Sweeteners in drinks

[MathiasBroucek]

I can't do artificial sweeteners. They mess with my bladder

I'm therefore pretty careful about what I drink. I avoid all "diet" drinks and read ingredients lists carefully. I even now have to avoid cranberry juice...

Last night I was peeing all night. I couldn't understand why but this morning I remembered I'd had some (non-diet) Schweppes tonic which is something I've drunk for ages. Checked the bottle this morning: sodium saccharin.

AIBU to say that the idiot politicians who introduced the "sugar tax" did not think through the unintended consequences?

I'm careful with what I drink too OP.
I only drink tea, a bit of coffee and lots of water.
I don't drink fruit juices or soft drinks because, apart from not finding them enjoyable, I don't trust what additives and ingredients they contain.

I can’t do sweeteners as I cannot stand the flavour. Not all of us binge on sweet drinks and are going to develop diabetes as a result. Finding drinks without crap sweeteners is getting harder and harder.

Bloody nanny state.

I avoid artificial sweeteners like the plague as they make me thirstier than I was to start with and give me an upset stomach. I can spot them a mile away without even looking at the label. I have never forgiven Shloer for putting them in their standard drinks and reducing the sugar content. I only drink it now and then (Christmas😆), as do most people , so where’s the harm in a full sugar version? I want to decide myself whether or not I have sugar.

YANBU. It's very frustrating! And a lot of drinks aren't clearly labelled on the front so you spend a lot of time reading labels. I'm not convinced that sweeteners are the get out of jail card we'd like them to be. There are potential effects the gut microbiome and we're only just starting to understand that. Fundamentally sweet drinks should be an occasional treat, not a daily thing.

Although surprised Schweppes wasn't causing problems before. It's had sweetener in it for ages. Unless they've switched which one.

The tax has apparently led to a huge drop in the sugar teenagers are drinking, so I try to hold that thought. Although I doubt a million cans of Coke Zero are a good thing.

I miss proper ribena, especially hot when your feeling poorly, tastes disgusting now.

Agree, it's crap. Fortunately I don't have a health condition preventing me from drinking the rubbish, I just hate the taste. Jack Rudy make a tonic syrup with real sugar, you just add a splash of that to soda water to get tonic, if you want a good quality alternative. Similarly, fruit syrups are a good option added to soda water. It's pretty easy if you want to make your own, and as long as you use a sterilised bottle they keep in the fridge for a while. Or there are good brands which do a range of flavours and use sugar, such as 1883 Maison Routin, De Kuyper, Giffard.

Sweeteners are the work of the devil. I buy Belvoir or Bottlegreen cordial now, along with soda water and sparkling water. If I go out, I just stick to sparkling water.

I hate the taste of sweeteners. They totally spoil the drink. The Polish syrups by Lowicz, available from most supermarkets, topped up with sparkling water, are good. I don’t often drink fizzy sweet drinks, but when I do, I like them to be nice, and I’m prepared to pay more for them. The big disappointment with the sugar tax is that sweeteners have just been added to everything, rather than any attempt being made to reduce the uber-sweetness of a lot of the drinks and wean us off sugar that way.

Artificial sweetness are something I've avoided for years alongside so called diet foods, for the same reasons. When they fiddled with formulas, I stopped buying. I do wonder if politicians did this sugar reduction for us or to allow manufacturers to make their foods cheaper to produce, more highly processed and addictive!!! Sugar isn't the enemy, how it is hidden to make foods taste sweet was and has it made things better, as I'd argue it is worse!

Yeah it's so upsetting. Everything tastes revolting now. You can't even trust things saying no artificial sweetener, as it can still contain stevia. Only going to get worse when they apply the rule to the cans/bottles of coffee and milkshakes. I keep coffee cans in my bag for migraine and the protein shaken udder for blood sugar issues.

Totally agree. Artificial sweeteners give me either headaches or stomach pain (depending on the sweetener). I have been told by lots of people that this is not a thing- all I can say is my body disagrees (and it's not in my head, since I've had the problem when drinking 'safe' drinks and later discovered that the ingredients had been changed or I'd been given a diet version). They also taste crap. Like pp, I've found some cordials that don't contain sweeteners that I keep in at home for when I fancy an occasional sweet drink but when I'm out I have to stick to water to be sure. Which is irritating because I don't want to drink sweet stuff everyday but would like to have the option for a treat when I'm out at a cafe/pub.
Personally, I think the push to reduce the sugar in drinks won't improve public health. There were always plenty of diet options available for those who wanted them, and those who would be consuming gallons of sugary drinks are almost certainly eating too much of unhealthy foods too. Plus I'm not convinced that the sweeteners don't carry their own health risks. Better education and affordability/availability of balanced, healthy meals would make much more difference in my opinion, but obviously is harder to implement that just filling drinks with artificial crap and declaring it a win. [puts away soap box]

I drink Fevertree Refreshingly Light tonic water for this reason. Schweppes diet tonic water has a horrible aftertaste and I don't know why bar workers always assume tonic water drinkers want to drink this abomination with their gin.

I found lemonade ..London Essence...That I think it's 'safe' so I can have my Christmas snowball !

Oh good as I bought this one to enjoy over the festive

Just drink a different tonic, or no tonic?

Absolutely agree! I suffer lots if gastric issues so have been stripping my diet of rubbish. Found this recipe and made it first time this week it was fab.

Homemade Sprite
Ingredients

Zest of 3 lemons
Zest of 6 limes
1 cup sugar
Roughly 1 cup boiling water
Juice of ½ lime (per glass)
Sparkling water, chilled
Ice

Instructions

Place the sugar in a medium bowl. Using your hands, rub the lemon and lime zest into the sugar until it’s fragrant and fully incorporated.

Pour in 1 cup of boiling water and whisk until the sugar dissolves. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into another bowl to remove the zest, creating a lemon-lime syrup. Let cool.

To serve, fill a glass with ice. Add about ¼ cup of the syrup (or more to taste), the juice of ½ lime, and top with sparkling water. Stir gently and enjoy your homemade Sprite.

Info:
Homemade Sprite loses fizz quickly because it can’t trap high-pressure CO₂ like factory-sealed cans or bottles, but it makes up for it by being fresher and free of preservatives or excess corn syrup.

I'm in my 60's now, but hope I'm still around once the damage these artificial sweeteners are doing to people is actually acknowledged by the Government.

I avoid any drinks with artificial sweeteners in as far as I possibly can. On the very rare occasions that I drink sweet/fizzy drinks, good old fashioned sugar isn't going to do me any harm.

urgh they are vile. What the big companies likes Schweppes etc have missed is that they already had ranges of “diet” drinks and if people wanted artificial flavours and sweeteners then they would buy them They completely underestimated the desire of the public to be happy to pay a few more pence in sugar tax for “full fat”

Fever free / fentimans etc are sweetener free.

rocks do a blackcurrant cordial and an orange cordial.

Sure. It's really easy to check ingredients in a busy bar

Change your drink

Ask if they have premium tonics. Most bars do

@Redpeach was only trying to help. There was no need to be arsey

It's so hard in pubs. The bar staff usually let me read the labels but they don't know themselves.
Appletise is nice with some gins. I tend to just drink neat whisky though.
It's so annoying.

I also hate the taste of sweetness, and have always searched out 'proper' versions. I never allowed DC to have diet drinks, my thoughts are that my body knows what to do with sugar, I have no idea what long term use of these chemicals does.

You know they you can survive without fizzy drinks, right?

It just doesn't quench my thirst! And dh wanted some lemon barley as he had a water infection but it all had sweeteners in. I pounce on any random cans of pop in Asian supermarkets and home bargains. I bought 3 bottles of sirop in France, dh buys Rocks and Belvoir. Fever tree, coke and M&S lemonade for mixing.
My grown kids happily drink adulterated drinks. Weirdos.