To despise the rise of artificial sweeteners in soft drinks

Not drinks, but for those who have bad reactions, just be aware that many vitamin supplements also contain artificial sweetners. I eventually managed to get calcium supplements that were sweetener free. The prescribed ones contained aspartame.

I'm here to tell you that Roses Lime Cordial is your sugary friend!

With a bit of soda water it's perfect. I think I might lose it if they change it.
All good so far.

Thinking of going on a booze cruise purely to get French Fanta, Orangina and San Pellegrino...

NRTFT, but we can’t stand the bitter aftertaste of artificial sweeteners either.

Dandelion and Burdock has been completely ruined. We used to get Fentimans; but they have been infiltrated with artificial sweeteners as well!

All we drink now is Bottle Green Ginger and Lemongrass or Appletiser at home. I must go to Waitrose and see if they have the Belvoir squashes!

I can’t see the point of it all, when I went in one major supermarket today, and there were stacks of tubs of chocolates by the entrance!

Many artificial sweeteners make me pee like crazy. I tend to have water or tea in restaurants and in shops I find myself squinting at ingredients in tiny font.

Fever tree is safe

Yes

Bad luck on the Fentimans, I’m afraid,

I find stevia just as bad for the nasty aftertaste. My recent find is M&S cans of fizzy drinks with 60% juice and no artificial sweeteners. I really like the raspberry and blackcurrant one. Good tips on the San Pellegrino too, thanks.

I don’t think works for coffee and tea necessarily works for cola either. I hate sugar in coffee, but love cola. I used to get fevertree’s Madagascan cola as a treat until they stopped making the non-light version. That ‘Refreshingly light’ version is all- natural iirc, just much lower sugar, but it just isn’t as good and I don’t buy it any more. Still far nicer than any artificially sweetened rubbish though!

Why do you think a drink with less sugar would taste disgusting? A cup of tea or coffee with one or two sugars (or even no sugar) does not taste disgusting. Real fruit juice lightly sweetened with sugar doesn't taste disgusting.

It seems like we've been conditioned to expect extreme sweetness (like full fat Coke with its nine sugar spoonfuls) or the violently sweet chemical-tasting aspartame drinks. I just would like the option of less sugar but without aspartame.

Yes!! They’ve ruined pretty much every soft drink except coke and redbull. I imagine they’ll fall in line with everyone else eventually as well 😒

Rose’s Lime Juice also safe for now. I mix it with soda water as it’s a bit bland with just tap water.

THEY'VE DONE IT TO IRN BRU?!?! The Scottish government should really rush through a law to protect the national heritage in this case... 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

I get Innocent Bubbles or Dash when I can. Belvoir and Bottle Green are both still ok I think, but not cheap.

At home I drink Elderflower cordial in sparkling water if I want something fizzy.

On the positive side I drink a lot less fizzy drinks, which has to be better for me. The problem is I don't like water.

Yes it's ridiculous! I've cut sweeteners out of my life completely and it has been a real game changer for managing my appetite, weight loss and it appears to have helped my overactive bladder too. I've just cut out all sweet drinks completely. Sweetener is unbelievably bad and I wish health professionals would accept this. It's no better than sugar, it's actually worse. We shouldn't be subjected to it just because companies don't want to pay sugar tax.

🥺
Awful.
It feels quite dystopian when it's so inescapable.

We avoid artificial sweetners as much as possible and mostly drink water. However, I love Fentiman's pink lemonade or dandelion and burdock. As far as I'm aware it's sweetener-free but only drink it a few times a year so really hoping it hasn't changed recently. Cawston Press rhubarb or lemonade and elderflower fizzy drinks are nice too.

The worst thing about this is that the one sugar-free fizzy drink I like - diet coke - is now being replaced in most places by coke zero. Ugh.

Also it looks like my wife is mildly allergic to one of the sugar substitutes - stevia - so that entails much reading of ingredients lists.

in a way maybe it's a good thing if it helps people avoid crap drinks. just have water instead if you can.

If I go into my local convenience store the ONLY drink I can safely buy is water. Everything else in the chilled section contains sweeteners. They do sell original Coke but that is always sold out!

Why can’t I have a choice anymore?

And are you aware that many medications are loaded with them? I am unable to have a needed colonoscopy because both the alternative prep products are sweetened with aspartame which I just throw up or saccharin which gives me major gut problems.

Avoiding sweeteners is getting harder and harder.

Another one here who absolutely can't stand artificial sweetners. I do have a sodastream so usually add lemon juice or limes or cucumber or mint BUT sometimes occasionally I just fancy a sweet sugary drink and the only option is full fat coke.

Agree being on holiday in Europe was brilliant as I could drink lemonade, orange fanta and others to my hearts content.

Stevia needs to be declared if it’s being used as a sweetener. If it is in low levels as part of some ‘natural flavouring’ it doesn’t! Someone one has already mentioned the SOS Save our sugar group on Facebook. There is a photo of the response from Bottle Green when asked directly about Stevia which explains why it is undeclared.

Be careful with Belvoir. They also do a lower sugar range with sweetener. You need to check the label

No I know, I was making a point about risk perception, but obvs didn't word it well :)