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Expert Q&A

	By Allison Gamble Nutritionist/Diet Technician Highland Park Hospital, Illinois

I love diet coke. I'm in my first trimester and down to one diet soda a day. A nurse at my doctor's office has told me I must not only not have nay caffeine at all, but must also not have any aspartame (the sweetener in diet coke) at all - not even one soda's worth a day. But one of the pregnancy books I've read says aspartame isn't a problem. I don't know what to do. I can live with caffeine-free diet soda, but hate the taste of regular soda - is diet soda really going to pose a risk?

Aspartame, also known as "NutraSweet" is a non-caloric sweetener used in many foods and diet sodas. It is made up of two amino acids (the building blocks of protein). There are no studies that show aspartame is harmful to pregnant women as long as it is taken in moderation (no more than one diet soft drink per day).

Aspartame is broken down in the digestive track the same way any other protein is during digestion.

I am sure you are thinking one diet soda per day is not going to cut it for you. I think one soda is said to be the limit because doctors and dietitians do not want pregnant women to avoid drinking juices, water and milk which supply more nutrients and health benefits.

The major concern with aspartame is with the phenylalanine (a protein that makes up part of aspartame). Women with a condition called phenylketonuria (PKU - for which your baby will probably be screened for at birth), a rare hereditary condition in which the amino acid phenylalanine is not properly metabolized, are at risk because high levels of phenylalanine can cause damage to the fetus.

In a healthy person fed sixty 12-oz cans of diet soda at one time, blood phenylalanine levels peak well below the sustained concentration level deemed harmful. So, I think it is unlikely that you will have any problems unless you suffer from PKU.

Saccharin, however, another sweetener found in some soft drinks (and the ingredient in Sweet 'N Low(r) sweetener - the pink packet on coffeeshop tables across the US) has been found to have teratogenic (means "causing abnormal fetal development and birth defects") effects in rodents. It has also been shown to be carcinogenic (cancer causing) in rats as well. So, in my opinion, that sweetener should be the one avoided while pregnant."

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