To despise the rise of artificial sweeteners in soft drinks

[BrookGreen54]

AIBU to just want proper sugar back?! (lighthearted… ish)

It is nearly impossible these days to buy a soft drink that does not contain any artificial sweeteners. I am completely fine with people having diet options if that’s what they prefer (aka how it used to be) but if I personally choose to drink proper sugar then why am I having to contend with horrible aspartame etc now appearing in almost everything? What happened to giving customers some choice? It tastes disgusting and gives me + plenty of others headaches, not to mention the other adverse, longer term health effects.

Bought a bottle of good old Orangina yesterday, which silly me thought would be a safe choice - unfortunately it seems to be the newest addition to the ruined by sweetener club. It now tastes revolting and so artificial, I couldn’t even drink it. The only things that are safe nowadays are full fat Coca-Cola, proper fruit juice and certain brands of squash. Even San Pellegrino has gone to the dogs..!

🥺
Awful.
It feels quite dystopian when it's so inescapable.

Yes it's ridiculous! I've cut sweeteners out of my life completely and it has been a real game changer for managing my appetite, weight loss and it appears to have helped my overactive bladder too. I've just cut out all sweet drinks completely. Sweetener is unbelievably bad and I wish health professionals would accept this. It's no better than sugar, it's actually worse. We shouldn't be subjected to it just because companies don't want to pay sugar tax.

I get Innocent Bubbles or Dash when I can. Belvoir and Bottle Green are both still ok I think, but not cheap.

At home I drink Elderflower cordial in sparkling water if I want something fizzy.

On the positive side I drink a lot less fizzy drinks, which has to be better for me. The problem is I don't like water.

THEY'VE DONE IT TO IRN BRU?!?! The Scottish government should really rush through a law to protect the national heritage in this case... 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Rose’s Lime Juice also safe for now. I mix it with soda water as it’s a bit bland with just tap water.

Yes!! They’ve ruined pretty much every soft drink except coke and redbull. I imagine they’ll fall in line with everyone else eventually as well 😒

Why do you think a drink with less sugar would taste disgusting? A cup of tea or coffee with one or two sugars (or even no sugar) does not taste disgusting. Real fruit juice lightly sweetened with sugar doesn't taste disgusting.

It seems like we've been conditioned to expect extreme sweetness (like full fat Coke with its nine sugar spoonfuls) or the violently sweet chemical-tasting aspartame drinks. I just would like the option of less sugar but without aspartame.

Because Coke has a distinctive (sugary) taste which given its huge, worldwide popularity people like. With 3 sugars vs 9 it would taste of vaguely sweet water - aka completely wrong. Tea and fruit juice are not comparable in the slightest - I’ve never had any sugar in either, bar the naturally occurring sugars in fruit.

I don’t think works for coffee and tea necessarily works for cola either. I hate sugar in coffee, but love cola. I used to get fevertree’s Madagascan cola as a treat until they stopped making the non-light version. That ‘Refreshingly light’ version is all- natural iirc, just much lower sugar, but it just isn’t as good and I don’t buy it any more. Still far nicer than any artificially sweetened rubbish though!

I find stevia just as bad for the nasty aftertaste. My recent find is M&S cans of fizzy drinks with 60% juice and no artificial sweeteners. I really like the raspberry and blackcurrant one. Good tips on the San Pellegrino too, thanks.

Bad luck on the Fentimans, I’m afraid,

Yes

Elaborate?

Many artificial sweeteners make me pee like crazy. I tend to have water or tea in restaurants and in shops I find myself squinting at ingredients in tiny font.

Fever tree is safe

NRTFT, but we can’t stand the bitter aftertaste of artificial sweeteners either.

Dandelion and Burdock has been completely ruined. We used to get Fentimans; but they have been infiltrated with artificial sweeteners as well!

All we drink now is Bottle Green Ginger and Lemongrass or Appletiser at home. I must go to Waitrose and see if they have the Belvoir squashes!

I can’t see the point of it all, when I went in one major supermarket today, and there were stacks of tubs of chocolates by the entrance!

I'm here to tell you that Roses Lime Cordial is your sugary friend!

With a bit of soda water it's perfect. I think I might lose it if they change it.
All good so far.

Thinking of going on a booze cruise purely to get French Fanta, Orangina and San Pellegrino...

Not drinks, but for those who have bad reactions, just be aware that many vitamin supplements also contain artificial sweetners. I eventually managed to get calcium supplements that were sweetener free. The prescribed ones contained aspartame.

Fentiman’s is now full of Stevia sadly. I used to like their drinks but no more,

I was so disappointed last time I came to the UK. I had really been looking forward to enjoying all the different flavours of soft drinks I used to enjoy but then found they pretty much all had sodding artificial sweeteners in :(

Luckily its not gone that bad yet in my country, but there is much less options for normal sugar versions than there used to be but I bought some San Pellegrino today and I just checked in a panic but they're ok, no sweeteners. But the sugar tax is getting raised beginning of next year so I expect I'll lose even more options :(

Totally agree with you. I reckon it must be causing misery to so many people suffering in embarrassed silence, who haven't made the connection.

In fact, I am so sensitive to it that I am convinced artificial sugars must also be in the likes of Fruit and Fibre Cereal - possibly sweetening the dried fruit, even though not declared on the label.

I bet there's mountains of extra landfill of Tena products etc due to artificial sweetener alone. Such a hidden problem, but a huge public health & environmental health issue really.

Well done for raising this issue Op!

I meant to quote you and @MathiasBroucek with regard too my previous post!

Quoting you retrospectively for my previous post makes sense about overactive/sensitive bladder

Another pet peeve is drinks that say "no artificial sweeteners". I get all excited thinking I've found something I can drink, only to read the ingredients and realise that it still has something like stevia in. Just let me pay more for a sugary version ffs.

I'm worried about stevia now after reading quite a few pp's how do you know if it's in them if they don't declare it on the ingredients list?

Edited to add who I was responding to as the quote went walkabout.

Responding to @Alainlechat

I had the exact same thing happen with Pepsi. I turned to DH and accused him of pouring me a glass of the wrong one, as we keep in all kinds, including the caffeine free one to accommodate varying tastes. I personally don't drink very many so they last ages.

Regarding the Coke. I hadn't had a can in years. All of a sudden fancied one last Christmas. Full sugar of course. 24 pack duly purchased to last several months, I cracked one open and took a sip. For some reason, with it being Christmas, I instantly recognised the taste as being like a clementine. That smell and taste of the spray of mist you get as you hold one close to your face and pierce the skin. In other words, it tasted like clementine pith and skin. Clementine-y but pithy bitter.

There were no clementines in the house at the time and hadn't had any at all that year.

In good faith, I might possibly be mistaking clementine for satsuma but they're pretty similar.

Did Coke always taste like this. It's been so long but I remember it differently. Kind of spicier.

Am I going totally mad?

On another note, I got diagnosed as diabetic two months ago. Am still waiting for the second blood test for confirmation as I was not symptomatic at the time. In the month after, I became symptomatic but the GP says The Bloods Laboratory will refuse to process another test before three months is up. He also told me I've been pre-diabetic for a while but now it had tipped over into full diabeties. Nice of them to not tell me so I could change my diet. I've cut sugar out completely before so I could have done it sooner. I'm quite pissed off they said nothing.

I've near enough always bought artificially sweetened stuff because I've always been overweight and bought into the bullshit marketing. Never made a blind bit of difference. I switched to real sugar two years ago and lost 35kg. Now I've got to go back to eating and drinking that toxic shit if I want anything sweet. Can't stand it. Especially sucralose. It gives me a dry cracked burning throat and gullet. Makes me feel like I've been desiccated.

Fuck this shit. Think I'm going to have to stick with water, unsweetened tea and eat plain yogurt. Yogurts with artificial sweeteners, in particular, make me gag. Sweeter than any sugared one could ever get. 🤮🤮🤮
I like fruit ones for the fruit taste, not the sugar taste. I'm one of the weirdos who longs for old style kinda sour/tangy fruit yogurts.
Don't get me started on stevia/truvia in yogurts. Makes fruit flavours taste odd, like they've flavoured them with fruit smelling shower gel...or tree bark 🤮🤮🤮

Everything with artificial sweeteners tastes horribly too sweet. All of it.