To wonder if any government ministers have interests in aspartame production...

[scaryclown]

I just tried to buy a bottle of soft drink, you know, water, sugar, flavouring, colour.. And it was nearly impossible to buy any of them without there being loads of aspartame, something k, saccharin, etc..!
In the end I chose 7-up..but even R Whites normal is the same, tango fizzy, vimto, irn Bru, coke... I had no choice at all!

I am ve-ry suspicious...

Anyone know?

Think he's very loved on here with sugar tax and past breastfeeding comments

Not to talk about that whole diabetes fiasco a while back. If the man thinks he's some sort of 'health hero', he's rather deluded.

I love how much MN loves sugar here. Like it's the most natural and healthy thing there is. Like we don't have ever increasing amounts of diabetes and obesity related conditions. Like governments haven't been in thrall to the sugar industry over the years.
That comment about proudly spooning sugar over dessert made me properly laugh.

One problem is the belief that we like really sweet drinks. In Europe different norms are in place, with UK coke the sweetest. We could easily have less sugar, by changing these norms rather than trick the body. What if a brain indicator for lots of sugar when there is none causes insulin to be artificially overproduced..?

Scaryclown - that would be worrying..... But there's no evidence at all that this is happening

Why don't you do a FOI?

You can actually go through all MPs share holdings, investments, directorships etc with IPSA. Let us know what you find

Maybe UK coke is the sweetest but OMG continental food is unpleasantly salty. UK food is much better.

If you think aspartame free is tough to get, You try finding caffeine free diet cola while out & about.

Belvoir cordial and presse; san pellegrino; cawson products; pixley lane; rocks squash; luscombe drinks and at least some maybe all if the bottlegreen drinks. Don't like sweetener. Drink water mainly.

But San Pellegrino is owned by Nestle!

There have been scientific studies done which show people using diet products put on more weight, not lose it, so why are these products allowed to proliferate?
I have worried about the long-term effects of aspartame for a while, and we have simply cut all fizzy drinks from our diet- far healthier and much better for our bank balance!
I don't miss them at all.

Wasn't there some research suggesting sweetners were particularly bad for people with diabetes? Something to do with the pancreas?

I honestly can't remember as (i don't yet) have diabetes and I don't used sweetners as they make me very ill

Scaryclown & User there is evidence for diet drinks triggering insulin production, when not needed (as no sugar for body to deal with). Sugar** levels of diet drink consumer then plummet, diet drink consumer reaches for Mars Bar or something else sugar-laden. There was research published a while back about this, they were trying to work out why people who drink diet drinks had more weight issues than those who don't.

I have no idea where the 2 stars after sugar came from

To make it look pretty? Are you part of the sugar industry?

San pellegrino doesn't have aspartame.

Full fat Irn Bru has no sweetners. I can't stand the after-taste of the diet version. I'll go without if I can't get the real stuff.

My DH ( and myself) basically drink water, some tea and coffee. I do buy some cordial - the hi - juice ones are nice for a change , and I just need to check it is the one with sugar not sweetener. DH particularly likes blackcurrant cordial , so can at least have something flavoured that isn't also sparkling or fizzy.
Sadly, DH doesn't get on with any sweeteners , he can taste them all.
And worst now is when there is a mix of sugar and sweetener in things .
I think I saw that about sweetener being worse - empty calories but which don't fool the body, so you still crave sugar. Something like that.

OP, you lost me the second you claimed flu vaccines were a conspiracy. Fucking nutter.

GetOutOfMYGarden where did the op say that? Surely people aren't really that dim...

Didnt they do the same with margarine, polyunsaturates, salt, fluvaccines..

That's where OP's said it.

Belvoir do a "lite" drink which is lovely, not so sweet and no artificial sweeteners.
Its annoying that they advertise stevia as "natural" its not, way too sweet and still tastes nasty.
Tge best way forward is to reduce sweetness by less sugar and retrain tastebuds.
Costa have been sneaking stevia into their iced tea, but wont admit it, which is wrong.

I don't understand your OP at all- why didn't you just buy coke or Pepsi or any full fat soft drink?!

Because even the full fat versions now contain sweeteners as well as sugars

No they don't. Neither Pepsi nor coke do.

Autofill
The point op is making is that drinks for people who dont like AS are becoming more and more limited. Liptons iced tea used to be a lowet sugar drink and has now been replaced with stevia and is now unpalatable. Most squashes are now full of sweeteners. Its very difficult to find lemonade without AS, although r whites have had AS for as long as i can remember.

Well that's not true he probably king the OP made- her point was that it was very difficult to find a soft drink without aspartame. Which it's not.

Do you check ingredients in things? I just happen to have Ocado open and it says not hard at all.

Mind you I wouldn't consider stevia artificial either