Fizzy Drinks
 

So how bad for you exactly are the carbonated soft drinks with no added sugar, diet coke etc? Not something i drink a lot of, but it would be nice to know one now and again wouldn't ruin me. Make a nice change to drink something other than green tea and water!

Aspartame has some arguable effects. It keeps you from achieving a feeling of satiety. I don't think it can give you cancer. Soda is acidic & can erode the enamel on teeth. It might also leech calcium from bones. Just limit them...you shouldn't have a problem.

Like Ross said, as long as you only have them once in a while, there's no ill effects.

A lot of artificial sweeteners cause some mild bloating and water retention in most people.

Also, anything sweetened with Splenda brand sucralose, you can toss their idea of 'diet' meaning 0 calorie. Splenda runs 2-3 cals per teaspoon. Sugar runs 4 cals per teaspoon. You do the math on how much you're saving there ;)

I heard that splenda has 4 cals per g . SO one of those bags is like 1000 cals.

What are your thoughts on stuff like Xtend or other BCAA blends that use artificial sweeteners ?

I've been thinking about getting some stuff from True Protein because you have stevia as an option.

i wonder if their flavors are as good though :)

I wouldn't think they would be bad. They do have more flavors and if you can get stevia , I think that's best... But I wont be ordering any anytime soon.

I think anything in moderation is okay. Just don't go downing a gallon of crystal light (that shit makes me more thirsty than I was, but it can be addictive). I'm sure the Xtend or any pre or postworkout supplement won't kill you. Half the shit we eat has been sprayed with something or has something put on it to make it grow quicker, so a little fake sugar won't make a big difference. I was taught that real sugar is better than artificial. So, if you are craving a can of pop I would grab the regular before the diet.

On average, Splenda has 3 cals per gram (teaspoon). Splenda calls their product sucralose because that's the sweetener they use. BUT that's not the only thing in their product.

RAW sucralose is practically a 0 calorie sweetener. You'd have to go through an ass load of that stuff to get a couple of calories. But Splenda wants to market their product as being equal in sweetness with the same volume as sugar. Well, raw sucralose is a much lower volume. So they 'fluff' it up with malto. Hence where the cals come from.

Anywhoooo.... Any product that uses an artificial sweetner, just know what kind of sweetener they're using.

Things like aspartame, even though they're not the greatest for you, are ok in small doses. If it says sucralose, check to see if it says Splenda brand sucralose. If it does, it's practically the same as sugar in terms of cals.

Stevia, I'm still researching, but thus far seems to be the big 'natural' sweetener. As far as if it's better for you, I have no conclusions on that yet. But the reports so far are leaning toward the positive side.

One of the newest crazes, which I don't think TP has on their order form yet, is agave. I have yet to look very deeply into that one, though.

Overall, when ordering things with artificial sweeteners, just be mindful of A) what sweetener it is and B) how much they're using. It's best to minimize anything artificial. And since Stevia is more natural, that's obviously a better choice.

I've tried stevia..it's not soluble so that sucks. And it ain't really very sweet or tasty either.

I picked up a bottle of the powdered Stevia a couple of months ago to give it another try. As a powder, I thought it had a pretty bad chemical taste to it. BUT I've dissolved some in distilled water, and it's actually not too bad like that.

I still prefer the raw sucralose in water over the Stevia, though.

Oh, yeah, IK I just looked up the thing I bought...this was a long time ago...it was that "sweet leaf" stuff in packets. It has inulin fiber added to it so that's probably the stuff that was floating around, lol. My bad :D. I never looked at the ingredients I guess..

But chemical is a good way of describing the taste.:D

Man, I got to check on my Crystal Light. Quite in contrast to J-Rock in fact I frequently down gallons of that. Got a big pitcher of it right next to me as I type, in fact.

I've never tried the Sweet Leaf brand of Stevia, but I've heard tons of people rave about it. Mainly because that's the brand that adds some flavorings to it. But the flavorings mean they add other shit in. Which means they probably add shit into their regular product. So that's why I haven't been too eager to try their products.

And yeah, chemical is about the best way I've found to describe the taste of Stevia.

The bf did do a bit of a blind taste test on me with it. He mixed up some raw sucralose in water and some stevia powder in water and had me taste both of them. To begin with, I couldn't really tell the difference (small sips of it). But after a few sips, I could start to differentiate that chemical-like aftertaste of the stevia from the raw sucralose. So even dissolved in water, it's got a hint of that yucky taste, but the more you mix it into something, the less that taste comes out.

Honestly, IK, I don't use too much artificial sweeteners (some splenda) so I am probably going to be a lot more sensitive to the taste anyway. Or in other words, lol, nobody listen to me about stevia or any of this.

Based on what you're saying I should probably give stevia another try and allow myself time to get used to it. It's been a while since I researched though..but sounds like I can wait for you to do that, haha.

I'm not very big on the artifical sweeteners, either. I use them occasionally, but not all of the time.

The whole thing with Stevia being 'all natural,' that's what kinda spurred me to do some research into it. I'm looking at a few things when I can, but not really actively looking for a bunch of stuff on it (right now, that is.. too busy). Claiming all natural, or 0 calorie always has me a little sketchy until I look further into it.

I'll let you know if I find out anything incriminating :D