Aspartame (diet soda) and erections

I ran across a thread recently that mentioned aspartame as a culprit for ED. I guess I’ve been in the dark because I’d never heard that before. I’m 26 years old. I used to get hard as a rock when younger (where my dick would almost get purple from all the blood it in), and also have erections fairly often. Erections have definetly been reduced in the last couple years, and I find it fairly difficult to maintain a 100% erection for any extended period of time. I always thought this was just because I was “getting older”. I now realized this coincided with around the time I switched from drinking excessive amounts of real soda to drinking nothing but diet soda. I actually crave diet coke/pepsi throughout the day - so I obviously have an addiction.

Does anyone else believe that averaging 3+ diet sodas a day can effect erection quality?

Not only do I believe soda can effect your penis, but drinking excessive amounts of soda is soooo very bad for you.

I’ve been drinking soda everyday since I was about 12; I’m now 18; I weigh seriously nothing short of 350lbs. [Obviously not drinking diet soda]

However fortunately, it wasn’t diet soda since if you ever took the time to look at those conjured cocktails there are all sorts of irritants and neurotoxins. As well as addictive substances similar to smoking, it’s very possible that you basically poisoned your libido into nothing. The excessive caffeine in soda, about 50mg a can, could help you get an erection more frequently but you are typically shorter in terms of lasting despite being excessively hard.

Chances are, the aspartame, [along with other drugs included in diet sodas, splenda, etc] have actually poisoned you. There are law suits pending against diet sodas for this kind of abuse. Granted they warn you on the label, but the lawsuits are still pending.

Fortunately, I’ve only ever drank normal soda, granted I put on the weight, I’d rather only have to lose lbs then realize I’ve basically killed myself from the inside out. That’s pretty rough there, bro.

There is a very high probability that if you stopped drinking diet soda now, and switched to coffee for your caffeine, or even switched to normal soda and trimmed down the amounts that after a few months the negative effects of the substances would cease and you’d probably regain that younger/stronger erection.

This is just one of the great examples of how the American consumer is usually duped. It’s very important before you actually consume something in regiment to make sure it won’t cause this sort of damage. If you are eating excessive amounts of SOY, consider looking into that as well. It’s very important to pick your poisons carefully. =)

That may be true, but you should use your taste buds. The first time I ever tasted NutraSweet or Canderella, as far as I was concerned they were EVIL. since then, I spat out anything with that stuff in it, and don’t let my kids near the stuff.

When you eat an apple of a tree it tastes like food. That shit tastes alien to me.

yeah i didn’t like diet soda at first - but i didn’t like beer when I first tried it either. Now I love them both. I’m sure coffee is the same way, I still don’t like it but haven’t forced myself to drink like i did with the diet soda (for lower calories).

Actually it can be all that caffeine that’s getting in the way of erections. It’s a vaso-constrictor. What you want instead is full potential; flood gates open. :)

I pretty much cut soda out of my diet, I just can’t see drinking 8 spoons of sugar in a 12 oz serving. I also just don’t like the taste of diet soda never mind all the chemicals in it. When I go out I will still have a Jack and coke but I’m 90% done with soda. I like to make home made Iced Tea for when I’m home either that or just filtered water.

Damn.

I thought this was going to be one of those “fetish” threads.

It’s not impossible that some guy might only get a hardon watching chicks drink diet soda…

GM

Aspartame acts as a sympathetic neurotransmitter , thereby causing a stimulant-like effect. This adds to the vaso-constriction effects of caffeine. When your sympathetic nervous system is highly activated (caffeine, aspartame) it is difficult to get an erection. Erections are stimulated by parasympathetic pathways (inhibited by sympathetic response).

Aspartame also metabolizes partially into methanol, which is damaging to the nervous system. Because the nervous system has such a large role in the erection phenomenon, it would be wise to limit exposure to methanol. Of course, there are trace amounts of methanol (and other alcohols) in most alcoholic beverages as well.

I think it would be wise to try and eliminate diet pop from your diet. Studies show that people who drink diet pop tend to gain more weight then people who drink regular pop anyway. Some possible explainations are that aspartame stimulates hunger; it also gives people the idea that they didn’t have any calories so they eat something later on that probably has more calories than a regular pop (which they wouldn’t have eaten if they didn’t falsely feel so good about their diet).

Amen! You took the words right out of my mouth. No wonder my dick girth was narrower the last few days I had a diet Pepsi. Worst yet I mixed it with regular Pepsi. I used to be addicted to the shit. Today I’m retaining about 7lbs of fluid, likely due to drinking diet soda laced with real soda. I seldom ever drink soda, maybe once a month. But I kind of fell off the purest wagon this week.

My opinion:

I don’t believe aspartame is the “poison” some scaremongers like to claim. Do a search for it on PubMed. It seems relatively safe. These days I’m consuming more of it than ever before. That said, I prefer Splenda (sucralose ). Of course, you’re probably better off drinking water instead of any of this stuff.

Switching to diet pop is only a small part of a diet plan. People tend to compensate. I’ll have a quadruple bacon cheeseburger with extra grease, the bongo box ‘o’ fries, a triple hot frudge sundae, oh and a diet Coke. Like that helps.

Sugar, alcohol and sugar substitutes are just not good for you, especially in quantity. I have cut them to the bone.

People often think that a little bit of alcohol makes sex better. But all it does is loosen inhibitions, which might help, but it also numbs the nervous system - it is a depressant. Sex is a stimulant. So the two are incompatible.

If I know I will be having sex, I never drink booze beforehand, not even a teaspoon full. I want to feel every last sensation to the max.

Bumping this very important subject and thread:

Source: THE GOAL IS TO KEEP CHILDREN SEIZURE FREE - IT’S THE ASPARTAME ISSUE

Source: ACTUAL ASPARTAME RESEARCH AND STUDIES

This Happens within 20 Minutes of Drinking a Coke

Also this, already posted in another thread related to this subject: Male Sexual Dysfunction Triggered By Aspartame