As we cut back on sugar, I let a few fake sugars trickle in. This seemed necessary to assure some level of compliance. However, I have read, in several books, that bacteria eat sugar alcohols, e.g. sorbitol and manitol, as readily as glucose, so I had to nix these. Then I read, in the SCD literature, that sucralose is a disaster. And saccharine is hard to find, so that left nutrasweet. John has had about one serving a day for the past couple years, and I never really noticed a reaction. Some days he'd have two cans of diet pop, and the next day was not particularly bad. But during the month of June we allowed this to escalate to two or more per day. Again, I am trying to attain a modest level of compliance, which has been sadly lacking over the past year plus.
How did our unintentional experiment turn out? During the month of June, he turned into a monster. It took me a while to put it all together, because the transformation was gradual, and there are still 100 other variables that vie for my attention. Were we giving him too many carbs at the wrong time? Was he sneaking again?
Finally I realized that a class of symptoms was gone. I never smelled anything on his breath, and he didn't act drunk, or afraid, or paranoid. He was just angry, terribly angry, at every little thing. How could five symptoms improve, while two grew worse with each passing day? The increase in nutrasweet was the only explanation. The carb schedule was weakening the infection, and reducing the associated symptoms, but John was having a specific neurological reaction to nutrasweet. I took him off all fake sugars, and he improved, almost over night. I asked him if he felt any better.
"It feels the same. I don't think it makes any difference. Can I have a diet pop now?" But two days later he came to me with a revised assessment. "I think the nutrasweet was really messing me up. I feel much better now. I promise not to eat nutrasweet again."
His promise is one of those pinky swear things that was unknown in my generation. He had to show me how to do it. In any case, this is the only promise he has ever made to me. I hope he can keep it. For the foreseeable future, he has to adhear to a carb schedule, and there are no shortcuts - no fake sugars allowed.