Since when does Sugar Free mean Fake Sweetners?

SueBee

SueBee

Member
Location
Midwest
I’m so frustrated. I just decided to “try” eliminating most sugar from my diet, as suggested by recent stories I’ve read or seen in the news. I bought an Italian salad dressing the other day and chose it because in the biggest print on the label it says “Sugar Free Italian”.

Zero calories, gluten free, no high fructose corn syrup, always sugar free. Silly me didn’t read the tiny ingredients on the label, printed in light lime green, impossible to read. I just opened the bottle and tasted it… sweet. Blah, super sweet, fake sweet, gross! I got out my magnifying glass and there it is, Sucralose. I don’t use fake sweetners, can’t stand the taste of them. So, this salad dressing is going in the trash. Very annoying!
 
They put sugar in regular Italian dressing to offset the vinegar. In order to make the sugar free version taste similar is the reason for using alternative sweetners. If you prefer no sweetness to your dressing, it's easy to make at home using just olive oil, vinegar, and Italian seasoning. [Use about 3 parts of oil to one part of vinegar.]
 
MACKTEXAS said:
They put sugar in regular Italian dressing to offset the vinegar. In order to make the sugar free version taste similar is the reason for using alternative sweetners. If you prefer no sweetness to your dressing, it's easy to make at home using just olive oil, vinegar, and Italian seasoning. [Use about 3 parts of oil to one part of vinegar.]
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I agree. Making your own salad dressing is super easy.

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I would actually assume that most things labelled sugar free or zero sugar have artificial sweeteners instead. this is not surprising.

Something labelled 'unsweetened' eg yogurt, would contain neither - or at least only the natural sugar inherent in the product, no added sugar.
 
SueBee said:
I just decided to “try” eliminating most sugar from my diet, as suggested by recent stories I’ve read or seen in the news.
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That is really challenging to do, I decided years ago to only have half as much sugar as the WHO recommended limit for women, and quickly found that a lot of food products have added sugar. I'm still not sure whether 'sugar alcohol' counts, and whether products that have 'date powder' are essentially adding sugar. If they were to powder a sugar beet, at what point would the beet change from a beet to sugar?
 
I think "sugar-free" has always meant - artificial sweeteners. Diet sodas are infamous for containing aspartame - which is bad for you (not sure what isn't bad for you these days) but..... even the newer versions - Coke Zero contains aspartame and another artificial sweetner.

Murrmurr said:
2 natural non-artificial sweeteners I know of are Stevia and Allulose. They're both from plants.
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I've heard of Stevia ... never heard of Allulose. My husband uses Stevia because he's diabetic. I wonder why they don't use that instead of all the artificial stuff --- likely more expensive.... in our processed foods.

Messy said:
Yes sugar free always means loads of sweeteners. Less fat is always compensated by either sugar or sweeteners. You can better just use oil and vinegar on salad, like the Greeks do. All these pots and packages are always full of nonsense you don't need.
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Amen to that!
 
CaliS said:
I think "sugar-free" has always meant - artificial sweeteners. Diet sodas are infamous for containing aspartame - which is bad for you (not sure what isn't bad for you these days) but..... even the newer versions - Coke Zero contains aspartame and another artificial sweetner.



I've heard of Stevia ... never heard of Allulose. My husband uses Stevia because he's diabetic. I wonder why they don't use that instead of all the artificial stuff --- likely more expensive.... in our processed foods.



Amen to that!
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This is a great post.
 
CaliS said:
I think "sugar-free" has always meant - artificial sweeteners. Diet sodas are infamous for containing aspartame - which is bad for you (not sure what isn't bad for you these days) but..... even the newer versions - Coke Zero contains aspartame and another artificial sweetner.



I've heard of Stevia ... never heard of Allulose. My husband uses Stevia because he's diabetic. I wonder why they don't use that instead of all the artificial stuff --- likely more expensive.... in our processed foods.



Amen to that!
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Unfortunately, 'natural' sweeteners aren't totally safe, either.. can cause all kinds of side-effects.
 
SueBee said:
I’m so frustrated. I just decided to “try” eliminating most sugar from my diet, as suggested by recent stories I’ve read or seen in the news. I bought an Italian salad dressing the other day and chose it because in the biggest print on the label it says “Sugar Free Italian”.

Zero calories, gluten free, no high fructose corn syrup, always sugar free. Silly me didn’t read the tiny ingredients on the label, printed in light lime green, impossible to read. I just opened the bottle and tasted it… sweet. Blah, super sweet, fake sweet, gross! I got out my magnifying glass and there it is, Sucralose. I don’t use fake sweetners, can’t stand the taste of them. So, this salad dressing is going in the trash. Very annoying!
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Yes! What a scam! I'd rather have a little real sugar.
I will buy things if they have acceptable sugar replacements but sucralose is not one of them.
 
so many people are sensitive to some of the artificial sweeteners. Recently spouse bought zero sugar soda the label looked just like regular style only small logo towards bottom of bottle saying zero sugar. We seldom have sodas just once in a while and he did NOT read the ingredients.
I have had a severe reaction to aspartame since it first came out. It tasted ok but I was ill for 3 days he learned to read labels every time now.

i have tried some of the more natural ones but has a funny taste to me. I would rather just limit intake and have the regular sugar.
 
SueBee said:
I’m so frustrated. I just decided to “try” eliminating most sugar from my diet, as suggested by recent stories I’ve read or seen in the news. I bought an Italian salad dressing the other day and chose it because in the biggest print on the label it says “Sugar Free Italian”.

Zero calories, gluten free, no high fructose corn syrup, always sugar free. Silly me didn’t read the tiny ingredients on the label, printed in light lime green, impossible to read. I just opened the bottle and tasted it… sweet. Blah, super sweet, fake sweet, gross! I got out my magnifying glass and there it is, Sucralose. I don’t use fake sweetners, can’t stand the taste of them. So, this salad dressing is going in the trash. Very annoying!
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So I have a question...if the dressing needs to be sugar free but the recipe calls for some sweetness...how else are they supposed to do that without the fake sweeteners? I'm not sure how it would taste with no sweetness at all. Maybe you could make your own?

Videos on YT for homemade dressing

Hope this helps.
 
Jeni said:
i have tried some of the more natural ones but has a funny taste to me. I would rather just limit intake and have the regular sugar.
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Yeah, I don't think any sugar tastes like cane, and none of them enhance the flavor of whatever you add it to like cane does. Maybe we're just more accustomed to cane sugar, but I think it just tastes better than others. A Reeses Peanut Butter Cup simply wouldn't taste the same.

I don't blame sugar for diabetes; I mean, sugar isn't the cause of diabetes, your immune system is. For some reason no one knows, some people's immune system suddenly starts attacking beta cells that control blood glucose. Since those beta cells are produced in your pancreas, the immune cells go right to the source and starts attacking them there. Eventually, your pancreas is so full of immune cells, it becomes chronically inflamed, and so fed up with this war going on inside it, it just stops producing the beta cells ...the beta cells that control blood glucose.

Ergo, diabetes.
 
Well, I used to use Truvia. Then I read about the main ingredient being erythritol. Even though the company was forced to announce the ingredient on their label, it is in light green on a green background. And why did this happen, anyway? The article linked below talks about erythritol - what it is and whether it is bad for you. I consider Cleveland Clinic to be a trusted source.

Erythritol’s Link to Heart Attack and Stroke

Also, "Erythritol is also commercially manufactured by fermenting corn." Now, I may be a bit of an alarmist, but that stuff is in virtually every sugar-free sweetener I have tried. Corn must be a crop that the government wants farmers to grow -- think hydrogenated corn syrup.

So I changed to another sweetener. It contains Stevia extract, water, and the last three ingredients are preservatives. But no sugar alcohols! It is Splenda Steveria Zero. I only use it in coffee. It would be a sacrilege to use anything but sugar in ice tea.

Also, since I knew that stevia is very much sweeter than sugar, it seems to me I should have figured out that something else was providing the bulk in Truvia, and looked into it.
 
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