To not understand why tons of people believe artificial sweeteners are more harmful than sugar?

[HavelockVetinari]

There is no scientific evidence to back up the various claims that it's addictive, carcinogenic...etc. Yet I'm always reading posts on social media that disparage sugar-free drinks as dangerous and harmful to health, without a shred of evidence being offered.

I do understand that some people dislike the taste (so-called 'supertasters' apparently experienced a bitter aftertaste) but that doesn't make it harmful!

I'm not speaking for Bruffin, only myself here, Pass, but I'm well aware that white sugar is highly refined. I'm well aware that it isn't healthy to consume too much of it, too often. However, I like it, and am not convinced it is going to cause terrible consequences if consumed sparingly. The occasional soft drink, in the context of any otherwise healthy balanced diet, will be absolutely fine, as far as I am concerned. I would like to have that choice, as I don't like any of the alternatives.

I'm quite happy for others to choose differently, so if you are happy with the taste of sweeteners and are not concerned about the possible health risks/believe them to be lower than those posed by sugar, that's fine by me.

You seem to be a bit worried that others want to stick to sugar, and avoid sweeteners. Why are you concerned about other people's choices? Nobody saying you should do the same.

All I see is people saying that they are affected, and why they want to avoid them, which is perfectly valid given the context of the actual OP, which was musing as to why people avoid them.

Sure, because claims that things: cause cancer, are “nasty chemicals”, are harmful to children, make people ill, and are actually unsafe they are just hiding the info about that - are always followed with “but i’ve no problem with them being in food, I’ll just avoid them.” 🙄

What people are miffed about is the lack of choice, and how hard they have become to avoid
It’s easy to avoid them.

Also dont see the need for a ban, just want choice and labeled
The labelling is there, by law it has to be.

I would much rather ingest sugar than artificial sweetener rubbish.

However, I like it, and am not convinced it is going to cause terrible consequences if consumed sparingly.
Much easier to convince yourself something is ok, if you want to keep consuming things, huh.

I wonder how many complaining about chemically sweetners which give them headaches, are avoiding that bottle of wine, or bottle of gin? I can just see it “gin and tonic, but please don’t give me a low cal tonic as it is all chemicals and gives me a sore head” 🙄

They taste vile. I can't stand the taste of them. They don't taste sweet they taste waxy.

They affect my daughter's behaviour very significantly - it's not pretty to watch.

They are a lot cheaper than sugar as an ingredient when mass producing food - I wonder if it's anything to do with lobbying and promotion of sweeteners by very large food companies to increase profits?

Passthecherrycoke
Its so not refined that it can be patented as stevia is. Crude stevia isnt even licensed to go in food. Its a marketing myth that it's natural.
The main reasons food companies use artificial sweeteners is they cost a fraction of real sugar. I think aspartame costs 1 70th of the price.
It tastes horrible, leaves a nasty taste in the mouth and defeats the object of having a nice refreshing drink.
All most people want is a choice. I wonder how much sales nestle lost because of adding stevia to san pelligreno. Notice they have just bought an ice tea which has no AS and is really pleasant, much smaller cans though

Sugar is natural ( along with arsenic, petroleum etc but 🙄) and artificial sweeteners are , well.... artificial. They're both Shite really

It’s easy to avoid them

It really isn't. Many pubs sell very few soft drinks that don't contain sweeteners, even innocent looking 'fruit juice' type drinks like J20 have them, so to avoid them, you have to interrogate the bar staff, which they won't have time for if they're busy and most of them won't understand the issue.

You could literally be faced with repeated questioning - does X drink have sweeteners - yes, what about Y, etc etc. Next time, I'm probably going to the try the orange juice and soda water but then I have to watch them like a hawk to make sure it is actual pure orange juice and not a J2O type imposter.

Oh, and 'full fat' Schweppes tonic has sweetners in, as does most other non-low cal soft drinks anyway so it's not just a matter of not having the diet version. Literally 80-90% of all non diet soft drinks have sweetners in now.

Yabbers people are within their rights to avoid chemicals in food if they choose, and within their rights to give their opinion of them, when explaining why they want to avoid them.

You have the choice to either take their opinions, and links, on board, or not. If you are not concerned about the potential risks that have been mooted, that's fine. I didn't see anybody sneer at those who don't agree they might be harmful, and I am wondering which posts you read that into. All I see is people explaining why they avoid them. If you are happy in your choice, why would you be getting angry about other peoples' opinions or eating habits?

It really ISN'T easy to avoid sweeteners, as they are on bloody everything these days, even where they have no business to be. I found them in a jar of gherkins last week, quite unexpectedly, and it was a very nasty surprise. That's another food I used to enjoy that has now been denied to me. I'm guessing you don't see the issue because you are not trying to avoid them, and therefore haven't had to waste loads of your own time and money.

I don't want to have to spend three times as long as necessary in the supermarket poring over the small print on labels, to see which formerly tasty foods have been tuined. Food manufacturers should be labelling the change on the front of packs, before tricking people into buying them. After all, if this is a positive change, and the food tastes just as good , and there are no health concerns, what could possibly be the reason to hide it?

But sugar isnt poisonous, like most things it just needs to used in moderation.

Much easier to convince yourself something is ok, if you want to keep consuming things, huh.

You really think consuming one small can of coke once every three or four weeks will be a problem?!

Yabbers - it is NOT easy to avoid them. Have you even heard of the sugar tax? Where have you been for the last year or two?

But sugar isnt poisonous, like most things it just needs to used in moderation.

Exactly this.

The problem we have is that we have certain sectors of society in the grip of panic about 'unhealthy' foods and 'clean eating', to the point of an unhealthy fixation that approaches orthorexia in some cases. It is not psychologically healthy to get anxious about the occasional fatty or sugary food or drink, if the overall diet is healthy.

I think I might be a super taster (one of my parents is and I can taste sweeteners from a mile off, as well as Being very sensitive to coriander)

I love cucumber though I think it's lovely in a glass of sparkling water. I don't think it's flavourless though.

I think they taste fine and have no qualms at all about consuming them. My diabetic husband is finding it really refreshing finally having a different choice of soft drink to water or diet coke when he's out and about.

I had the same disappointing San Pellegrino experience an earlier poster mentioned. It was my favourite drink until it suddenly had a bitter aftertaste.

It's now incredibly hard to find soft drinks without any sweeteners in. I am definitely not a supertaster but I can taste sweetener easily.

But were you all drinking significant amounts of full sugar fizzzy drinks before? Because that’s pretty gross in itself

No, not at all. I drink maybe one fizzy drink every month, and that's more than I used to. Do you drink so many fizzy drinks that you need to make sure they have sweeteners? Because regardless of sugar vs sweetener that's not good for you and is pretty gross in itself

Not sure about the carcinogen claims but there is increasing evidence that 'diet' soft drinks make you eat more:

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24432876?dopt=Abstract

Oh no, San Pellegrino too?

On a hot day I get a craving for a can of Lilt but they’ve taken the dark path of sweetener ickiness too.

Aside from full sugar Coca Cola (hangover cure of champions) are there any other fizzy drinks that are sweetener free?

"Then got gestational diabetes and after testing my blood sugar after every meal and at various points throughout the day, it was very evident that diet drinks had no effect on my blood sugar levels at all. I don't believe any of the claims about sweeteners now after that" a study of 1 - compelling evidence

Well, an n of 2 now if that helps. i was testing my blood 6 times a day and artificial sweetners were perfectly fine (althgouh there's a difference between aspartamene or stevia and xylitol/maltitol - the lattter did affect my blood sugar and also had a laxative effect) 🤔

Just for information - Waitrose own brand lemonade is sweetener free and not too expensive.

I think they have reduced the sugar in it too, as it isn't as sweet as some other real-sugar drinks.

Many have noted a link to migraine and headache consultants will normally recommend chronic migraine patient's avoid artificial sweater, because they often see this correlation in patient's. Scientific studies take money and not all affect are looked into in this way.

I avoid them as a migraine suffer and I can taste them in everything. Even the Pepsi Max. I got stopped and blind tested in a shop years ago for coke zero (before I cut them out completely) I could tell which was which. They said I'd been the only one so far to notice a difference.

Yes and I do believe more evidence is coming out that they maybe cotributing to the obesity crisis. Weather this is aperturetie related or insulin issues I don't know but have seen a few articles in recent years.

You do realise that they do recomed you only consume a certain amount of a lot of these sweatners. While one or two drinks a day maybe ok drinking bottles of the stuff isn't recommend.

I have a science qualification, vaccinate my children and believe the Earth is round to. No flat Earths here.

It is easy to avoid them. But of course, lots of people have lots of excuses as to why it isn’t.

Of course I’ve heard of the sugar tax, that has nothing to do with how hard it is to avoid sweeteners. Sweetners in certain foods have always been there, and labelled as such. That hasn’t changed.

Interesting nobody has confirmed they gave up their gin because the chemicals gave them a headache.

Ok, Yabbers, despite several people telling you they are not easy to avoid, you are going to just ignore their experience, and repeat the view you already held to start with. I get you.

Scientific studies take money

Well of course they do. Science is very expensive to carry out.