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?

If I just drink fruit juice I'd be shitting myself.

Goodness! There are some pious posters on this thread.

No. They have removed choice.

I can drink traditional coca cola.
Sweeteners are in most other drinks. Vile.

Alcohol free drinks are often a good choice for people wanting a sweetener free option in a pub/restaurant. As there are rules about adding sweeteners to these sorts of drinks.

Frustratingly, I know the new sugar tax on milk products is just going to mean more sweeteners in things like cold lattes rather than an unsweetened version which I can never find.

Most fizzy drinks leave me with a disgusting taste in my mouth which takes ages to go away. Coke Zero is fine but I try to avoid caffeine (in drinks other than coffee 😅) so don't drink it . I miss fizzy drinks.

I know quite a few people that are intolerant of sweeteners.
what I haven’t seen mentioned on this thread is that sweeteners can cause insulin resistance and weight gain - when your body gets the message from the sweet taste, it acts accordingly to deal with it - sweeteners and sugar are dealt with in the same way!
The government and their ‘advisors’ are actually stupid, imo.

For those who hate the taste of / are intolerant to sweeteners, M&S do some nice cans of fizzy fruit drinks with real juice and no sweeteners. They make a change from Coke which seemed to be the only widely available fizzy drink without yucky sweeteners.
I’m impressed by the people posting on this thread who apparently never enjoy anything that isn’t 100% healthy and virtuous as an occasional treat.

I had managed to avoid sweeteners for the most part for years- I don’t like fizzy drinks, and for a long time they were mostly found in Diet Coke and equivalents- but the sugar tax has meant artificial sweeteners are popping up in the few non-fizzy drinks I like as well. I don’t buy many, and I make most of my drinks at home, but sometimes if I’m out and about I’d love to be able to grab a drink without sweeteners in! Like many others, they give me headaches and sometimes migraines.

My mother, who experiences the same as well as several allergies, said she feels like she’s had another allergy forced on her. Not only does she have to avoid fish, shellfish, and nuts but now she can’t even get a soft drink! She used to love a Fentiman’s; during chemotherapy it was one of the few things she still liked the taste of.

I’m looking forward to my next trip to mainland Europe- we usually stock up on cheeses and rare snacks but now we’re planning to pack the car with a load of proper drinks to last through most of the year!

Nope, Fentimans use stevia. I used to really love their drinks, but they have lost a customer in me due to that decision.

The one that really makes me angry is San Pellegrino. On the continent you can still get the old recipe without sweeteners, but not in the UK. If I wanted sweeteners, I would buy the diet version. But I find them so unpleasant, I’m not willing to drink anything with them in.

Yes! I have really enjoyed those.

Its not that weird to not drink sweet drinks surely? I like all drinks but sweet drinks really

Angry?

Is it the government's fault that you can't handle drinking pop?

What drinks are not sweet other than water, wine, neat spirits, beer, tea and coffee? Do you never want a cold non-alcoholic drink other than water?

I find this quite irritating too.

So drink something else?

Not really no, i do drink alot o water mind

Only option that isn't alcoholic would be regular coke and many places don't sell it now. As I said options without sweeteners are very limited

Well, yes. They still make the drinks I really like but refuse to sell them in the UK. I’m not frothing at the mouth with rage, but I am cross at this decision to only sell two versions, both with sweeteners in, so that I can drink neither of them.

And that’s fine, but I don’t really understand why you think you need to be on this thread challenging everyone else’s enjoyment of sweet drinks.

I can’t abide the taste of sweeteners, and any of the ‘-ol’ ending ones actually upset my stomach, though it’s a taste thing mostly. Bleurgh.
For years now I’ve been drinking Belvoir cordial and sparkling water, nowt else in terms of soft drinks (not that I was ever a Coke etc gal)
I no longer can be arsed to scrutinise the ingredients in other brands because not once have I encountered any other make not using some kind of sugar substitute.
I just hope good old Belvoir holds the line!

I’m not convinced about the health gains from this tax idea.
It’s the same here in Ireland yet something is certainly making podginess much more common than ever it used to be, so maybe a Deliveroo (and Starbucks drinks loaded with syrups and cream) health tax might be worth thinking about too!

But I never thought it was about health in the first place. It had to be about other stuff; I dunno. Big agri-chrmicals or insufficient dentists, or something 🤔

Yes.

Yep, exactly. Sweeteners cause a massive sugar crash because your body goes in to “mop up the sugar”, but there isn’t any, so you end up low in sugar.

Sugar is a naturally occurring thing, so your body knows how to deal with it. As long as you’re not drinking 2 litres of coke a day, the odd sugary drink is fine.

Fentimans Orange and Mandarin is still sweetener free.

For those taking trips to Europe, you can still buy original recipe Ribena in some places.

Those saying just drink something else are missing the point. Labelling is poor both on the shelves and when eating out. Traditional "Diet" drinks are well advertised but others have switched discreetly.

Drinks that for years had no artificial sweeteners suddenly have them to avoid the sugar tax with no change in the label other than the ingredients on the back that I don't have time to check if I'm in a rush.

Restaurants and coffee shops are clueless. Costa had me running for the loo after having one of their iced drinks so next time I asked and they didn't think there drinks had any, then when I confirmed some did, they know which drinks have them or dont. They also regularly switch syrups on me to sweetener versions even when I specifically ask for the sugared version, depending on stock levels.

Ask said no sweeteners in their free pre meal shots, but I could taste it.

McD's switch out my coke classic randomly for diet every so often.

Starbucks are great. Read the ingredients on the packaging and confirmed no sweeteners in any of their chilled drinks.