean you off the soda habit, as it is a little more flavorful than plain water or herbal tea.
Good luck!
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