To think the should stop fucking with sugar and replacing it with shit chemicals?

[stellenbosch]

First Capri Sun, now Coco Pops! Stop fucking with recipes!

Yeah, yeah, sugar tax. I'd rather my kids had one thing that was sugary than a bunch of chemicals!

They should still sell the old products. Surely sales will just go down anyway because they now all taste like shit?

I had a Sprite the other day for the first time in years. The aspartame aftertaste was horrendous. Like a Diet drink, except it was 'full fat'. Horrid. Agree with you, OP.

But the vast majority of consumers do not bother to read food labels ... if something says 'no sugar' then these nitwits assume they are making a good choice. The labels should be more truthful as in 'sugar has been replaced by artificial sweeteners' etc, but that's not going to happen. Really ALL processed foods should gradually have their 'sweetness' levels reduced so people get accustomed to it over time, but it would have to be a government-mandated thing or most would still go for the sweeter taste. As for palm oil, well that's another topic and also getting hard to find stuff without it.

On another thread, lemon Fanta was mentioned by a few posters as a favourite part of a Mediteranean holiday.

For a while, UK fanta was horrible as it had sweetners in, but Spanish fanta was lovely because it only had sugar in. I wonder if it's still that way, or if the sugar tax has ruined everything in Spain too?

I am so disappointed, I anticipated that we would actually have LESS SWEET things, not even sweeter rammed full of aspartame etc.

Back to making my own lemonade - sharp, tangy and very thirstquenching.

I cant eat stevia, it gives me stomach cramps. As do most artificial sweeteners. All apart from potassium sorbate, which also tastes the least offensive to me.

I'd prefer to eat sugar but less of it. Most people I know have said the same thing. We don't need foods that are so sweetened, or fruit that has been produced with an enhanced sugar gene.

I completely agree. I can't stomach any artificial sweeteners. They make me feel ill within minutes. I used to drink Ribena maybe 3-4 times a year (when I'm ill basically). And now I can't have it at all.

There is barely anything fizzy I can drink now.

I feel very annoyed that I am being negatively effected because others can't regulate their own intake on sugary drinks.

I'd happily pay more 'sugar tax' to get my occasional treats back.

But you're very wrong about one thing: they don't taste bad. When I was young I used to love stealing a Candarel pill from the dispenser. And Pepsi Max Cherry tastes excellent. But natural sugars taste fine to me, too.

They taste fucking awful but perhaps you can't taste them fully? You may be a nontaster, like a quarter of the population. I'm a supertaster and can't tolerate them at all. I too remember stealing a Canderel pill as a child and it was like putting shampoo in my mouth. Any diet drink literally tastes to me like someone stirred a couple of spoons of shampoo or perfume into it. And like when you accidentally get shampoo or perfume in your mouth, the taste lasts for hours and seems to deaden my sense of taste for the bast part of a day. It's fucking foul stuff.

I have an allergy to aspartame and react with blinding headaches and stomach cramps. Years ago the only thing I had to really avoid were diet drinks, now I have to scrutinise every label.

I've just returned from a few glorious weeks in california where I was able to chew gum, drink lemonade, fanta, Dr Pepper, have slushies and not have to read everything. I'm sitting here savouring my last bottle of proper coke made with corn syrup.

☹️

I’ve been wondering about the sugar tax,
I thought why would Tate & Lyle sponsor the last Conservative Party conference when they are the party that brought in the sugar tax?
Until I saw that Tate & Lyle are now one of the worlds biggest suppliers of sweetners & sweetners cost between 0.2% - 0.5% the cost of sugar!
I believe Jeremy Hunt has a lot to answer to & Coca Cola etc are saving a fortune!

If those experiments with sweeteners caused cancer in rats but they claim they are safe for humans, it begs the question why on earth do we test stuff on rats if we ignore the findings?

Also, I believe, it's so pointless because sweeteners act the same as sugar in the body. So, they spike insulin levels and make you hungrier!

(Correct me if that's fake science!)

I kind of agree. But the problem with the 'eat a little bit of sugar instead of loads of artificial sweeteners' theory is that people don't eat just a little bit of sugar. They eat absolutely shedloads of it. Hence the obesity crisis and its effects on the NHS. If people won't voluntarily reduce their sugar intake, it's understandable that the government look for other solutions.

If people won't voluntarily reduce their sugar intake, it's understandable that the government look for other solutions

I just wish it didn't result in our food becoming even more industrialised and artificial, and tasting ever worse. I would rather pay a premium for the real deal, as would many of us who don't have a problematic relationship with sweets and drinks.

Perhaps coca cola et al could produce a 'vintage' edition of their products for those of us who enjoy a very occasional treat a few times a year. These manky tasting sweeteners are going to completely ruin mixed drinks and cocktails.

I can’t get all antsy about it as I don’t feed that shot to my kids.

*shit

But most of the sugar that people eat is 'hidden' in food we buy not added to it by us, and most of it could be drastically reduced instead of replaced with sweeteners

Sweetner hater here. Vile, headachy things with hours of lingering aftertaste.

I realised that Morrisons had contaminated their high juice because it tasted of soap. They've been rebranding their own products so a subtle difference in label didn't ring any alarm bells in the shop. The only difference in the labelling is the sugar box has gone from red to amber and the small print in the ingredients.

The really infuriating bit is the lack of clear labelling about these stealth changes.

Coca Cola seem to be smuggling red onto their Zero product which is misleading.

DS(7) is affected by aspartame in particular. We've recently realised the pattern of him getting into aggressive rages after drinking Robinsons (aspartame) squashes. He had some in church the other day without us twigging it at the time. By the time he got into the house, he was ranting, raving and throwing himself at the walls. Because he mainly drinks water or sugar based cordials, the personality change is so abrupt. I dread to think what he'd be like if he routinely drank aspartame. We'd certainly have a miserable, angry child much of the time. Full sugar Coca Cola, he stays lovely!
He is prone to getting "hangry", and my unscientific theory is that sweetners disturb his insulin response and give him low blood sugars, except unlike his "hanger" it can't be fended off at the grumpy stage with a bit of food (very lean, muscular child, minimal body fat).
He did have food allergies and intolerances as an infant too. I've since realised that I'm sensitive to soya and milk.

As a healthy, active family, the stealth changes are deeply annoying and further reducing our avaliable choices which were already more limited anyway. Water is great, but we don't want it to be the only avaliable option that doesn't make us feel ill in some way.

A 330ml can of coke has 7 teaspoons of sugar in it I'm happy with that (and would be happy for a little less sweetness too, as long as the sweetener is sugar). I'm also happy to pay more to drink something with just sugar. I don't drink fizzy drinks very often at all. Just as a treat. Most of the time I'm drinking black tea or water, but sometimes a G&T, and I'm having to look carefully for the T now.

I really, really wish the sugar tax had made manufacturers think about reducing the sweetness of their products, not just seeking to replace the sugar. I now make my own granola and sweeten five cups full of oats and coconut with just 1tbsp of honey . . . and that's sweet enough when you're adding fresh fruit when you eat it.

I just wish it didn't result in our food becoming even more industrialised and artificial and tasting ever worse

I agree.

I would rather pay a premium for the real deal

Thereby making sugar even more desirable, but unaffordable for the poor?

The only real solution is to cook from scratch, avoid processed food and stop eating obviously sweet things except as a treat maybe once a week. But you can't make people do that.

Hillarious the fact that you’re now making your own healthy granola is good news surely? Hopefully making a lot of this ‘junk’ food taste like crap will stop people from eating it.

Thereby making sugar even more desirable, but unaffordable for the poor?

The desirability of sugar is a function of its biological effects, not of its price.

As for it being unaffordable for the poor, I'm not arguing for a sugar tax. That ship has sailed and was a government decision anyway, so you would need to take that up with them.

I'm suggesting that manufacturers continue to produce editions of the original recipe products which incorporate the sugar tax. The idea would be that rich or poor, these options are an occasional treat.

I saw a fb advert for no &more the other day that's meant to be natural? Anyone tried it yet as I was hoping it would be an option for bf ( absolutely not allowed sweeteners)

This sugar tax is pretty useless overall, I would've thought that making manufacturers reduce sugar and salt and fats in stuff would be better, but not by replacing them, simply reducing.

Whilst a tiny bit of sugar in a spag bol sauce is fine, it really, really doesn't need the amounts some of the manufacturers add to them. It doesn't need sweetener either!

Same with salt and fats really.

I'm suggesting that manufacturers continue to produce editions of the original recipe products which incorporate the sugar tax. The idea would be that rich or poor, these options are an occasional treat.

I agree. I enjoy gin and tonic, and will pay more for tonic without sweetener, rather than (to my tastes) spoil my enjoyment with sweetener aftertaste.