to think we should be able to make our own choice regarding sugar free juice

[starshaker]

I am fed up having to scour the shelves to find drinks that dont say sugar free. Id much rather my kids have a little bit of sugar instead of the crap they use instead of it. My kids mostly have milk or water but occasionally (maybe a few times a week) have diluting juice. Sometimes i dilute fresh juice but i like the convenience of having diluting juice.

Why dont we get the choice anymore?

"Is aspartame etc really that awful??"

Yes

Sugar free stuff has an awful, sickly aftertaste. How come you don't taste that?

Agree OP. Also getting harder to source original Calpol with sugar.

YY I really struggled to buy a bottle of lemonade for DS2's sleepover (we don't normally buy pop) as I refuse to by anything with aspartame.

Had to go to Sanisbo's as others have said.

Yes Rock's is lovely as well. 99p in Home Bargains ooooh!

YABU for calling squash juice.

It's called juice here. Squash is played with a racket and a ball.

I call it juice too .

Yeah they call it juice where I live (East Mids). I don't I hasten to add.

If they mean actual juice they call it "fresh orange". What they call actual fresh orange juice I have no idea

www.sainsburys.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?categoryId=&langId=44&productId=45114&storeId=10151
www.sainsburys.co.uk/shop/gb/groceries/sainsburys-lemonade-1l
www.sainsburys.co.uk/shop/gb/groceries/sainsburys-cloudy-lemonade-2l
www.sainsburys.co.uk/shop/gb/groceries/sainsburys-classic-lemonade-2l

All sweetener free

worldgonecrazy - simple answer, you dilute your Pimms with dry ginger ale instead. It's FAAAAR nicer and makes a better mixer than lemonade (and has no narsties in it, so long as you get the normal dry ginger ale, not the "low cal" shit)

I HATE how hard it is to get decent squash (or cordial, as it's called in Australia) without any bloody sweeteners in. DS1 gets pure juice, diluted about 1 to 4 with water instead. Makes it harder when he goes to friends' houses and is offered squash though. :(

Tesco high-juice have a dark green lid if they are the ones without sweeteners in.

We can get orange, Summer fruits, apple, blackcurrant, apple and mango.

Aspartame has been proven time and time again to be harmless. Just google 'aspartame controversy'. It doesn't agree with some people, and some people react to it, but it's not dangerous.

Artificial sweeteners aren't dangerous. However, they do taste horrible (IMO) and I prefer the taste of drinks made without them.

Lime cordial doesn't usually contain artificial sweeteners, and is cheap! Lovely and sharp in summer. Sainsburys and Lidl hi-juice is very good though.

I'm not so sure about aspartame being harmless. How much of the research was funded or led by food companies with an invested interest in keeping things as they are? Has the research reached medical journals and been approved by the scientific community?

Even if it does just come down to an artificial after taste, that is enough for my children to get uaed to something which can be harmful. Monster (et al) drinks are harmful because of added caffeine. I don't have those in the house now, and thanks to Mumsnet found out they could be potentially harmful for my DD who loves them. (Caffeine is not a good thing for someone with an eating disorder.)

Why do Mn think sweeteners are worse than sugar.Aspartame is pretty much the most thoroughly tested food additive there is and has beeen proven to be harmless, whereas the dangerous affects of sugar are well known.If sugar was a new foodstuff now, it would be banned.

Can you link to a test which has been recognised by the scientific community please, sassy?

It is not possible to prove that something is completely safe. I dont drink much fizzy pop as I dont think it is necessary or that it should make a significant contribution to ones diet.

I dont like how massive multinationals spend millions convincing us that we need to drink it all the time. I am at people who drink it daily, particularly in multiple servings. Plain water should make up the majority of what people drink. I find the attitude that this is somehow miserable or a sign of deprivation bizarre. Coffee, tea and moderate alcohol are fine as drinks.

Obviously sugar is unhealthy and a major contributor towards obesity. There are a lot of reports that artificial sweeteners also adversely affect blood sugar etc and are not nutritional healthy. I dont know if there is currently sound evidence that they cause cancer or are otherwise dangerous, but I would not be surprised if this was the case. Effects like this can take decades to become clear and it is only the past 20 ish years that people have drunk so much pop, regularly and that they have been full of artificial sweeteners.

Notwithstanding the above, I don't like artificial sweeteners because they taste disgusting.

Couldn't agree more OP!

I get hi-juice from waitrose.

The scale of the problem hit me when I was on holiday and in a super-massive Morrissons and they had a whole aisle for squash 1000s of bottles and the only one that didn't have sweeteners was some kind of organic elderflower or something at £7 a pop that the kids would not have drunk.

As for people want it / buy it. Well yes, because it says "sugar free" and so people think "healthy". If it said "sugar removed and replaced with chemicals which knacker your palette and there is some debate over safety and don't get me started on corn syrup" then maybe sales would look different.

It's the same as bastard yoghurt where they take all the fat out and plaster "low fat" all over it, then because it is horrible with no fat they stuff it full of sugar instead, which they don't bother to mention on the label, so you get people thinking "oh it's a healthy choice" while consuming an adulterated product which is still calorific.

Drives me DEMENTED.

The food labelling needs sorting in this country like NOW to make headline labels honest and not wildly misleading but of course the food lobby is too powerful for that ever to happen.

Do we know the long term effects of the build up of articfical sweetners in the body? Over a lifetime?
We've only had them for a fraction of time compared to sugar. I'll stick with sugar, we know what that does.

Look up the effects of artificial sweeteners in dogs and rats. Pretty nasty.

YY artificial sweeteners taste gross too, another excellent reason to avoid them.

Unnatural, revolting taste, linked to diabetes/obesity, pallette knackering, jury is out on safety. Mmmmmm.

I didn't realise they had started putting sweeteners in Fanta lemon

I buy hi juice for the dc, but they don't really drink much squash. I'm not fan of chemicals so prefer the dc to have the odd glass of full sugar coke/Fanta/7up than diet full of chemical sweeteners.

There as some research to show that diet drinks had contributed to the rising number of type 2 diabetes cases. This was a while ago now when I was t uni, but it does make sense. Something to do with the way the chemicals react with our blood sugar signals and creates a bigger crash than actual sugar/honey etc

The normal Ribena doesn't have the sweetners in it but Ribena Light has aspartame in it. I have to look for labels for no aspartame as it really makes DS play up badly. I'm not usually one for the MN hysteria over things but one thing I agree on is fruit shoots are bloody awful. They taste disgusting and they turn my DS into the devil child!!

Tbh, am trying to wean the kids off sugary stuff when they don't have to have it. Am trying to give them plain/Greek yoghurt with chopped fruit, water etc. They have chocolate, I don't want to present some foods as "banned", but I want to get away from a pattern which includes eating food with lots of added sugar that might otherwise be consumed without being aware of this.