To still be pissed of by Jamie Oliver

[marysuzairn]

Everytime I go round a friend's house and they bring out the pims I can't have it because virtually all lemonade now has sweeteners in. People say they taste like crap and gives me such a bad headache.

@HarlinRay I am so tired of people who have to claim some kind of 'sensitivity' rather than just a simple preference. It doesn't make you special, it makes you irritating and dramatic. That's probably what's giving you the headache.

This is not a “claim” to “sensitivity”. Aspartame has a Known laxative effect (read the warnings on sweets aimed at diabetics) for “normal” people. For those of us with gut orders it is severe. It is definitely “irritating and dramatic” when I first start feeling nauseous, then the stomach cramps followed by uncontrollable diarrhoea. When I started investigating my symptoms my GP told me it was important to avoid all artificial sweeteners and suddenly I understood why I was so often very ill when it was my turn as designated driver! A night drinking wine or beer and I was fine but a few glasses of lemonade and I spent most of the night in the bathroom......

People should have the choice. Usually I don’t have anything with artificial sweeteners in the house but when I know some of my friends prefer the diet versions so buy them when they’re coming over (and then give them the leftovers to take home).

I am so tired of people who have to claim some kind of 'sensitivity'

I’m not ‘claiming’ anything, I’m relaying my actual experience. I didn’t even know San Pellegrino had changed to including sweeteners until I drank some, then realised my mouth tastes soapy and I was feeling sick. It’s not like I looked at the label and decided I’d give myself some psychosomatic effects. I genuinely don’t know what causes me (and many others) to feel this way when there are others who can consume sweeteners and to them it just tastes like sugar, but it is what it is.

Patronising posts won’t change that.

Jamie fucking Oliver.

First he came for the turkey twizzlers...

I agree with the PPs - it's all very well for one research centre to do one study and come up with results, but that doesn't suddenly mean that hundreds of thousands of people's own reported experiences over decades can just be slapped down and dismissed as 'all in the mind'.

It kind of makes me think of a certain religion that's popular in Hollywood where the male leaders assure women that childbirth should be completely silent and that they're doing something wrong and harmful if they make any sound at all....

[quote HarlinRay]I am so tired of people who have to claim some kind of 'sensitivity' rather than just a simple preference. It doesn't make you special, it makes you irritating and dramatic. That's probably what's giving you the headache.

"Double-blind trials have been carried out with aspartame at Duke University and in one of the best-designed of these studies, the effects of a single large dose of aspartame in people who had claimed to be sensitive to the substance was investigated. The results showed no difference in headache frequency, blood pressure, or blood histamine concentrations (a measure of the allergenic potential) between the experimental and control groups.[24] In another study, at the University of Illinois, which involved diabetics, subjects in the placebo group actually had more reactions than those in the aspartame group."

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3198517/[/quote]
That Duke study had a sample size of 40 participants. It’s hardly representative.

Full sugar fizzy drinks are really shocking for your teeth.

Fentimans, cawston press, fever tree, belvoir, bottle green, appletiser + san pellegrino do full sugar versions, full sugar coke is still available plus full sugar lemonades.

There are several other more niche brands that do sweetener free drinks

Also juices, smoothies etc. All pubs do orange juice/apple juice so absolute bs will diabetics struggle to get a sugary drink in the pub. Plus most pubs still sell full sugar coke

Lemonade has contained sweeteners for years in pubs, way before our PM jamie oliver introduced the tax.

If people on this thread really drink sugary drinks so rarely then you will also be drinking sweeteners rarely. Most places will sell a natural/organic/juice only type fizzy drink, which can be a little more expensive but its only a rare treat.

The fact extremely sugary drinks are harder to get hold of is a good thing.

I hate artificial sweeteners and am not convinced they’re better than sugar. They’re chemicals passing as food and Aspartame gives me mouth ulcers.

Also turkey twizzlers were disgusting. We called them turkey poos, they were only liked after their banning.

Realistically fizzy drinks are full of preservatives and chemical flavourings.

They still contain a fuck tone of artificial chemicals even if you use sugar instead of sweeteners. They are hardly a natural product - if you dont like artificial chemicals fizzy drinks arent really for you

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll you are wrong about needing sugar. Humans don't need any sugar at all in our diet. We need some carbohydrate but it doesn't need to be from sweet foods. Unlike fat (from unprocessed foods such as meat, cheese, eggs, fish) which is part of a healthy diet.
I think the sugar tax would have been better done as minimum pricing on all fizzy drinks. Or possibly even all processed sweet foods (but that would be more difficult to decide what counts as processed)

@Siameasy theres a preservative found in a lot of drinks that is known to cause mouth ulcers in a lot of people. It is much more likely to be that than artificial sweeteners

YANBU OP, all sweeteners, even Stevia give me horrendous migraines and projectile vomiting. I’m grateful that our local pub stocks Cawston Press Ginger Beer and that most supermarkets now stock Cawston/Belvoir/Bottle Green. It is getting harder and harder when out though, as usually the only ‘safe’ option is Coke, which I don’t particularly like. I usually end up with water or tea, not particularly exciting when I’m out for a treat.

I hate sweeteners. And I hate his sugar tax.

And as a diabetic now lucozade has hardly any sugar in it, whereas for the last 40 years it was my first choice to treat a hypo.

I'd much rather have a little bit of sugar now and the rather than artificial chemicals every and all day

This literally makes no sense at all. If you only want a sugary tasting drink every now and then, why would you be consuming artificial chemicals all day every day?

Haven’t read the whole thread so someone may have mentioned it but it’s no good for type 1 diabetics when they need a sugary drink.

@manzana you

Should say ‘thank you’ 😕

While everybody on MN can drink sugary drinks once a year, some children drink fizzy drinks as their only drink which is a serious problem. A lot of adults are also obese because their drinks in high in calories. While calories shouldn't be the be all and end all when it comes to food consumption, obesity costs the country dearly.

JO advocating the sugar tax when his food is full of calories (drizzled oil on everything) is hypocritical but he wasn't to know that the companies would stop manufacturing the full sugar version. For the drinks companies quantity sold is clearly their priority.

FWIW I agree that lemonade is disgusting these days

The dramatics about sensitivities to artificial sweeteners are silly and not backed up by evidence- but people are allowed their preferences and it is frustrating to find what you like isn’t sold anymore. The sugar tax, however, was a pure gift to manufacturers because artificial sweeteners are massively cheaper than actual sugar. Sugar was the most expensive ingredient in any fizzy drink by a huge margin and now they don’t even have to bother with it- and if they do they can market it as a premium product.

Please forgive me when I prefer not to be ill. Some dairy products have a similar effect. But the difference is I know what to avoid and there are other options.

The dramatics about sensitivities to artificial sweeteners are silly and not backed up by evidence

So, they don't affect you, therefore they don't affect anyone else?

@Ginfordinner eat and drink what you like but anecdotes aren’t data- when actual double-blind studies are conducted, the effects just aren’t there. It’s kind of a hobby horse of mine- people claiming that their opinions and subjective experiences trump scientific evidence is a dangerous trend and I think it’s important to speak up about it.

In any case I think the ‘health’ reasoning is completely tangential to the real reason that sugar is disappearing from drinks, when it’s actually just a financial gift to multinational corporations. They get to save billions by using chemical sweeteners and can claim the government(s) made them do it. So convenient.

This isn't anecdata nor is this

I have IBS, and sugar alcohols really don't agree with me.

I hate diet drinks, I find it a really struggle to buy squash without sweeteners so we tend to dilute juice now.

@AlphaDalpha Tropicana orange and mango juice (or the store brand equivalent) cut 2/3 with fizzy water is amazing especially with a slice of lime- maybe with a bit of vodka if you’re an adult and it’s not breakfast time 😂