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To artificial sweeten or not

turvell

Well-Known Member
does anyone know if artificial sweeteners affect blood sugar levels. i use sweetex in my tea and i drink pepsi max ( diet pepsi ) also. as i like to have something sweet in my life. oh and sometimes i have sugar free polo mints. are these things ok? i read that they are but what do you guys think?

steveo
 
Hi Steve

There's a lot of differing opinions on this matter but I do use sweeteners for baking,in diet drinks and in tea and coffee and I get on well with them with no real impact on BG numbers.

Best

Paul
 
thats what i thought and short of eating a tub of canderell then testing i dont think i would know. do you bake a lot paul ?
 
turvell said:
thats what i thought and short of eating a tub of canderell then testing i dont think i would know. do you bake a lot paul ?
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I bake the odd cake now and then and use a product called Xylitol which actually resembles real sugar and I buy mine from waitrose.
 
i have had sweets with that in and lets say the results for me were some what not as desired. lets just say i had to put a loo roll in the freezer :0
 
I don't bake often about 3 or 4 times a year but use sweeteners when I do, I have a small glass of sugar free Pepsi, lemonade etc with my meals and have the occasional sugar free sweet and have never recorded any adverse affects to my BS.

One thing I have noticed not with the sugar free drinks but if I have more than 3 sweeties I get a flu like feeling, I used to have the occasional Atkins indulgence bar cut into 4 pieces over a few days, I noticed this feeling after a while and experimented a bit, the only thing I could put it down to was the bars
 
A lot of people have polar views on sweetening products, and in particular Aspartme, which is a very commonly used artificial sweetener in diet soft drinks. Personally, I, up to 6 weeks ago had a serial diet coke habit, and was using the excuse that I am T2 that this was better for me than drinking normal fizzy drinks.

I found that I were getting headaches on a regular basis, and after some research, this was linked to Aspartme, so reluctantly I cut diet drinks out of my diet completely, and now either drink water, or soda water. Result, I have seen something like at 75% reduction in headaches.

Just my experience, but I now have become a serial food packaging reader, and you will be surprised how many foods have artificial sweeteners in them! Of course, common sense is that for diabetics, we need to tightly control our glucose intake, and that these alternatives seem a great idea, but I am more concerned about the long term effects of these chemicals.
 
turvell said:
i have had sweets with that in and lets say the results for me were some what not as desired. lets just say i had to put a loo roll in the freezer :0
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I know the feeling well-nothing worse than ring sting which makes it feel like a chewed orange or peeled grape!
 
lol paul now that was very graphic and i have that image for the rest of the day possibly the rest of my life lol. like it tho. added to my words to use list
 
I think it is really a matter of choice different ones suit different people and we do have our favorites. I personally use Stevia powder and Agave syrup both are natural sweetners and neither are suppose to raise BG.I make fruit puree from frozen berries and freeze it in little pots then have it with plain greek yogurt and I use a little of the Stevia or Agave to sweeten it.
 
sounds nice Annie fruit confuses me to be honest. my DN said eat lots of it. but people tell me know as its high in sugar
 
turvell said:
sugar free sweets make me spend most of the day on the loo lol
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Is that all sugar free sweets or just certain makes. I have Sula sugar free ones from Holland and Barrett and they do not effect me toilet wise at all
 
turvell said:
sounds nice Annie fruit confuses me to be honest. my DN said eat lots of it. but people tell me know as its high in sugar
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Berry fruits are the recommended ones by most people on here as they seem to effect the BG least .bananas and grapes they say are the worst for raising it
 
It seem
turvell said:
it tends to be the Sula ones that get me running lol
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I think it will be trial and error to find the sweetner that suits you best without having the toilet issue. I don't bake so I only use the ones I have to sweeten the fruit I don't use sweetner for anything else
 
i do bake a lot as im good at it lol and i love to create wonderful cakes. i just dont eat them anymore so give them away. usually pulled from my clutch as i cry and grip onto them
 
turvell said:
i do bake a lot as im good at it lol and i love to create wonderful cakes. i just dont eat them anymore so give them away. usually pulled from my clutch as i cry and grip onto them
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I use splenda, or Lidls own brand sweetener, and depending on the type of baking, almond flour, soya flour, or chickpea flour, or a mixture with maybe rye flour as well.
Check results with my meter though.
 
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