Sweetners in drinks

Is it me or since the whole drinks industry has promoted sugar free drinks/cordials etc, the obesity rates in the young have soared?

I personally by the high juice drinks with natural sweetners, tnot the special R type drinks.

Sweetners taste bad and are bad.

Just my pennies worth

The real sad thing is Coca Cola in Latin American doesn't have artificial sweeteners and tastes SOOOOOOOOOOO much better.

The obesity is likely a byproduct of many things- soda definately being one of them. It's sad parents dont teach their kids how to keep their bodies fit.

Sweetners taste like crap.

They really aren't worth it.

Obesity from drinks is first due to the use of Corn Syrup instead of natural unrefined cane sugars. So the first culprit is Corn Syrup, and its worth noting that it is banned in some countries for use in drinks.

Second, aspartame does all sorts of bizarre things to the chemical composition of the human body and the insulin functioning.

Aspartame is banned in a number of countries, and nations like Japan make drinks sweetened with Stevia which is completely safe and natural without any of the effects mentioned above.

I've been using stevia for about three years now, in place of artificial sweetners. I find it works best for beverages that you would normally sweeten. Like other artificial sweetners, it's not a good substitute sugar when baking.

It's considered a supplement in the US and can be found in most health food stores.

don't for get sodium benzoate,

en.wikipedia.org...

I, too, think it's the High Fructose Corn Syrup. That mess is in almost everything. Canned fruit, frozen meals, sauces, drinks, condiments. You name it, it's probably there.

I don't know where I read it unfortunately but apparently artificial sweeteners don't trigger the natural "enough" trigger in the brain when you eat too much like natural sweeteners do.

This means you are likely to eat/drink more of the "healthy" sweetened version of a food than a naturally sweet version, hence it would make people gain more weight.

Originally posted by Pellevoisin


Second, aspartame does all sorts of bizarre things to the chemical composition of the human body and the insulin functioning.


Good call on the Aspartame. It is so bad for you.

I remember a few years back, my neighbors were expecting their first child and Kelly (my neighbor) said that her doctor said to stay away from anything that had this sweetener in it, specifically diet soda.
The doctor stated birth defects as a result of prolonged use of this product during pregnancy.

So why is OK for us adults to be basically forced to use this, due to the amount of products that it is in?

Of course, $$$ is the answer. It's cheap!!

Big business is really disgusting and here is a prime example.

I purposely by the full fat stuff, the more expensive drinks for this very reason

I just don't understand why they keep using the artificial sweeteners when there is a low-cal, natural alternative that is actually GOOD for your teeth: xylitol

I use it for everything. Sweetener, toothpaste, mouthwash, gum. I get it all at xlear.




[edit on 10/3/2008 by schrodingers dog]

reply to post by schrodingers dog


Never heard of that, thank you for bringing this up.

I'll second the opinion that Coca-Cola from Mexico tastes much better than American Coca-Cola! A sad fact. Plus, it's in actual recycled glass bottles, which Americans never seem to do, they just melt up the glass and cast new bottles, if they recycle at all, using more energy. Glass bottles allows more of that 'throat-scouring' carbonation... aahh..

I actually rarely drink sodas any more (two or three a month). I just finished a Hansen's "Natural Cane Soda, Cherry Vanilla Creme", yummy. It has a big "With Real Cane Sugar!" callout on it, so I guess the nastiness of HFCS is something more people are waking up to.

Mentioning other sweeteners, a month or so ago I heard someone say that Aspartame (slightly dampened) is actually a much better ant-killer than any commercial products. Makes em drop dead right there. Yikes. Anyone know how true that is, or is it just an urban legend?

Actually no study has ever shown artificial sweeteners to help one loose weight, and several studies now show artificial sweeteners (not natural ones like stevia) actually DO lead to obesity! Further, they have been shown to cause many diseases in mice in studies, as well as being linked to Multiple sclerosis type symptoms. They are Excitotoxins just like MSG which means they overstimulate brain cells until those die out. When aspartame was first put forth for review by the FDA from Monsanto, all the FDA scientists unanimously ruled it unsafe for human consumption....however the CEO of monsanto at the time, you may have heard of him, his name is Donald Rumsfeld, pulled some political strings and got it pushed through. Of all alternative sweeteners, stevia is the safest to date, its a natural herb and is even therapeutic for digestion, but the artificial sweetener industry has successfully lobbied to keep it illegal as a food additive here to date. Ironically, as many natural food groups have been pushing to get it legalized for years, The ones who look as if they may finally succeed are coca cola and pepsi, and they have been hard at work patenting as many uses as they can for it before it becomes legal, pushing the natural foods groups out of the market. Ah, corporate america!!

ah, and the best ant killer is Splenda...tastes like sugar cause its made from sugar! right, 1 sugar molecule and 3 chlorine molecules. Nothing like it occurs in nature and the substance it most closely resembles chemically is DDT.

Its been a while on this subject but recently, my fiance and me have been shopping in Sainsbury's (UK supermarket chain) and all of their own brand drinks now do not contain any artificial sweetners and use sugar/natural sugars and flavourings.

Guess what???? Lemonade tastes nice again! No more tasting like every other fizzy drink or soft drink/cordial - you know what i mean.....that horrid aspartame taste.

Coke Zero - Zero taste more like!!!!!!!!


Any other people noticed a shift from supermarkets or brands??

double post

[edit on 7-9-2010 by Gregandgemma]

This past summer several of the sodas had "throwback" editions which boasted containing "real sugar."

How effed up is that? Just plain old sugar is some novelty now. everything else is a bastardized and manipulated man-made monster.

[edit on 7-9-2010 by thisguyrighthere]

just because it is cheap, dont make it good.

Sweetners dont even taste good.

Slightly off topic....recently saw a Maccie D's advert for nuggets that say, now contain 100% chicken! Worrying!

Seriously though. I will only buy the own brand drinks from Sainsburys and also the hi-juice cordial which does not contain the A Word

Hi "good food" fans.

Originally posted by schrodingers doglow-cal, natural alternative that is actually GOOD for your teeth: xylitol

Thanks for the info.
But. . . Don't you think there are WAAAAAAAAAY too much
calories in xylitol ??? Stevia is ZERO calories !

This is what I read on my bottle:

SteviaSugar
Spoonable

0 calories
. . .etc. . .

Made in Canada. . .

Blue skies.