Diet Pepsi is a popular soda, especially among those who are watching their weight. Diet Pepsi has no carbohydrates and is zero-calorie, but it does have some ingredients that may cause side effects, such as ankle swelling, or edema. Although caffeine can cause a number of side effects, aspartame is more likely to be involved with edema. Aspartame is the artificial sweetener in Diet Pepsi and has created much controversy since the 1980s, although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says that it is completely safe in the dosages in diet sodas.
Diet Pepsi
Diet Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink produced by PepsiCo that was introduced in the United States in 1964. As a sugar-free alternative to Pepsi-Cola, Diet Pepsi originally contained saccharin, the first artificial sugar. Concerns over the use of saccharin led to the development of aspartame, Gordon Wardlaw writes in "Contemporary Nutrition." Aspartame replaced saccharin in Diet Pepsi in 1983. Currently, the ingredients in Diet Pepsi sold in the United States are carbonated water, caramel color, aspartame, phosphoric acid, potassium benzoate, caffeine, citric acid, natural flavor and phenylalanine. A growing number of anecdotal reports claim that aspartame can cause swelling in the face, abdomen, legs and ankles.
Aspartame
Aspartame has been used in the United States since 1981. Since then, the artificial sweetener has become very controversial. Sari Edelstein writes in "Nutrition and Public Health" that aspartame has been the focus of 170 studies, and nearly every independently funded study has found that consuming it can cause side effects. Common side effects are neurological or glandular in nature, due to aspartame's metabolites, which include aspartic acid, glutamate, phenylalanine, methanol and diketopiperazine. The amount of aspartame that is needed to cause symptoms is hotly debated, but the FDA claims that drinking two or more cans or bottles of Diet Pepsi daily is safe.
Aspartame Symptoms
Aside from neurological symptoms, some health professionals believe that aspartame has the potential of harming glandular tissue, which includes your pancreas and liver. Although this hasn't been substantiated, liver injury has been linked with fluid retention and ankle swelling. Gerald Litwack writes in "Human Biochemistry and Disease" that an injured liver doesn't produce enough albumin, the most abundant blood protein. This causes water to leak from small blood vessels into surrounding tissues, commonly in the lower abdomen and legs. More research is needed.
Other Potential Causes
Sodium is not one of Diet Pepsi's listed ingredients, but carbonated water often contains sodium. Drinking copious amounts of Diet Pepsi might affect your blood chemistry and lead to edema, especially if you are not physically active. If you drink Diet Pepsi, and your ankles are swollen, you are probably better off drinking purified water. If your swelling persists, call your doctor, because heart and lung diseases can also cause edema.
References
- "Contemporary Nutrition"; Gordon M. Wardlaw; 2010
- "Nutrition and Public Health"; Sari Edelstein; 2006
- "Human Biochemistry and Disease"; Gerald Litwack; 2008
- "Fluids and Electrolytes with Clinical Application"; Joyce LeFever Kee; 2010
