The Splenda myth
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I agree that the information regarding artificial sweeteners is very confusing and conflicting, so I just ignore it and use a wide variety of them all: I sweeten my tea with real sugar, but use artificial sweeteners for other things like coffee or hot tea and I change it up. I use them all: Sweet-n-low, Splenda, Equal, Stevia, whatever. I haven't gained any weight, nor have I died (yet) so, so far so good!0
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There a couple of processed foods that are vital to my ability to maintain and still be satisfied. Splenda is the main one. CoffeeMate and Cool Whip are the other two. I'm not worried.0
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I use several packets of artificial sweeteners every day (in my coffees, yogurts), and i've lost almost 60 lbs. Hasn't hindered anything for me.0
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I HATE the whole 'we can say it's 0 calories if it's less than 5' thing. Mostly because I can never find the correct information to log it.
Personally though, I don't do splenda, it turns me into a carb-craving monster.0 -
lemonlionheart wrote: »discretekim wrote: »PeachyCarol wrote: »No. I've lost 45 pounds and have had Splenda every day.
Do know that each packet of Splenda has 4 calories thanks to the bulking agent. If you're going to use more than 2-3, they start to add up.
What!? I have 7-11 packets most days. I guess it doesn't matter though. I chew up to a pack of gum and each piece has 5 calories. These things average out. Still I didn't know that.
Yeah, I know that in the US they're allowed to say '0 calories' if it's less than 5 calories. Which is cool, I guess, as 4 calories is negligible. But it gets a bit misleading with things like '0 calorie' spray oil that is actually 4 calories per 'serve' (a half second spray) so you get people using like 4 times that and logging it as zero
Um whaaaat? I had no idea of this! Says person who drinks tea with sucralose (0 cal) tsp but has like 6 cups of tea a day.
Yeah, like it's even possible to get a 1/4 sec spray from the can. Most people probably use 3 or 4 seconds...which is 64 calories.
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meganjcallaghan wrote: »SimoneBee12 wrote: »The reason these articles think Splenda causes weight gain is normally because people think they are being good by using Splenda, and make up for it by over eating other things without realising how detrimental it is, and they gain weight. It's a correlation not causation issue, as (almost) all these articles claim.
preach. that's the number 1 problem with all the stupid "scientific" articles people find on the ol' interwebs. Everyone needs to memorize and repeat...."correlation is not causation....correlation is not causation....". Remember this every time you open your web browser.
Exactly! People think "Oh, someone wrote it down, it must be true!" As a scientist, whenever I watch the news and they talk about 'studies' I get so angry because you can tell when an idiot was the Principal Investigator, half the stuff they claim has no scientific basis and is always correlation not causation.
I no longer watch the news, broke a few too many TVs
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I haven't read the studies you're talking of, but I try not to overdo the sweetners regardless. Splenda is my main source of "sweetness" on a daily basis. My reasoning is this - I have a massive sweet tooth and I'm on Atkins so instead of going to cookies, cake etc. I grant myself a splenda dessert or even a diet soda to curb that. I think the trade-off is worth it and yes, I still lose weight0
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lemonlionheart wrote: »discretekim wrote: »PeachyCarol wrote: »No. I've lost 45 pounds and have had Splenda every day.
Do know that each packet of Splenda has 4 calories thanks to the bulking agent. If you're going to use more than 2-3, they start to add up.
What!? I have 7-11 packets most days. I guess it doesn't matter though. I chew up to a pack of gum and each piece has 5 calories. These things average out. Still I didn't know that.
Yeah, I know that in the US they're allowed to say '0 calories' if it's less than 5 calories. Which is cool, I guess, as 4 calories is negligible. But it gets a bit misleading with things like '0 calorie' spray oil that is actually 4 calories per 'serve' (a half second spray) so you get people using like 4 times that and logging it as zero
Um whaaaat? I had no idea of this! Says person who drinks tea with sucralose (0 cal) tsp but has like 6 cups of tea a day.
Yeah, like it's even possible to get a 1/4 sec spray from the can. Most people probably use 3 or 4 seconds...which is 64 calories.
Yeah I'm starting to log 1 tsp of oil when I use my oil spray... although I only do 1 second, if that.
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I personally just dislike the taste of splenda or any other sugar substitute. I used to be one of those people who believed all those things about fake sugar causing weight gain but then I actually started to do my own research instead of having it spoon fed to me. So yeah, OP, you're fine. It's amazing how many bogus "scientific studies" get released that say something is super bad for you when really it was the one case out of 1,000,000,000,000 and it was something incredibly skewed.0
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I hate when people tell me I should just use sugar instead of Splenda. Yes, I started using Splenda because it was "low calorie" but I use it all the time because I LIKE THE WAY IT TASTES!!! I can't use regular sugar anymore because it tastes bad to me.0
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I love Swerve. It is all natural, bakes well, and tastes fantastic!0
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I cannot find this app and I would love it. Was it on apple app store or google?bcalvanese wrote: »I use an app called foodacate. This app grades foods from A to D-. I scanned every single artificial sweetener on the shelf and every one of them graded poorer than regular sugar (including splenda).
I use regular sugar, but I use it sparingly.
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lemonlionheart wrote: »discretekim wrote: »PeachyCarol wrote: »No. I've lost 45 pounds and have had Splenda every day.
Do know that each packet of Splenda has 4 calories thanks to the bulking agent. If you're going to use more than 2-3, they start to add up.
What!? I have 7-11 packets most days. I guess it doesn't matter though. I chew up to a pack of gum and each piece has 5 calories. These things average out. Still I didn't know that.
Yeah, I know that in the US they're allowed to say '0 calories' if it's less than 5 calories. Which is cool, I guess, as 4 calories is negligible. But it gets a bit misleading with things like '0 calorie' spray oil that is actually 4 calories per 'serve' (a half second spray) so you get people using like 4 times that and logging it as zero
Um whaaaat? I had no idea of this! Says person who drinks tea with sucralose (0 cal) tsp but has like 6 cups of tea a day.
Yeah, like it's even possible to get a 1/4 sec spray from the can. Most people probably use 3 or 4 seconds...which is 64 calories.
I solved that problem pretty easy
On the product ( like PAM) there is a total amount of calories for PAM 1464 calories for the whole container/spray.
So when i do 4 weeks with the whole container means i use 1464 calories more than i log. which means 366 a week
Which is about 52 a day
Solved it with making a entree for myself that is 1 calorie for 1 gram and log things like that as extra cooking spray or for my popcorn seasoning or other things which say zero calories
And logging the 52 and some of those other calories as extra's
Problem solved!
Only water has no calories!
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Splenda doesn't digest, it really is 0 calories.lemonlionheart wrote: »discretekim wrote: »PeachyCarol wrote: »No. I've lost 45 pounds and have had Splenda every day.
Do know that each packet of Splenda has 4 calories thanks to the bulking agent. If you're going to use more than 2-3, they start to add up.
What!? I have 7-11 packets most days. I guess it doesn't matter though. I chew up to a pack of gum and each piece has 5 calories. These things average out. Still I didn't know that.
Yeah, I know that in the US they're allowed to say '0 calories' if it's less than 5 calories. Which is cool, I guess, as 4 calories is negligible. But it gets a bit misleading with things like '0 calorie' spray oil that is actually 4 calories per 'serve' (a half second spray) so you get people using like 4 times that and logging it as zero
Aspartame / Nutrasweet does digest, but at 200x the sweetness of sugar, you end up with something like 5 calories in diet Mountain Dew 20 ounce bottle.
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I do not use sucralose-"Splenda", aspartame-"NutraSweet" or sugar alcohols because when I ingest more than one serving a day they draw excess water into my colon, with unpleasant results. I also prefer Stevia-"Sweet Leaf", but not "Truvia" because it has significant amounts of Sucralose. Some people have had allergic reactions; others claim that their appetites increase with artificial sweeteners. If any of these things happen then a person might want to avoid them.0
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I use it along with Stevia In The Raw depending on which one I grab to throw into my Green Tea. Never any issues here.0
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There is one school of medical thought that believes artificial sweeteners trick the brain into thinking we're getting sugar, but when the Dopamine released isn't enough to satisfy the craving, we find other ways to get it. In other words, the sabotage comes about by eating more since the diet drinks aren't helping because our body is still craving sugar.
I don't personally buy into that, but that is one argument against sweeteners like Splenda. I use it daily in my coffee and love the stuff, and it hasn't hindered my progress over the last 5 months at all.0 -
I HATE the whole 'we can say it's 0 calories if it's less than 5' thing. Mostly because I can never find the correct information to log it.
Personally though, I don't do splenda, it turns me into a carb-craving monster.
It makes me crave carbs as well. I found that if I use those sugar free flavor syrups (Torani, Davinci, Jordan's, etc.) too often I get major cravings, and sucralose is their sweetener. So I limit those to once or twice a week, and never more than once a day.
I generally use stevia to sweeten, which causes no craving issues in me and tastes, in my opinion, better than sucralose. I have also used xylitol to bake on occasion with good results.0 -
shedthesweater wrote: »I use it along with Stevia In The Raw depending on which one I grab to throw into my Green Tea. Never any issues here.
Stevia in the Raw is another one of those that plays the numbers game. It is 4 calories so not really zero according to your body, regardless of what the label says. The first ingredient is Dextrose.
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I cannot find this app and I would love it. Was it on apple app store or google?bcalvanese wrote: »I use an app called foodacate. This app grades foods from A to D-. I scanned every single artificial sweetener on the shelf and every one of them graded poorer than regular sugar (including splenda).
I use regular sugar, but I use it sparingly.
Yes, Fooducate is an excellent app! Love the way it grades and tells you why. I got it from Google Play Store.
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