To ask why there are sweeteners in nearly all soft drinks?

[wildlifeWalker]

I've stopped drinking alcohol but would like a replacement drink to put in a wineglass.
Nearly every cordial or sparkling drink I've looked at contains sweeteners which I absolutely hate the taste of. The only thing I've found is Belvoir sparkling elderflower which is nice but pricy!
I would just mix my own with fizzy water if I could find a nice, not too sweet cordial. I thought about pure grape juice but my supermarket doesn't do it.

It has sweeteners in now 😞. As does Fentimans Curiosity Cola , which my DH likes . He is allergic to sweetener ......

Monin syrups are just what you’re looking for. They’re the syrups used in bars for cocktails (e.g. raspberry, watermelon) and coffees (e.g. gingerbread, vanilla). They’re expensive but you don’t need much and they feel grown up. They’re hard to find in supermarkets but they’re available online and in Costco. I also just use fruit juice like a cordial with a Sodastream - grapefruit, pineapple and orange are all good. If you have tinned fruit you can also use the fruit juice or syrup from that.

I haven't RTFT, but have you tried Gordon's non-alcoholic gin and tonics? They're really light and refreshing, and not too sweet. I also really like some of the NA beers.

Those sound perfect - yes definitely looking for something more grown up that I can put in a wineglass so it feels like a treat rather than an everyday drink.
Mixing flavours would interesting too!
I actually think I have a bottle of vanilla somewhere that I hit for my daughter when she was going through a flavoured coffee stage.

This is the reason I don’t touch fizzy drinks or fruit juice drinks. Just water, tea, coffee and occasionally orange juice/tomato juice. I loathe sweeteners.

Nope, that has fallen now too!

According to the manufacturer’s website, the Naturali range aren’t artificially sweetened. They also have the Momenti range which are like a diet version so are artificially sweetened. May depend what your local shops stock. I’m not in the UK and I’ve never seen the artificially sweetened ones.

Ah! That’s interesting. I’m in the UK and most places appear only to stock the sweetener range now.

Apparently there are multiple versions available in different parts of the world. I’ve only ever seen the ones with sugar.

According to the manufacturers UK website, the ones labeled “classic Italian taste” are not supposed to be artificially sweetened - https://www.sanpellegrino.com/uk/beverages/classic. Whether or not anyone is stocking them is a different problem.

Its an absolute pain! Especially going out somewhere and there are just 'diet' drinks nothing else.

So diabetics can drink them

There's now evidence that artificial sweeteners can lead to insulin resistance 😬

The expert who says sugar is better for you than low-calorie sweeteners

Apologies this is a DM article (the other version I found was a paid site)

What exactly is stevia?

Glycosides (complex carbohydrates) that activate sweet taste receptors but aren't metabolised, so they don't produce monosaccharides that can be used to generate energy or synthesise fats. Also leaves an aftertaste, though.

I bought some Ocean Spray Cranberry juice recently as I used to love it and hadn't had it in a while. It made me ill very quickly. Checked the carton and it's now sweetened with variants of Stevia! It was the normal version too not the sugar free.

Because Stevia is made from plants , some consider it not to be 'artificial ' , so hence 'no artificial sweetener' on foods .
the San Pellegrino I mentioned above has sugar , then Stevia as sweetener in the list of ingredients

I get the Belvoir cordial and a bottle of sparkling water. Others have mentioned Innocent. There's also Dash Water though it's a very subtle flavour - I like the raspberry, DH likes the lime.

San Pellegrino definitely do two versions, the "proper" version (with sugar) is called Classic. Ocado sell it, as do Sainsbury's and Waitrose.

Off to have a look at the Dalston's drinks and I hadn't thought of mixing apple juice with mineral water to make an alternative to Appletiser! I do like fizzy water generally, I just add a splash of lime juice or, in summer, I make up a jug with lemon/ginger/cucumber/mint/strawberry/some combination of these.

Oh, Rose's Lime Cordial is sweetener free.

My grandchildren love a half and half mix of Tropicana orange juice and fizzy water

Interestingly we don’t live in the uk, and as far as I know most drinks aren’t diet versions locally and tend to be sugar. The cordials in supermarket at lease all are just raspberry/ elderflower/ etc syrups so full sugar. Maybe as they haven’t a sugar tax

Gut Shots are not UPF but the price is eye watering. You can buy kefir grains for a few quid and make own kefir in a clip top jar with the lid slightly open. Kefir grains are a one off purchase so home made kefir is the same price as milk and probably far higher level of probiotics than shop bought.

https://www.ocado.com/products/m-s-x-zoe-the-gut-shot-624265011

Ingredients
Kefir (Milk) · Mixed Fruit Purée (21%) (Apple · Strawberry · Banana · Blackcurrant · Blueberry) · Baobab Fruit Pulp · Chicory Fibre · Fruit and Vegetable Extracts (Ginger, Blackcurrant, Pomegranate) · Lemon Juice · Cultures including: Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus bulgaricus, Lactobacillus paracasei, Lactobacillus rhamnosus.

Fever Tree rhubarb & raspberry tonic water is lovely. No artificial sweetners. Chilled on a summers day is perfect

I’m really interested in food manufacturing and from what I’ve read (not every journal believe me!) real concern started around 2011 from consumers but evidence particularly that the bodies response to artificial sweeteners have only emerged in the last few years. Anecdotally I worked with a nurse who consumed five cans of diet pop a day and thought she had MS due to a numb sensation in her lower legs, she stopped drinking them and it went away.

Concern on the safety of these things goes back at least until the late 1970s.

I had a book in the 1980s which detailed the quality of the research that led to the approval of aspartame. It was quite shocking.

Saccharin was banned as carcinogenic in the early 80s but is now "unbanned"

Stevia may be "natural" but it has to be heavily processed to make it "safe"as a food additive. Natural stevia leaf is not considered safe to consume, and stevia as a sweetener was long banned in Europe.