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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Tonic water and other drinks with artificial sweeteners

35 replies

Chicdrop · 21/10/2017 21:25

So fed up with drinks with artificial sweeteners-from tonic water, my G & T's not the same anymore.
Also fruit cordials, the only place I can buy from in Jersey is Waitrose, where I can still buy orange, apple & pink grapefruit cordial without artificial sweeteners, thank goodness!
Artificial sweeteners do not agree with me apart from the aftertaste!
So manufacturers please take heed of this!!!

OP posts:

Flarrot · 21/10/2017 21:27

Yeah it’s so annoying, the put the sweeteners in the full-fat versions of nearly all the drinks now! If I wanted artificial sweeteners I’d buy the diet version. The only ones I’ve found that don’t are: normal coke/Pepsi, seven up and fevertree tonic water

BarbaraofSevillle · 21/10/2017 22:04

YANBU. The drinks without artificial sweeteners are reducing rapidly and it's almost impossible to find in some places.

Waitrose own brand is a cheaper tonic with no sweetners. For fizzy pop, I stick to San Pellegrino but don't drink much of it anyway.

I believe that people should drink mostly unsweetened drinks (plain tea, coffee or water) and sweet drinks should be a minor contributor (10/20% at most). Then it doesn't matter really if full sugar versions are drunk. If you're drinking so much 'fizzy pop' that the sugar content is significant, that's what you need to cut down on, not the sugar in the pop IMHO.

treaclesoda · 21/10/2017 22:06

Totally agree. I hate the taste of them, and it's really difficult to find drinks now that don't have them.

justtiredofcoping · 21/10/2017 23:44

Love them !
I spent the first 14 yrs of my life drinking water, never tasted orange juice, apple coke etc.

I remember my best friend went to Florida to see her family and bought me back a diet coke and a diet tab - OMG, my world of taste buds opened up!

Been a diabetic since I was 2 yrs old - the variety of drinks available to me now never ceases to amaze me. Still have to read the labels carefully and as I know no different, there is no after taste!

dowsabel · 21/10/2017 23:51

Fentimans and fever tree do naturally low sugar without artificial sweeteners. Your g&t is 2/3rds t, make the t the best you can afford!

DioneTheDiabolist · 21/10/2017 23:51

YANBU OP. I'm pregnant and due to stinky sweetners am very restricted in what I can have. And it's not just drinks, DS made some micro popcorn last night, it contained sweetener, I even bought a pack of smokey bacon crisps and it had sweetener in it too.

They're fucking everywhere!

lidoshuffle · 21/10/2017 23:52

Lidl's tonic water has no artificial sweeteners too.

Elphame · 21/10/2017 23:53

I'm with you OP - I've switched to Fever Tree for my G&Ts but the number of pubs that only stock Schweppes (which used to be my favourite but is now horrid) means that more often or not i'm drinking sparkling water or ordering plain gin and smuggling in my own tonic!

bridgetreilly · 21/10/2017 23:56

Yes, yes, yes!

I hate the way that squash gets labelled 'No Added Sugar' rather than 'Full of Artificial Sweeteners' too.

Sarahh2014 · 22/10/2017 00:00

You can buy 'proper' tonic water in Schweppes and supermarket brands aswell as the diet version

SomewhatIdiosyncratic · 22/10/2017 01:03

Sweetners still taste rank hours afterwards. They also give me headaches.
If I want low sugar, I know where the tap is. That suits me most of the time, but sometimes a bit of flavour or quick release energy doesn't go amiss.

SabineUndine · 22/10/2017 01:11

It used to be possible to get Perrier this was lime or lemon flavoured without sweetener or sugar in. I loved it. Wish they’d bring it back.

BarbaraofSevillle · 22/10/2017 06:27

Sarah But a lot of non diet soft drinks and mixers also contain artificial sweeteners too, including Schweppes, meaning that they taste disgusting. It's because they're cheaper than sugar and for misguided health reasons.

I'd much rather drink full sugar versions less often rather than ones containing artificial sweeteners at all really.

Elphame · 22/10/2017 10:15

Sarahh2014 - even the non diet Schweppes tonic now contains artificial sweetener. It's getting very hard to get drinks that don't.

I drink a lot of water but just occasionally I'd like a change.

The horrible stuff is invading so many foods now - even peanut butters seem to be sweetened with xylitol. Why?

MayorGoodway · 22/10/2017 10:21

I find it’s not just the taste that’s awful though. After a night on Diet Coke, as the designated driver, I always feel a bit pissed!

OhWhatFuckeryIsThisNow · 22/10/2017 10:28

They are Sabine I'm on a testing panel and they were asking for testers for that very thing.
AS are disgusting, I always feel more thirsty after. (But recognise the benefits for diabetics)

Onthehighseas · 22/10/2017 10:31

Try Franklins, Fever Tree and Fentimans lighter versions, none contain any sweeteners.

kali110 · 22/10/2017 10:31

Nope, love them.

Oblomov17 · 22/10/2017 10:38

So few have no sweeteners. Why is this? It’s so poor.

StrawberrySquash · 22/10/2017 12:16

It's very annoying, although Schweppes tonic is one of the few sweetener containing drinks that I find tastes good.
But, yes, most of what you drink should be unsweetened. I guess the problem is there's a fair chunk of people who just won't do this. My friend actively dislikes water and so is bad at getting enough liquid.

ukelelebanana · 22/10/2017 12:20

The horrible stuff is invading so many foods now - even peanut butters seem to be sweetened with xylitol. Why?

Sweeteners are cheaper than sugar, basically.

BitchQueenofAngmar · 22/10/2017 12:31

YANBU - it's so annoying. They are ruining all the drinks, damnit!! I used to love a proper fizzy drink as a treat, but now they all (apart from proper coke) taste rank. I don't know why society must always cater for the lowest common denominator (in this case the idiots who don't understand moderation). What happened to consumer choice?

Elphame · 22/10/2017 12:51

Sweeteners are cheaper than sugar, basically

Probably but I'm voting with my purse - I check all labels for sweeteners (have done for years) and just don't buy so they are losing my custom. Much cheaper and healthier for me too as we now consume very little commercial processed food.

theSplund · 14/03/2018 18:30

After going over to Tesco Diet Tonic, and subsequently realising that the sweeteners might have played a part in a possible case of IBS, I thought I'd switch back to the full-fat Sainsburys version as they were the only cheap Tonic that didn't seem to have any artificial sweeteners added. But no! they too have added them now - can anyone suggets a Tonic (that isn't going to break the bank as I drink lots of it) that is sweetener free and all sugar?

Sezg66 · 10/05/2018 22:01

M&S seems to be the only retailer to sell their own bog standard tonic still without filthy, disgusting sweeteners, that doesn't break the bank. Waitrose don't show it on the label of their own, but they have defo mucked about with their recipe and it's awful now - tastes just like it has sweeteners in it. This for sure has to do with cost of sugar vs sweeteners. I think now G&T is THE drink and there are loads of expensive tonics without crap in them this is paving the way for these supermarket brands to start up their own 'craft' tonics for a hefty price tag ;) Watch this space...

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