To want to be able to buy drinks without sweetener in them?

[LittleMissGerardButlerfan]

I have noticed that lots of drinks now have it in, even the ones which aren't low sugar.

I hate the aftertaste of them, and they give me terrible wind

I don't drink tea or coffee so drink squash, but even they seem to be getting harder to find without it. I like high juice but the low sugar ones are getting more and more and it's sometimes hard to find a normal one. A lot of squashes like Robinsons have it in all their squashes.

And fizzy drinks like fanta and sprite have it, the low sugar and the normal ones now!

So AIBU to want to buy drinks with sugar in instead? Yes I know you shouldn't have too much, and try to not drink too much but I would like to have a drink of it sometimes.

My not so darling husband says that sweetener has been proved to be fine and doesn't affect people so I basically must be making it up

YADNBU I think it can cause seizures, sorry can't find link as am on phone.

hate the taste too.

I think Capri sun has fruit juice and water a bit of sugar with no sweetener and they also do a fruit juice and water one with no sugar or sweetener but they're more expensive.
I agree when looking for picnic drinks its hard to find any that are without sweetener. I drink tea and water bug the kids like to odd bit of juice as well.

I'm still at the idea of ANY artificial food stuffs being banned in the US. Hahahah....bless...

I have started a petition about better labelling in products with sweetener as I know they won't remove them but I want better labelling especially on products especially those which aren't marked low sugar.

Here is a link if anyone would like to sign I would be very grateful

epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/53642

I've signed the petition.

I'v signed too. My Dd 9 used to suffer with huge behavioural out bursts when she was younger. She would go from being perfectly calm and placid to a biting spitting whirlwind for no apparent reason. We removed aspartame from her diet as best we could and were amazed by the difference. It truly is vile stuff.

I like the bottle green juices :) Also, now I a buying soda water as I find tap water pretty boring but soda water i can drink a lot of and dont need to add a juice to it.

Omg I thought I was the only one lol - I abhor aspartame and used to love vimto until they tampered with it!! Will only drink fat coke!!!

All sweeteners leave a really horrible after taste!!!

Glad I'm not alone!!!

Totally agree. Always look for things with sugar as opposed to sweeteners - they taste grim & there is this thing about them being sweeter than sugar so if you have them in your diet your pallette becomes desensitized to sweet tastes so you have to consume sweeter things to get the same effect which is clearly bad.

The girls have squash and I get hi juice from waitrose which is normal sugar - seems to be popular on this thread!

Was shocked once we were on hols and in morrisons and they had a huge squash aisle and every single bottle had sweetener in

Also yoghurt can be a bugger for random sweeteners, so look out for that.

Yeo valley is nice.

I don't like the taste of water. It has to be chilled or I have to be very thirsty to want to drink it, so I don't end up drinking enough if that's all there is. Tap water is especially bad but I resent paying for water when I pay monthly to get it out of a tap!

I don't like the taste of aspartame either. I have always disliked it - I can't really describe it other than it is plasticky, you know the sort of acrid smell of hot plastic, it tastes vaguely similar to that. I can also always taste fat or oil in things and find that it ruins the flavour. And coriander is soapy.

I'm not particularly bothered about the health risks - I'm quite capable of moderating my intake of things. I just don't like the taste!

YANBU

This really hacks me off too. Especially as I don't like giving my kids sweeteners.

I will sign the petition!

I don't think the long term safety of sweeteners is really known and they taste revolting.

Muller Light yoghurt is particularly bad for sweeteners, I found.

Back in the days of my yoof, first term at University, I had to do a subjective sweetness tasting experiment. We had various sugar solutions and the three artificial sweeteners, saccharin, aspartame and acesulphame K. Once you've tasted that stuff neat, you can taste it in ANYthing. It's foul!

Is there any actual evidence of harm done by aspartame yet or is it still just subject to a bunch of rumours by hysterical people on the internet? (banned in the US, lol)

CongoBongo no I don't think there is. We just don't like the taste of the stuff!

Co-Op summer fruit high juice is wonderful with vodlka and fizzy water. I couldn't care about research on this vile stuff as I can taste its awfull ans is the least of my worries as the sore stomach and head lasts much longet han he drinking of it ever could!

I've signed now too LittleMiss, well done on starting the petition.

I'm pretty sure I have read many times that aspartame gives rats cancer, but that they are given huge doses compared to what is in drinks etc. I don't trust something so artificial and would rather stick to something from mother nature, I wonder if in time to come they will be shown to be unsafe. Though for me it is more the aftertaste, it really is vile and I can taste nothing else.

CongoBongo I'm guessing you are referring to my comment when you ask if there us any real evidence? I see the difference it makes to my daughter,who is now 9 years old, but still suffers with strange drunk like behaviour outbursts. She complained of a fizzy head when much younger,which I assume was a headache like symptom. I see symptoms, she experiences symptoms. Its proof enough for me.

Congo - there is enough evidence about its effects on rats for us to be cautious about it, yes. Remember how long it took to get "proper" evidence about smoking/asbestos etc? I guess I don't want to wait that long...

I have aspartame sometimes but I don't give it to my kids.

If you want to call that Internet hysterics, that's up to you. I call it sensible cynicism.

My husband suffered horrific migraines and at worst paralysis down the whole of the left side of his body. Having been told by doctor that they could only suggest it was an allergic reaction to something dietary he tried elimination diets but the migraines still persisted. He then read a newspaper article raising the issue of aspartame and possible health risks, including migraines and realised the one thing he was still having every day was sugar free chewing gum which he hadn't thought of as dietary. As soon as he stopped chewing gum the migraines went away. The other summer we'd been out on a lovely day and he had a few ciders which he'd enjoined previously. That evening and next day he had a horrible migraine. Upon checking the product website we found the recipe had changed to include aspartame. So yes there are major issues with this chemical and like the OP also wish there were more drinks available without this in.

I always assumed it was safe and actually better than sugar .... just googled whether it is banned in the States.

It isn't, however its approval is marred by controversy and very powerful figures seem to have pushed for its approval.

Does anybody have any links to medical articles about dangers of aspartame?

And yes, OP, I also noticed there is aspartame in lots of products ...

Signed.

Signed.

Calpol et al are also a problem. My children hardly ever take them but I really struggle to find the calpol without sweetners.

Thank you everyone for signing, I went to Lidl yesterday and all their high juice is sugar free now, argh!

I had some sprite last week, thought I would try it as its a different sweetener and it tasted vile!

The stuff is vile

Signed