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?

Yes, let’s all just go without things we liked and only drink water! What a stupid thing to say.

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It's scary what foods fave sweeteners in... Pickled beetroot, tomato ketchup, liquid paracetamol 😫

Mr Fitzpatrick’s cordials are a godsend, and deserve our business 😃 (they do a sugar free line as well, but their full sugar version is peeper full sugar!) they are great with fizzy water.

I get really bloated and have a bad stomach ache with sweeteners. It's so hard to find drinks without.

Most prawn cocktail crisps (and some other flavours) have them too! It’s horrendous!

No its not, why carry on drinking something thats bad for you when there are so many other choices

You know that artificial sweeteners aren’t just in fizzy drinks, right?

Even Fentimans now has stevia in it. I had some of their cola a while ago and the taste and mouth feel are different from the old recipe. Sugar gives a better texture, for the want of a better word, it gives a more viscous feel.

It’s going to be impossible to find a milkshake without sweeteners soon too, given that they will soon be included in the sugar tax. 😞

So what else is it in that is not easily avoidable?

Make your own?

We buy a raspberry cordial in the Polish section of sainsbury and that has no artificial sweeteners in. I mix it with soda water.

I've never forgiven Ribena for introducing sweeteners. It's never been the same and just tastes meh and gives me stomach ache. Also J20. In pubs now when I'm not drinking alcohol I just have water mainly, sometimes orange juice but even that you can't trust now. Gutted to hear milkshakes will also be subjected to this shit.

Because it’s up to me what to drink, and if I want a sugary drink then I should be able to have one. The whole point is there ARE no choices now except disgusting sweeteners. It’s not like it’s helping anyone’s health is it? People can still pile up on pizza, pasties, chocolate, sweets etc. so why the fuck can’t I have a sugary drink? It’s nanny state gone mad! Why not just tell that to people in the first place instead of limiting people’s choices?

And sweeteners are slowly turning out to be the dangerous alternative that we all knew they’d be! All the people pumping them into their kids for years, it’s only going to end in disaster. Then suddenly good old sugar in moderation won’t seem such a monster will it?

I have exactly the same thing - mostly stomach cramps if I have sweetener.

I have always hated the taste but its only been the past few years where is seems to be affecting me more and more (and I wonder if now its because sweetener is showhorned into everything with now warning!)

I used to love san pelligrino - which has a light diet version which you would expect to have sweetener in but not the 'full fat' version also has sweetener alongside the sugar so you can no longer rely on just avoiding the diet and sugar free branded items.

yes i think we are aware - I also avoid sugar free yogurts for instance. I had a salad from our deli lady the other day and spent the rest of the day with awful stomach cramps - I checked everything I had that day and the only thing I couldnt account for was the salad and my colleague said the dressing was very sweet and so all I can assume is that it had sweetener in.

I do avoid it. But it is in many foods and drinks that aren’t marketed as diet food, including cereals and salad dressings and cordials and sauces. They remove some of the sugar and replace it with sucralose or aspartame. Because of the sugar tax. No matter what people’s supercilious views are on sweetened food and drinks, the options are vastly reduced for those who dislike artificial sweeteners or who have an intolerance to them. If I decide I want a can of Fanta (the horror …) I should be able to drink the non diet version without artificial sweeteners.

Do you need to drink sweet drinks, or smoke tobacco?

Why do you need to buy those kinds of foods? The ones you list are easy to avoid

I don’t need to. I WANT to. Do you only ever do things you need to do? Actually, nah, it’s ok, don’t bother. You are just being argumentative. Go back to your kale smoothie and enjoy what’s left of your morning.

Hold on, are you actually trying to blame politicians for implementing a sugar tax with the aim of improving public health for you buying the wrong drink?

No personal responsibility?

No cynicism at all for the manufacturers who made a version below the tax threshold to maximise profit and chose to make alternative recipes to avoid passing on costs to consumers?

No? Just politicians then?

Its a bit of a non issue surely, you have choices in life

It is very frustrating. Sweeteners give me headaches (as well as tasting crap). In a lot of pubs now my choices are alcohol or water.

At home we drink Dalstons or Cawston Press but you don’t often find these out.

There were plenty of diet drinks available before the sugar tax was introduced. Choice has been taken away from those of us that can’t tolerate sweeteners or simply don’t like them.

Can't you drink fruit juice

Yes there should be more choice for those of us who dont like or get ill from shitty sweeteners