I'm curious if any of you have had any bad reactions to artificial sweeteners (like causing loose stools or diarrhea). Thinking back to when I developed my fissure during this past Christmas-time, I was eating a lot of "low-sugar" instant oatmeal by Quaker and developed loose, burning stools. Well, I found out after the fact that the oatmeal actually had artificial sweetener in it (namely sucralose), which was listed on the back in the ingredients list (not mentioned at all on the front... ugh). I stopped it immediately and the loose, burning stools seemed to go away in a few days. I just find it odd that I had that problem when I was eating that oatmeal every night for so long.
Anybody else have digestive problems with artificial sweeteners? Or do you just avoid them all together? I don't want to go through that experience again, so I'm avoiding artificial sweeteners like sucralose altogether. I am afraid to even touch oatmeal again after all that, though. It would probably be okay, since I don't have any problems with other oat products. I will probably give the plain, "no-sugar" variety a try sometime since it doesn't have sucralose or anything in it. I just can't pinpoint what else could have irritated my digestive system so much except the sugar substitute.