Artificial sweeteners in everything now?

[Catcatcat12]

Anyone else notice how the regular version of sodas such as San Pellegrino and Schweppes mixers now all have sugar AND artificial sweeteners? Not the diet or slimline versions, the regular ones.

They taste awful, and it’s not advertised clearly on the can or bottle unless you read the ingredients list. I feel I can’t yet the classic versions of hardly anything anymore other than Coke and similar beverages.

I rarely drink soft drinks, I have the odd san pellegrino and I use ginger ale or lemonade in my Pimms, so when I do enjoy one of these drinks I’d like for them to taste nice. Aside from the taste issue, I’d also rather avoid all artificial sweeteners if I can, so I find it annoying that they seem to have changed the recipes for all these beverages in their ‘classic’ non diet options to contain a mix of sugar and other sweeteners.

I would like for both options - regular and diet - to be available, and I would like it clearly labelled when an artificial sweetener has been added.

anyone else?

It wasn't with the coke. More near to the tonic, bitter lemon etc. good luck!!

You can get still classic taste San Pellegrino which I think is normal sugar in Ocado and porbably elsewhere). It is literally "classic taste"

It wasn't with the coke. More near to the tonic, bitter lemon etc. good luck!!

That might explain it. Thank you!

Yes!!! I hate it. I’d rather pay the sugar tax and have it taste nice and not flare up my IBS. I loved lemon San Pellegrino 😢 I have occasionally managed to find the normal version in our big Waitrose but everywhere else it’s bloody “tastefully light” 🤬

Yes. Some of the sugar in non-diet drinks has been replaced with sweetener and this has been the case for several years now.

We've had loads of threads on Mumsnet about it and some excellent long threads with alternative suggestions which I would happily seek out and link on this thread as a handy resource except I can't because Advanced Search no longer exists and this still hasn't been addressed after months.

Well it has done me a favour as now I just drink tap water in restaurants. I used to have San Pellegrino but can't stand the taste.

it’s a common enough trigger you would think people would realize that maybe that means something about safety.

Sweeteners have been tested endless for decades. They are absolutely safe. Unless you listen to mommy bloggers instead of actual science.

A lemon San Pellegrino used to be so nice and real treat. It tastes awful now.

I had a J2O yesterday and with the first drink I could taste it had sweetener in it. Revolting. It really affects the taste of the drink.

M & S High Juice now has Stevia, @GimmeSleep 😪
Rose's Lime cordial and Coke - that's about all that's left of mainstream drinks without artificial sweeteners now. I'm afraid. I realize all this started with the sugar tax, but I for one am happy to pay more for full sugar alternatives. Which makes me wonder if there's an ulterior motive for getting these chemicals into us. But that's me.

I find this when buying the kids's juice concentrates Robinson's fruit shoots etc it's 98% sweeteners, I mean I'll give it as a very rare treat, but surely we should have a choice in the matter whether or not we want to give our children unnecessary chemicals as a replacement?? I did however come across Sainsbury's own brand mango and orange concentrate.. It's amazing!

I can't have sweeteners either - I have psoriatic arthritis and they make more joints more painful than normal. It's so frustrating trying to find drinks that don't have them in - especially when out and about.
I understand why they brought in the sugar tax but it would be nice to have options.

I agree with you too. We absolutely detest the aftertaste of artificial sweeteners in this household. It's getting really difficult to find drinks without them in. We rarely drink fuzzy drinks/squash but when we do we would like the option of having a sugar version.
I'm of the opinion that aspartame is going to be one of the next health scare stories in the not too distant future.

YANBU. I hate how we have so little choice if we don't want sweeteners. But:

Asda do a full sugar blackcurrant high juice cordial
The other day I bought PLJ (pure lemon juice) as it was the only cordial that Morrisons had that didn't have sweeteners in. It's actually really nice.

In pubs I have pure orange juice and soda if I'm not drinking alcohol as the staff are not interested in helping you find something without sweeteners in. They just look at you as if you have two heads for making the request.

Normal soft drinks sweetened with sugar shouldn't be a specialist item that is virtually impossible to find.

Ocado have recently added new search filters in the soft drinks section for no sugar levy" and "sugar levy applied", which helps identify the brands don't have sweeteners. Clearly, there is a demand for sweetener free products.

Rocks, Monin, Teissiere, Bottle Green, and Belvoir all make cordials without sweeteners, Fentimans and Fevertree are good for fizzy drinks, although you can just make your own with cordial and soda water. Waitrose and M&S still have "essentials" fizzy drinks and high juice squash with just sugar but they are often hard to get hold of.

The thing that really pissed me off is that people can buy coffees absolutely loaded with sugar but no levy is applied there. I don't drink any sugar in my coffee so I don't see why I can't have some in a soft drink instead!

It also mimics how sugar reacts in your body so you have an insulin spike.
DD won’t have it that shes not losing weight because she necks pepsi max like it’s going out of fashion, she has 12 x 3l bottles and 48 cans of the stuff in her bloody garage, it will be gone in a few weeks!

Just the slim tall cans and only in orange and lemon I believe? I used to live blood orange and lemon & mint but sadly haven’t seen those in the classic version

YANBU. Artificial sweeteners trigger my migraines. As pp have said, I'd rather pay a bit more for a sugar sweetened version.

@bigbluebus I also hate the aftertaste with a passion. It takes forever for it to go away, it lingers in the mouth, it’s disgusting. Still recovering from the half a mini can of ginger ale I drank earlier.

good to hear Ocado have a search filter for this, thanks @chesirecat99

I can't have them either. I don't drink anything more exciting than sparkling water that often, but when I do I like the Belvoir or Whole Earth ginger beer, or Appletizer.

sweeteners have been tested endless for decades. They are absolutely safe
Rude. They've supposedly been tested to see if they're not carcinogenic but there's plenty of recent evidence about their effects on everything from gut bacteria to blood sugar levels.
Plus if someone says they give them flares, migraines or diarrhea, I presume they know their own bodies.
Anyway they taste horrible.

i'll only drink normal coca cola now - i get headaches from the atrificial sweeteners - they taste horrible too

I find that a number of sweeteners including saccharine and aspartame, trigger migraines. Since stopping having anything containing these, I’ve had very few migraines (less than 4 a year vs more than 4 a month). I don’t have anything with sweeteners due to the taste, and concern that others will trigger migraine.

They creep everywhere though. Waitrose have stopped their full sugar lemonade and ginger beer, but M&S do one, and I understand that Sainsburys have lemonade in a small bottle. Other than those, Bottlegreen, Fentimans, Belvoir and Fever agree are all good. I usually end up drinking sparkling water when I’m out.

I check packs to make sure even more carefully after I realised the ice cream cones I’d bought for my daughters had sweeteners in (just why?!).

I hate the taste of them! To me they don’t taste sweet, but sort of bitter or acrid. They’re so horrible. Means I have to specifically look at ingredients lists to check if it’s sugar or sweeteners. I never used to be like this until one day I decided to eat a sweetener tablet. The ones you put in tea. It tasted so unbelievably awful that sweeteners have never tasted the same again.

San Pellegrino used to be such a treat and I don't touch it now. I used to like the pomegranate one and it's just weird now, totally artificial taste. I now have Ting (Jamaican grapefruit fizzy) and Rubicon drinks. Checked my tins in the fridge, they contain sugar as a main ingredient and a smal amount of sucralose.

For anyone who wants to find sweetener free drinks there is a group on Facebook called Save our sugar where people post details of drinks that are safe