Artificial Sweetners

Community Share Your Stories
#1

Hello all my fellow Diabetics.

I am feeling very fustrated and hope maybe some of you might be able to help me. I am sure that all of you have gone through the obstacle course of changing your eating habits like we must. Well my problem is that I have worked so hard to make these changes and it never seems to be enough. I use to consume ALOT of sugar through Pepsi and chocolate( which I still crave severely), so I have switched to diet pepsi and tried many diabetic chocolates. I use splenda at home for cooking and coffee etc. Now my husband and family are at me to stop having these too, urg. I have given up so many things already. They say that aspartame and splenda are bad . How many of you use these for sweetners? And if you want sweets how can you get away from aspartame if all the companies use it as the main substitute? They have been trying to get me to use stevia but I find it horribly metalic tasting.

Any suggestions ? Please I feel like I am having to just give up everything I like and it never will be good enough someone will always tell me to give up more and more.

SO frustrated!!!!!!!

#2

If you don’t mind the slight amount of carbs in Splenda, you probably will be fine with Truvía. Truvía, like Splenda, uses a sugar alcohol to make the sweetener in it taste more like sugar. Only the sugar alcohol it uses does not cause the bad side effects of diarrhea, from excess consumption, or shows up much in our blood glucose levels, like too much Splenda can. It has 0 glycemic load. It tastes amazing, to me… And I use it in things where I am more likely to tell the tastes apart. You can still consume aspartame and and splenda – but be mindful that the big issue for us Diabetics, is not so much the sugar – but the carbohydrates… Try to limit your servings to maybe a few times a week, to avoid headaches, diarrhea, and water retention, among other side effects. Really, when consumed in moderation, those things are just fine. :slight_smile:

#3

I tried several brands of stevia until I found one I liked. Some have a weird bitter taste.

I stay away from aspartame. Liquid Splenda has zero calories, zero carbs. I order a brand called Fiberfit from netrition.com that’s super concentrated. It doesn’t have much of that artificial aftertaste.

A problem with using artificial sweeteners is that they tend to increase the desire for more sweets.

#4

First of all Robyn you should take a breath. You are being hounded by the Food Police!!! I just saw the dietician yesterday, and the single most important thing I took away from that was this: If you give up everything you love, you will backslide some day. It isn’t maintainable. What she told me was to make sure if you have a craving, give into it. Just make sure you only do a little. So like if I want a Butterfinger bar, she said to buy the bite size ones, and only carry one in my purse. So I’m not tempted to OVERDOSE on them, but if I want it, I can have it. Otherwise she said if I denied myself, I would break one day and completely gorge myself. If you like chocolate, go ahead and eat it, just eat a SMALL amount.

If you feel like you are giving up everything you love, you will be so miserable and that is no way to keep a positive and motivated attitude towards diabetes. This disease cuts the rug out from under us so many times, we have to hang on to what we can. Just remember: MODERATION. Don’t let other people tell you what to do. YOU make the decisions for yourself. No one else breathes for you, they shouldn’t dictate what you eat or drink either. Make changes YOU are happy with.

#5

Try Stevia or Truvia

#6

Robyn, pls understand that reduction of carbohydrate intake is necessary, but our emotional well being is as much in order.
Here are some tips I use:

  1. One can develop taste for tea and coffee without sugar, without artificial sweeteners. All sweeteners give me horrible taste. Even if one grain of sugar goes in these drinks, I can tell. At times when tea is served and someone uses to mix tea in my cup with a spoon previously used for stirring others tea with sugar, I can know from the taste. I enjoy my tea and light coffee without sugar and sweeteners.
  2. Pepsi I take Diet, but I pour about 30-50 mL into a tumbler and add plain carbonated water (soda) to fillup the tumbler. In situations, where Diet Pepsi is not available, I use the same trick, but pour just 20 mL of regular Pepsi etc. and make up with unsweetened soda.Same goes with juices e.g. Orange etc. Even ‘banned’ juices of mango, pineapple etc. can also be had. The only limit to quantities is how much ones stomach takes it without bloating/malfunction.
  3. Custards, jellies, puddings etc can be taken by adding cinnamon powder. It sweetens, flavors and is good in lowering blood sugars.
  4. Cinnamon powder can also be used in cooking and even tea and coffee can be sweetened with it, with the bonus of blood sugar regulation effect of cinammon.
  5. During parties, you may think of skipping ordinary food and may take limited quantities of your fav foods; the operating words being limited quantities-donot binge. Partake responsibily. This may sound strange but Devon has said the word MODERATION. My Doctor also advises the same about parties. He adds that such ‘parties’ should not be more than twice in a month and to adjust your carbs intake in other meals just before and after these parties.
    Hope you enjoy yourself responsibly.
#7

Thanks everyone for your advice

#8

What I have tried - bearing in mind that everyone is different and there are times when I react differently to what is the same old stuff. I use splenda when I cook steel cut oats for breakfast. It is juiced up with about 10 almonds (raw) and some frozen blueberries and cinnamon. Unsweetened green tea is my principal drink,. For my chocolate craving I found an 86% flat chocolate that is marked to break into 8 pieces. One per day. Danger, easy to exceed the 1/day limit. It is hard and I understand your frustration. Just Keep on plugging and testing and do not be surprised by finding that something that works suddenly does not. Then you have to try something else.