Stevia

I have a very sweet tooth but try to use as little sugar as possible. Porridge, when I eat it, which isn't often, we soak overnight with moscatel raisins. I've also tried coconut sugar which I like and I would commit minor crime for pancakes with proper maple syrup and double cream! When all said and done its all sugar but best kept natural and as little as you can. No need to be too abstemious though, unless you have a medical condition which dictates you don't eat it.

Beware, Xylitol is extremely poisonous to dogs!
So although it is a natural product from birch trees, it it not advisable to use where there is any risk of harm to animals.
I threw my supply out as soon as I learned this as could not bear the idea of an innocent dog filching a piece of cake and dying as a result.

Please, please try and ditch sugar! It's addictive and it's sooooo unhealthy. I used to have a very sweet tooth but managed to drop it a couple of years ago, so I'm like a reformed addict - evangelical! Feel so much better AND I lost lots of weight.

Very dodgy science on Trust Me I'm a Doctor. I saw that about saccharin v stevia and could shoot holes in the 'experiment'.

Wouldn't pay much attention to their findings.

I too find Stevia nasty, as does hubby (it seems like you call that DH here? Does that stand for Dear Husband????). I use erythritol, which seems to hardly ever get mentioned, but I find to be by far the best sugar substitute, for many reasons - it is a natural sweetener, a sugar alcohol I think - don't quote me on that! - like Xylitol, but absolutely calorie free! It does have that slightly "cooling" sensation/taste sometimes, but not overly strongly and i think you can adjust to that. It looks exactly like granulated white sugar, and you use it like for like, although it is only 70% as sweet as sugar, so in baking I boost it with a teaspoon of sucralose. And yes, you can bake with it, and even make meringues, as well as sprinkling it in and on foods. If you replace all the sugar in a recipe it can make it a bit dry, so you can either up the liquid to compensate or sub perhaps half of the sugar, or simply choose "wetter" recipes! You can buy it as a brand called Sukrin - they do the basic white granulated version, a powdered version for where you would use icing sugar, both of which are calorie free, and a version called Gold, which even my difficult man sprinkles on his fruit or cereal - it looks, smells and tastes just like soft brown sugar - the trade-off is that it isn't completely cal free - but something like 50cal per 100g vs 600cal in sugar! It is very expensive though! You can buy the basic erythritol from Amazon, and even eBay, at better prices, although still far more than sugar, but if you are trying to keep your usage low, I consider it worth it, for the pleasure of baking cakes etc again with less guilt!

I usually use Canderel or Tesco's own sweetener but one week the delivery people substituted the Tesco's own brand with a Stevia based one. It was horrible and I threw it away. There is definitely a difference between brands. None of them are perfect but Stevia, to my taste, is awful.

The very words "Trust me, I'm a doctor" put my back up straight away, Anya! Too much power held by drugs companies and food producers. I don't trust sweeteners, just cut right back on sugar.

So glad that I am not the only one who finds the taste of Stevia very unpleasant. I was told by a doctor I worked with to just use sugar but try to cut it down and eventually eliminate it completely from my diet, haven't achieved that yet but have cut down. Has anyone tried the Tate and Lyle Molasses that I saw in the supermarket the other day?.

Have never used any artificial or 'natural' alternatives to sugar. Tried Xylitol once, but didn't like the cold sensation in my mouth. Best to just use natural sugar - just less of it.

Am I the only person who just digs their feet in when the latest "unhealthy" food is completely demonized for a few months? The more I hear " just cut down but you really need to try to eventually eliminate it completely", the more I want to go IMMEDIATELY to the shop, buy industrial quantities of said food, and come home and eat every last crumb of it in a single sitting - even if I don't particularly like it very much!!!

I use Splenda granules- don't know what is in it- Maltrodextine- whatever that is. I started using sweeteners in my teens & have done so ever since. I do cook with sugar but always have sweetener in drinks- I have a VERY sweet tooth.
My son & DH take sugar in drinks but they never notice that they always get Splenda. Both swear they can tell the difference but obviously can't.
I have cooked with it & it was fine but it is much more expensive. I stock up when Sainsburys have it on offer- which they do regularly.
DH has type 2 diabetes so it is better for him anyway.

My partner is diabetic so everything we cook/bake is reduced or no sugar. We have been using Stevia based products for a couple of years now and our taste for sweetness has adapted accordingly. We still treat ourselves to a couple of squares of dark chocolate after our supper each night and have the occasional blow out at restaurants.

I am glad that some people like Stevia because when I bought the wee tablets to put in coffee, and found them horrible, I passed on the scarcely used dispenser to the food bank with my regular donation.

We usually use Lidl's Cologran, which we both like, in Tea/Coffee. Really only use sugar for jam making and baking. And, of course it is salt on porridge, milk only on cereals.

I stick to sugar it was good enough for my mum and nan and I love the taste

Are there any views on lichen Planus out there, cure relief etc etc.

Further to my question re, lichen Planus, its my poor wife who has suffered with this complaint for seven years now, the doctors and hospitals have no answer as yet.
how it came about even is a mystery, they just say its a immune problem, that's no answer to the cure, surly the immune problem needs looking into if that's the case ?
are there many of you out there suffering from it, let me know please and push the powers that be to look more deeply into the possible cure, there must be something, other diseases have had attempts to cure things that have not worked maybe they could be looked into like thalidomide for example it hurt the poor children, but has no affect on adults but helps their problem could that be the answer ?

I have used stevia instead of sugar in crumbles and on porridge for about a year and I cannot tell the difference from that and sugar. I was advised by a medical herbalist that stevia was better for me than saccharine or any other form of artificial sweetener.

We were advised to use Splenda by doc when DH was diagnosed with near diabetes. Tastes much like sugar to me but only used for cooking. Neither of us has sugar in hot drinks. I Never use it when cooking for grandchildren. D in L very against artificial sweeteners as some are apparently carcinogenic but we were told Splenda is safe.
However I'm very skeptical about this hype on cutting down sugar. I had lots of sugar and sweet things as a child and was never overweight - then! Now I struggle to keep weight down hence use of Splenda.

I started using Stevia in porridge when I began the 5:2 fasting diet. It has a slight smell as if caramelised and perhaps that's what some people are picking up on in the taste. I don't find it offensive but I do dislike the completely bland taste of porridge without sugar. I've never used artificial sweeteners in hot drinks because I never took sugar in them. Luckily, I didn't begin the fast diet to lose weight (although I have lost about a stone) but rather to try and stave off the scary, age related conditions that my mother suffered from e.g. diabetes, heart disease, diverticular disease, dementia and more.

This is the first time I have joined in. I was very worried to see that some of you are using xylitol. I think it is extremely toxic for dogs so be careful, it's fine for humans!

If you don't like the bland taste of porridge without sugar, try using a little salt - a quarter of a teaspoon or less. It brings out the flavour and you don't taste the salt unless you overdo it. Just as potatoes with no salt at all are tastless, so are most grains.

You soon get used to porridge without sugar. I don't miss my teeny bit of golden syrup at all now. (had to discontinue it because if I had a tin of it in the house I would binge on GS sarnies.)

About to make Slimming World's lemon drizzle cake (8 Syns) for the first time this morning I found I didn't have enough granulated Canderel. Having seen the programme last week I got Truvia, a selvia sweetener by Silver Spoon. After reading these posts I just fought my way into the jar (those who use it may know what I mean) and tried a little. Seems ok!

We had the rest of the crumble, cold, today, and I forgot all about the Stevia in it. Scoffed it down. Perhaps it's psychological?

Actually I can still taste it.