The other side of reducing sugar in foods

Having over many years re-educated our palates to want little sugar, DH and I are still trying to find baked beans which are low in sugar and also have no artificial sweeteners. (We both hate sweeteners.) The Sainsbury's ones use to taste good but now (to us) have a funny taste. We've become expert readers of labels on foods. The best beans I've found (to fit this description) are an organic brand, but (understandably) they cost four times as much.

Artificial sweeteners are deadly. It is preferable to eat sugar if you go easy with it.
Unfortunately I have a sweet tooth and love dark chocolate, and biscuits especially fig biscuits and Garibaldis. No sugar in tea and only one in coffee. But at 77 who cares?

Perhaps David you could make your own version of tinned baked beans.
My husband and I were talking about this yesterday after the sugar/children news item.
I'm now going to do a "when we were young"...
We had three meals a day- rarely anything in between ( maybe an apple). At weekends or in summer we went off to the park and survived with a drink from the water fountain. Almost everything was freshly made. Mum baked at the weekend and we had treats then- not every day. We've all become addicted to sugar and need to get off it. Fresh food - we wont need to check labels. I have had to cut sugar and feel better for it. And yes sweeteners especially aspartame are bad for you.

I'd say that between cane sugar and artificial sweetener that the latter is certainly worse for your health.
I used to have 2 sugars in my ( strong ) tea but have now reduced it to half a teaspoon.
A slow reduction in sugar will wean you off the stuff in time. I don't drink pop or cordials only freshly squeezed fruit as a drink. Natural sugars.

I've always remembered that a glucose solution is used in some scans to detect cancer and deep down have wondered what sugar really does to the body.

I normally agree, except that recently I have not minded the taste of a few sweetenered products too much - e.g. ginger beer, some yoghurts.

Artificial sweeteners are deadly ribbish!

Or even rubbish!

Why is sugar used in so many foods? Well basically it's because it's reasonably cheap and bulks things out, and it's addictive, and like most addictive things the more you get the more you want. So from the food manufacturers point of view it's a win-win situation. You try something, you like the taste cause it's sweet, you want it again. Result!

Read about Aspartame Anja.

Just decided on my New Year's resolution.... to re-educate my palate and cut down sugar intake thanks for the inspiration!

Years ago I bought my first - and last - box of a well known make of small apple pies. ( Rudyard Kipling writes some good stuff - clue.) I bit into one and couldn't believe the contents.; somewhere in there was apple, but the shade was pistachio green and the gloop surrounding the 'apple' was 100% sugar syrup. Never again. Certainly a most effective and cheap 'bulker' trisher! Artificial sweeteners are so bad for us and again this morning my paper had a warning about the sweeteners that people use in drinks being carcinogenic. I've drunk tea, and more often tap water for the past few years.

I'm re-educating mine too Quickdraw . It's possible. Water is the best thing to drink. Maybe half juice/water would work for some.
I use brown stevia. any views?

I agree Monica ....sweeteners are monstrous ,and the taste lingers for hours. I have sugar in my tea but would rather drink it without than have sweeteners. I've just cut down my tea consumption from a boy 8 to 4 cups a day. Hot bovril In between the tea.

I agree - sweetener has a horrid taste.
I was just reading this morning about young children consuming 18 years of sugar!
I am Type 2 diabetic only diagnosed in my early 60's. It certainly brought home the reality of what excess sugar can do. I stopped having sugar in drinks (tea/coffee) after my children were born and couldn't stand to have sugar now. However, there is so much sugar in things we may not realize. I now look at content levels when buying food. I do have a treat of one glass of wine a week at the weekend. Not easy but you can discipline yourself when it can shorten your life.
What annoys me is when staying in hotels or eating out that they seem unable to offer a diabetic dessert? It can be done with a little thought.

Monica. My digestive system retaliates against artificial sweeteners so reading labels is a must for me. I have had to make my GP aware of this when he once prescribed for a chest infection an emulsion anti biotic which contained an artificial sweetener. I spent more time in the loo than anywhere else in my house.

We bought Heinz Tomato Soup and it had a reduced sugar label. That now contains artificial sweetners so I won't be buying that again. Why not let us get used to soup with less sugar? I never put sugar in home made soup.

sarahellenwhitney, my insides can detect artificial sweeteners too. It's not worth it. Heinz beans have a sugarless recipe and they're vile.

Simple answer, educate the baby's palate from the word go.

Wouldn’t touch anything where they’ve replaced sugar with sweeteners...they’re potentually worse for you than sugar and yet, I can see it coming that reduced sugar items all have sweeteners in them. I think it’s best to have nine of that stuff and just stick to real food-fruit veg meat fish and the occasional treat.

I made pancakes with my little grandson one day. I used a 50 year old Bero recipe book. I was astounded at how tasteless they were compared to bought ones. Clearly the sugar content in the bought ones has gone up and up. We were perfectly happy with the Bero book pancakes in the 70s so we can work on going back to that.

I have an intolerance to most artificial sweeteners, although it won’t kill me it causes sicknesspainful cramps and violent explosions. My father and son also have this problem. We are now left with limited choices. There are only so many times when out you can ask staff to read all the labels without feeling it simpler to just have a plain coffee or a glass of wine rather than a soft drink or seasonal coffee. I dread them putting in in bread or other staples.

I fully agree! Maw I think that you’re saying what a lot of us are feeling. I’d rather not have sweetness if it’s sweeteners. They seem too,too sweet. Much sweeter than sugar.
We will still crave even sweeter things with this replacement!

I agree that artificial sweeteners taste foul.
I am always amused when people suggest adding honey instead of sugar as though honey is magically better for you.
While artificial sweeteners have not been proven to be harmful I prefer to use sugar in moderation.
Someone has suggested training babies from the start. Clearly they have never tasted human milk which is very sweet indeed.

I’ve read all the scientific data before EV and it’s completely safe. I’ve also raw all the urban myths, hysteria and pseudoscience on the internet and see it for what it is.

You should be more worried about the air you breath in fact.

I hate the taste of aspartamine. It’s such a fake sweet taste.
Never used ‘Lo Salt’ as replacement for salt (we need some but not much) and never used spreads instead of a block of butter. As much natural as possible. And if we eat protein with fresh veg there’d be no need to check labels. Buy quality and cook it simply.