To think summer is ruined?

[Panicmode1]

I thought, as it's going to be a nice weekend, I would get some Pimms and lemonade - but I couldn't find a single lemonade in Sainsbury's that didn't have aspartame/sweeteners in it.......

So AIBU to think summer has been ruined? What is one to drink at the events of the season now?

What symptoms does your allergic DC get after exposed to asparatame, Catching?

Sweeteners are absolutely disgusting, and probably worse for you then sugar could ever be. So many good drinks ruined.

His lips and mouth swell and he develops ulcers on his tongue and inside his mouth. If he has a large amount then he develops vomiting and diarrhoea also but he’s not had that for a long time now as we are so careful with labels.

He had full allergy screening a few years ago. Allergy testing came back as an allergy to phenylalanine which is the amino acid in aspartame (why does my spell check find this word so hard to write 😡).

He has a number of allergies so it took us a while to have the full testing and realise that’s what was causing the issues, we were constantly excluding confirmed allergies and he was still reacting and then the results came back explaining why.

We were told it’s fairly common, not so much a full blown allergy but many many people don’t tolerate it and react badly to it.

is there a super long list of foods to avoid, like PKU?

Yes, mostly sugar free things but the list is getting longer and longer by the day! Even ketchup has it in! It’s hard when something that has been safe for years suddenly starts adding it in as they never list that they’ve changed the recipe so you have to check every item every time.

I do make fizzy lemonade myself, I do it in a very fast and easy way that doesn’t involve sweeteners or big pans of lemons. I do it because it is nicer and cheaper and it takes no longer to make a big jug than it does to make a cup of tea.

Boil water, pour into cup, add sugar (to taste) to make a sugar syrup. Add the same volume again of standard lemon juice. Pour it into a big jug over ice. Fill with fizzy water. That’s it.

If all the “proper” drinks are now sugar free, does that mean that there will no longer be seperate diet versions?

@PurpleTraitor sounds great, can I be cheeky send ask of you wouldn’t mind sending me the ratios?

and ask*

And ask if* sorry typos

Start with a tbsp sugar per portion you want to make, enough boiling water to dissolve it, then doubling the amount of syrup with lemon juice. It’s to taste, really. Easy to add a bit more lemon and water if it’s too sweet so play around with quantities.

I had the same problem. 7-Up used to be okay but then came the awful sweeteners with them too...it was like the tonic water - no wonder Fever Tree has soared in sales with their genuine tonics. Schweppes did the worst thing ever to their business when they withdrew the sugar; no one who enjoys a proper Gin and Tonic can stomach the artificial flavour as it ruins the drink. Sweeteners are awful and like most things that make you recoil - not good for you either. Waitrose does a decent lemonade without sweetener - but then I wondered as it tasted artificial with Pimms too. So I wondered what was in Pimms itself and noticed that (unusually) there's no listing of the contents...but neat, you can't tell as it tastes like cough mixture. I'm wondering whether they too have joined the sweetener brigade? Hope I'm wrong.