Sugar substitutes & their safety.

Smeggers said:

I have recently been told that Aspartame is bad for those with cardiac problems. Fine, but then what sugar substitute is safe for Diabetics. I recently tried Stevia but found that was mixed with Aspartame, so binned it. Is there any truth in the stories about Aspartame and if so, why is there no Govt. Health Warning on it?

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Most of the health claims about Aspartame have been debunked by food scientists and it seems to have been part of a smear campaign by the sugar industry.

However, if we buy soft drinks with Aspartame I develop joint pains in the wrists and elbows within a couple of weeks. I have tried Aspartame sweetened drinks 3 times over a 5 year period and got the same result each time. I found that the orangey coloured supermarket (if you're in the UK) uses Sucralose in it's own brand drinks and this does not seem to give me any problems.

Have you looked at other brands of Stevia ?

I have found out only recently that the cheeper supermarket brands of diet drinks seem to increase my blood sugars !

Stevia by itself is extremely sweet so it's often combined with various bulking agents as you've already discovered - so if you're buying commercial brands from supermarkets, it's well worth doing an ingredients check. Erythritol/stevia combinations are safe for diabetic use and the brand I use (Natvia) is available both from some supermarkets and from Amazon UK.

"Neat" stevia (Stevia Rebaudioside A or reb_A) comes either as a fine powder in very small pots some with a minute measuring spoon, or in liquid form usually combined with alcohol and/or water in small dropper bottles. Both are more expensive, but you need very little because of its sweetness. Available from Amazon UK .

Some people, including my son, hate the after taste of aspartame. I use either stevia with erythritol (eg truvia) or erythritol on its own.

TriciaWs said:

Some people, including my son, hate the after taste of aspartame....

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Me too!! I absolutely hated the taste of aspartame in cordials and always checked their ingredients, so it was never an option as a possible sugar substitute after I was diagnosed.

What are you using it for? Honestly, the best option is to not use sweeteners at all. You don't need them - it's just a case of getting used to it. I promise you that after 3 months of not using sweeteners you'll gag if you accidentally drink something with a sweetener in it.

I am one who still uses artificial sweeteners. It made my initial change of diet manageable and I would not have coped without them. I still use them but less and have the ideal to stop using them. I have not lost my sweet tooth- I tried abstaining for a while but felt just too deprived and miserable. What I have found is that having used my salt intake (as the blood test showed I was too low) I crave sweet things a lot less. Counter intuitive for me- a dietician suggested it and it worked, I really didn't think it would.

I started off without any alternative sweeteners, but when I got my low carb baking sorted I checked for suitable alternatives I could use. I've got used to using these and don't actually miss the real stuff at all.

The only times I've wanted "real" sugar since I was diagnosed was early on when I had a few minor false hypos - my body could definitely tell the difference.