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> A great example is artificial sweeteners in non-diet beverages. Do you have an example? Every drink I've seen with artificial sweeteners is because their cus

by verall 1y ago

> A great example is artificial sweeteners in non-diet beverages. Do you have an example? Every drink I've seen with artificial sweeteners is because their customers (myself included) want the drinks to have less calories. Sugary drinks is a much clearer understood health risk than aspartame or sucralose.

K0balt 1y ago
I don’t know what is happening in the rest of the world, but here in the Dominican Republic (where a major export is sugar, ironically) almost all soft drinks are laced with sucralose. This includes the not-labeled-as-reduced-calorie offerings from Coca Cola, PepsiCo, and nestle. The Coca Cola labeling specifically appears intentionally deceptive. It is labeled “Coca Cola Sabor Original” with a tiny note near the fluid ounces that says “menos azucar”. On the back, it repeats the large “original flavor” label, with a subtext (larger Than the “less sugar” label) that claims that Coca Cola-less sugar contains 30 percent less sugar than the (big label again) “original flavor”. The upshot is that to understand that what you are buying is not, in fact, “original flavor” Coca Cola you have to be willing to look through the fine print and do some mental gymnastics, since the bottle is clearly labeled “Original Flavor”. It tastes almost the same as straight up Diet Coke. All of the other local companies have followed suit with no change at all In labeling, which is nominally less dishonest than intentionally deceptive labeling. Since I have a poor reaction to sucralose, including gut function and headache, I find this incredibly annoying. OTOH it has reduced my intake of soft drinks to nearly zero, so I guess it is indeed healthier XD?
- verall 1y ago
  That's really interesting! I have not seen such "less-sugar" drinks here in the US. I personally find that I can substitute 1/3-1/2 the sugar in various mixed drinks with sucralose without nearly the change in flavor as if I substituted all of the sugar. I'm an occasional drinker of zero sugar sodas though so maybe I am more accustomed to it.
econ 1y ago
Google "aspartame rumsveld" I haven't fact checked the horror story but makes a good one for the campfire.
- lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 1y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartame_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartame_controversy

by verall 1y ago

K0balt 1y ago

I don’t know what is happening in the rest of the world, but here in the Dominican Republic (where a major export is sugar, ironically) almost all soft drinks are laced with sucralose. This includes the not-labeled-as-reduced-calorie offerings from Coca Cola, PepsiCo, and nestle. The Coca Cola labeling specifically appears intentionally deceptive. It is labeled “Coca Cola Sabor Original” with a tiny note near the fluid ounces that says “menos azucar”. On the back, it repeats the large “original flavor” label, with a subtext (larger Than the “less sugar” label) that claims that Coca Cola-less sugar contains 30 percent less sugar than the (big label again) “original flavor”. The upshot is that to understand that what you are buying is not, in fact, “original flavor” Coca Cola you have to be willing to look through the fine print and do some mental gymnastics, since the bottle is clearly labeled “Original Flavor”. It tastes almost the same as straight up Diet Coke. All of the other local companies have followed suit with no change at all In labeling, which is nominally less dishonest than intentionally deceptive labeling. Since I have a poor reaction to sucralose, including gut function and headache, I find this incredibly annoying. OTOH it has reduced my intake of soft drinks to nearly zero, so I guess it is indeed healthier XD?

verall 1y ago
That's really interesting! I have not seen such "less-sugar" drinks here in the US. I personally find that I can substitute 1/3-1/2 the sugar in various mixed drinks with sucralose without nearly the change in flavor as if I substituted all of the sugar. I'm an occasional drinker of zero sugar sodas though so maybe I am more accustomed to it.

econ 1y ago

Google "aspartame rumsveld" I haven't fact checked the horror story but makes a good one for the campfire.

lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 1y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartame_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartame_controversy