Suggestions Needed for Sweeteners (Low Carb)

JaiNicole7

I've given up diet soda for the most part, I do have the very occasional one when dining out. But I drink one cup of coffee and one to two cups of hot or iced tea daily. I can NOT stand either unsweetened. I'm pre-diabetic, so watching my grams of sugar/carbs. So far I've been using Splenda. I have tried Stevia and I find it HORRID. Suggestions please? Thank you!

Labad2223

I just ordered monkfruit sweetener. I'll keep you posted.

ZoneFive

Use the sweetener of your choice. I don't like the taste of stevia or monkfruit, either. I keep Splenda in the house, and use it in coffee and yogurt.

There's an awful lot of controversy about every sweetener out there. Unless you're facedown in a bowl of your sweetener of choice, you really don't have anything to worry about. (Specific medical issues aside.)

redd_i_tor

I use the liquid Splenda, and normally get the generic version of it. The liquid version doesn't use maltodextrin, which may cause a spike in insulin. I've been doing low carb for over 2 years and I use the liquid Splenda for my coffee, tea, and any low-carb desserts, and have lowered my A1C from 5.8 to 5.1.

nvmomketo

Liquid stevia is what I use. I hint undersweerening is helpful with stevia. If you use too much, you get that bitter aftertaste.

I use 1-3 drops of stevia in place of about a teaspoon of sugar.

quebot

I still use my favorite sweetener in my tea. I use turbinado.

kimny72

I'm not low carb, but... In an effort to avoid extra calories, I switched to diet soda no problem, but to this day can't stand any alternative sweeteners in coffee or tea. I switched to flavored green teas to avoid having to sweeten them altogether, and have weaned myself to the point that I can drink coffee and black tea with a tablespoon of milk or cream only now.

I'm not sure if this is low carb appropriate or not, but I used to put unsweetened vanilla almond milk in my coffee. The vanilla flavor gave it a bit of sweetness but it was really low cal, so maybe that would be an option too. :drinker:

a1southeasterndip

I am a bonafide sugaraholic! We're talking about 5-10 pounds of sugar a month! I know, ridiculous and obscene! All my life, I have always used up to 10 packets of sugar for a glass of iced tea. What can I say, I'm a Southerner and like sweet tea. No ifs, ands, or buts!!! However, this past December and January, after being diagnosed with high blood pressure and Leukemia (CLL) I immediately STOPPED using white sugar. It was a "must" anyway because I was beginning to crave more and more sugar which led to gaining weight and I have always been on the thin side. The weight didn't feel good. Also, white sugar is a processed sugar and cancer cells feed off of processed sugar for their energy. Since I do not like the taste of artificial sweeteners ...none of them ...a friend of mine suggested Stevia because it is plant-based and she said it didn't leave that horrible after-taste in ones mouth like the others do. So, I went to the store to buy a bag and almost croaked when seeing the cost, but now it was a "must have" and I had to pay the price. The oncologist, also, told me to start a Ketogenic Diet which is low carbs, high healthy fats and a lot of protein. Since January, I have lost 16 pounds and am very pleased with the Stevia AND the diet. I am actually feeling better too!

To make matters worse, over the next couple of weeks, in January, I was diagnosed with pre-diabetes so I've been hit at all angles where I MUST use an artificial sugar. My family doctor mailed me a diabetic diet with guidelines. If I were you, JaiNicole7, I would do a Google search for Low-Carb recipes and foods that you can eat to keep your pre-diabetes in check. Also, a great tool to track your carbs, fats, protein, and many other things is the app My Fitness Pal or you can go to www.MyFitnessPal.com and create an account. It's pretty useful from the standpoint that you can enter your weight along with other things and the app will calculate everything including how much weight you should be losing (if that is one of your goals).

Good luck with the transition.

CMNVA

For those of you that use Stevia, is there a certain type you have used? I've wanted to try it but any of the packets I pick up say that it predominantly contains erithrytol (sp??) and then Stevia. I am trying to avoid some of these artificial sweeteners as they wreak havoc on my lower intestines (not pleasant).

I am a heavy hot tea drinker and I like it sweet. For years, I used Equal (Nutrasweet) and was fine with the taste but it irritated my bladder (took me a LONG time to figure out it was the sweetener). I've tried various things but my tea does not taste good with them. Sweet yes. Good no.

jgnatca

I use all of them. Saccharine, aspartame and sucralose. I find Stevia has a “tingle” that I associate with cinnamon. So I use it where I add cinnamon too. I like the flavoured vanilla Stevia drops.

nvmomketo

CMNVA wrote: »

For those of you that use Stevia, is there a certain type you have used? I've wanted to try it but any of the packets I pick up say that it predominantly contains erithrytol (sp??) and then Stevia. I am trying to avoid some of these artificial sweeteners as they wreak havoc on my lower intestines (not pleasant).

I am a heavy hot tea drinker and I like it sweet. For years, I used Equal (Nutrasweet) and was fine with the taste but it irritated my bladder (took me a LONG time to figure out it was the sweetener). I've tried various things but my tea does not taste good with them. Sweet yes. Good no.

I use Sweetleaf drops.

staciej0

New to Ketogenic - but was doing trim healthy mama, where you separate your fuel sources - fats and carbs - and make only one of them the star of any meal. So Stevia is the main sweetener I used, and didn't have to count the carbs for it on that plan. Do i count them on the Ketogenic plan? Thank you