AIBU to want to be free to choose to drink sugary shite if I want to?

[HodorHodorHodor]

Was in Subway earlier (yup IAdefU for that) and went over to get the drinks out of the fridge cabinet. Only choices were Pepsi max, diet Pepsi, club zero, 7up free. I had a bottle of water in the end, as I can't stand artificial sweeteners. Called over to my OH the choices (classy) and the guy behind the till said it wasn't Subway but Pepsi's fault and this was how it was going to be from now on. WTF? I get it's cheaper with the sugar tax etc but it seems to be more and more how this is going. I'd rather drink sugar than the chemicals pumped into the sugar free versions. Just feels like the element of choice is stealthily being removed. Tried a quick Google but couldn't see anything about this. I was still in the process of forgiving Subway for ditching Coke! I'm not about to combust with rage about it but just wondered what you all thought.

YANBU that artificial sweeteners are the taking the wrong direction. Lots of people here are anecdotally reporting direct effects - headaches/diarrhoea etc. Who knows what the long term effects are on a population level.

YABU in that we should be drinking less processed sweet shit either way - having coffee, tea, herbal tea, milk, water etc instead.

Lethal sometimes they're the best thing for a hypo.

My DH carries glucose sachets for a hypo.

Ultimately, we haven't really done a grand job of choosing for ourselves have we? Type 2 diabetes is sparing and the level of obesity is bloody staggering.

I'm not advocating crap sweetness either. I'm advocating wager, flavoured with fruit if you need something sweet.

The NEC in Birmingham have done the same with Coca Cola products

'Or just stop drinking fizzy drinks! Jeez they're hardly doing any good are they'

It's not just fizzy drinks. Sweeteners are being put into a lot of otherwise ordinary products, like baked beans and ketchup.

Original Ribena now contains sweeteners - they recently changed the recipe. Very annoying as I'm another one who should not consume artificial sweeteners for medical reasons. I only found out by chance about the Ribena.

If you're not supposed to consume artificial sweetner to the point it can make you ill then surely you have to bear some responsibility for checking ingredients yourself. Its hardly a surprise that companies are altering their recipes.

It's also easy to avoid artificial sweetner by avoiding processed food.

It's also easy to avoid artificial sweetner by avoiding processed food.

True BUT surely I should be allowed to enjoy myself with friends?

Went out to a pub with friends last week. I was driving so soft drinks only for me. My soft drink of choice in a pub would normally be tonic water but they only had Schweppes which has artificial sweetener. The only non alcoholic drink they had without sweetener was pure fruit juice (more than one glass is too much for me) or water so I had to spend the evening drinking water with a slice of lemon!

Just to let you know pepsi own/have shares in pizza hut and subway, so allocate what drinks they can use / have, and have stated only diet drinks from now on.

Yanbu
I would rather have sugar than unnatural chemical sweeteners

Yanbu.

I don't touch diet drinks. On the odd occasion I have a coke it's always proper sugary coke.

I don’t drink fizzy drinks so I’m stuck with water anyway but YANBU

Pisses me off how I am entitled to refuse life saving procedures, medications and treatments and die yet I am not allowed to choose what I eat and drink. It's bloody ridiculous

I am fed up of having my diet decided for me. I am an active grown up, I can teeat myself to some sugar. My son is type 1, I carry hypo treatments but sometimes with all the planning in the world I might need access to sugary products when out and about.

Went to Pizza Hut 2 weeks ago to discover they only do tap diet drinks now. They kept that bloody quiet. Saw a guy make a big order, go to get his drink to discover the diet only stuff and he cancelled his whole order and walked out. Made me laugh a bit.

It pisses me off with the whole sucking salt and sugar out of everything. Nothing tastes the same anymore.

This annoys me too. I hardly ever drink fizzy drinks but a few times a year when I'm ill/dehydrated/hungover a proper Coke is just the thing. Diet versions taste vile and make me feel worse rather than better.

I have issues with companies changing the recipe but not putting a "new improved recipe" label on the bottle (yes I'm looking at you Ribena)

I have issues with allergy labelling as artificial sweetness aren't included despite them affecting people adversely

And I have issue with the idea that artificial sweetness are "better for us" quite apart from my own issues with them (banned by my consultant) a lot of research is being done because they are wondering if they cause diabetes or at the very least enable it to be managed badly due to the way the pancreas/insulin work

How long until they realise that the sweeteners are much worse than sugar?

It is because of a sugar tax. They have until April to change which is why some shops will still have full fat. The shop I work at they're keeping it full fat in bottles and you pay extra but the machine will be diet as they're refillable it would be hard to have a tax on something some people have a few some people have one iyswim.

I predict a health crisis in 20/30 years related to sweeteners.

I don't care about paying for it - I'd rather like to maintain what little health I have rather than decending into a dark abyss of illness because no-one bothered to label stuff properly

My guilty pleasure is a can of Coke and I will happily pay more as I'm not a heavy drinker!

Although I note they've been dicking about with the recip already

I went to subway today and they had full fat Pepsi.maybe depends on franchise owner

My local Tesco has started only selling the sugar-free versions of their own brand soft drinks, and most of the branded ones too. Bloody annoying as I can’t stand the taste of aspartame and it makes me ill.

Don't even get me started. YANBU.

I still can't understand why Barr's have changed the irn bru recipe even though they have loads of sugar free versions for people that want it already. I choose to have fizzy drink and it's my treat, I'm not overweight, eat a healthy diet and I'm rarely ill- i.e. im not a burden on the nhs. It's bullshit. I don't want artificial sweeteners either

YANBU
If they want to take sugar out, why not make them less sweet with less sugar - particularly lemonade, home made lemonade is lovely slightly sharp, as opposed to drenchingthem in sweetners like aspartame which taste so strong (of aspartame, to me)as to ruin the flavour