Zero Calorie Sweeteners

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  • corysmithsmail
    corysmithsmail Posts: 166 Member
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    Artificial sweeteners are not dangerous in "regular" amounts. If you are having 3-10 packets of stevia/sucralose/whatever artificial sweetener a day then that's safe. You have to have a WHOLE lot more on a regular basis in order to reach the level of toxicity that those sweeteners have. It's like apples. They have trace amounts of cyanide in it (the seeds) but we all still eat those safely. Check out this video that explains the science of it:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKciZz3hfVc&t=790s
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
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    etherealanwar wrote: »
    Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »
    etherealanwar wrote: »
    Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »
    They have near zero calories. In most places if the calorie count is below 5, they are allowed to label it as zero calorie.

    If you take diet coke as an example, it is listed as 0 calories per 355 ml, A 2 litre bottle of diet coke would then potentially have between 0 and 28 calories. You could track this if you are using excessively large amounts of diet drinks and sweeteners in baking or cooking. However it is more likely that if you are gaining weight you are eating more than you think of something else.

    Check the log entries you are using for accuracy, weigh your food as accurately as possible to make sure.




    Well they claim its around 4-5 calories per 2 tsp and Ive had much more than a few tsps haha! Ive been eating the same items and logging them just fine for over 10 months now and have been losing as expected so it's not a logging issue. I'm not too concerned about the slight upward weight trend the past few days as it could potentially be normal fluctuations but I don't want to introduce this variable that can cause me issues.

    If it has calories its not zero calorie. That's primarily what I'm trying to get at.

    Even if you were to have 5 times that amount. so 10 tsp per day. amounting to between 20-25 calories per day, or 175 calories per week. that is still only 5% or 1/20th of a lb. So if you are talking about weight gain that is faster than 1lb every 20 weeks. It is not the sweeteners that are doing it.

    They MIGHT make you enjoy the food more, in turn making you eat more strawberries ect. for perspective 100g of strawberries has 33 calories. if you are using 2 tsp of sweetener per 100g of strawberries, by the time your week is done for that 175 calories of sweetener, you ate 1155 calories in strawberries doing so.

    Honestly its more around half a cup that I used each time (embarrassingly enough). But yeah at most it would be 60 calories if its 5 cals per 2 tsp. I wouldnt be asking if i only used a tiny amount. I'm still more curious about just whether or not they contain calories not regarding my weight.

    Dear lady, I'm very curious to know (unrelated to your actual question)...

    Are you using half a cup when baking a cake?

    Or half a cup of sweetener in a cup of coffee?


    As for your question, I think you're majoring in the minors.

    In addition to another post of yours I saw, you might need to relax a bit. Though it looks like you don't have much weight to lose, you should look at the following:

    https://blog.myfitnesspal.com/why-aiming-to-maintain-weight-can-actually-help-fat-loss-goals/

    and

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/113609/relatively-light-people-trying-to-get-leaner/p1

    and

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks

    Best wishes, and well done for using the forums. Some really helpful and successful people give advice here.
  • ServusChristi
    ServusChristi Posts: 98 Member
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    https://www.livestrong.com/article/308071-how-many-calories-are-in-1-cup-of-splenda-brand-sugar-for-baking/

    I use 1/4 c in my porridge every morning, and I use up to 3/4 c per day sweetening plain Greek yogurt. It is important to log these calories.

    Splenda isn't the only example of food labeled as set zero-calorie when it does, in fact, contain calories. Mustard may be labeled as zero calories per teaspoon, but it adds up to a lot in larger quantities -- a cup of yellow mustard may be over 165 cal! (And yes, I have used large enough quantities of mustard to make this matter; there's a bean soup recipe I love that uses an amazing amount of it.)
  • bemyyfriend0918
    bemyyfriend0918 Posts: 241 Member
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    Almost everything has some calories in it, even things listed as zero calorie. Diet soda has 1-2 calories, coffee has 1-5 calories, mustard, tums, mints, and gum all contain 2-10 calories per regular serving.

    Perhaps the worst offenders of this that I’ve found are artificial sweeteners and cooking spray. The calories in those can really add up. 1 packet of Splenda has 6 calories! And when I use six in each coffee, that really adds up. Cooking spray has quite a bit too. It’s “zero” for a 1/3 second spray...ummm who actually does that? It’s more like 15 calories per second of spraying, and most people tend to spray for a few seconds. At that point, using plain butter I can measure is better.

    In short, when it comes to things like gum, mints, diet soda, and coffee I rarely log it. Those calories are 1-2 for normal size quantities, so I don’t bother. If I’m over by 6 calories a day it won’t make much of a difference.

    When it comes to things like cooking spray and Splenda, I log every bit of them, because it’s easy to go over with those. If you’re using half a cup of Splenda a day, that’s probably 100 calories or more, and can add up.

    I’ve heard that the liquid sweeteners don’t have any calories, maybe give those a try or just start tracking the Splenda. I used to use Splenda but I stopped using it, and now just use smaller amounts of regular sugar. A packet of Splenda contains 6 calories...a packet of sugar is 15. Not too much of a miracle when you look at it that way.
  • CarvedTones
    CarvedTones Posts: 2,340 Member
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    AnvilHead wrote: »
    sdbuckley70 wrote: »
    There's some talk about artificial sweeteners sabotaging people's effort to lose weight. I've heard that they're bad because they cause an insulin response by the body when no actual sugar is being consumed, and that causes weird endocrine system problems and could even lead to fat storage. Any thoughts on this?

    Yes. It's completely untrue and you should disregard it. It's nothing more than scaremongering and has no basis in fact.

    It would be about like claiming you could gain fat from drinking water because the body senses a substance being taken in and stores fat as a result.

    Also, there is no net fat storage from anything when in a caloric deficit.

    I think there are a lot of "studies" with correlation versus causation issues out there. It's probably true that most people who use artificial sweeteners are above the "normal/healthy" range. Could it be because...
    The vast majority of American adults are overweight or obese ?
    Nah; couldn't be that. Must be the sweetener...
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,961 Member
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    Orphia wrote: »
    etherealanwar wrote: »
    Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »
    etherealanwar wrote: »
    Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »
    They have near zero calories. In most places if the calorie count is below 5, they are allowed to label it as zero calorie.

    If you take diet coke as an example, it is listed as 0 calories per 355 ml, A 2 litre bottle of diet coke would then potentially have between 0 and 28 calories. You could track this if you are using excessively large amounts of diet drinks and sweeteners in baking or cooking. However it is more likely that if you are gaining weight you are eating more than you think of something else.

    Check the log entries you are using for accuracy, weigh your food as accurately as possible to make sure.

    Well they claim its around 4-5 calories per 2 tsp and Ive had much more than a few tsps haha! Ive been eating the same items and logging them just fine for over 10 months now and have been losing as expected so it's not a logging issue. I'm not too concerned about the slight upward weight trend the past few days as it could potentially be normal fluctuations but I don't want to introduce this variable that can cause me issues.

    If it has calories its not zero calorie. That's primarily what I'm trying to get at.

    Even if you were to have 5 times that amount. so 10 tsp per day. amounting to between 20-25 calories per day, or 175 calories per week. that is still only 5% or 1/20th of a lb. So if you are talking about weight gain that is faster than 1lb every 20 weeks. It is not the sweeteners that are doing it.

    They MIGHT make you enjoy the food more, in turn making you eat more strawberries ect. for perspective 100g of strawberries has 33 calories. if you are using 2 tsp of sweetener per 100g of strawberries, by the time your week is done for that 175 calories of sweetener, you ate 1155 calories in strawberries doing so.

    Honestly its more around half a cup that I used each time (embarrassingly enough). But yeah at most it would be 60 calories if its 5 cals per 2 tsp. I wouldnt be asking if i only used a tiny amount. I'm still more curious about just whether or not they contain calories not regarding my weight.

    Dear lady, I'm very curious to know (unrelated to your actual question)...

    Are you using half a cup when baking a cake?

    Or half a cup of sweetener in a cup of coffee?
    ...

    She's using a half cup of artificial sweetener on strawberries.

    See her first and third post on the first page.
  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,088 Member
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    ServusChristi wrote: »
    8ehg08ypesgs.png
    There's 1/4c of Splenda.

    They bulk up powdered splenda with Malthodextrose.. ie sugar. True pure sucralose is not digestible bu the body. That's why liquid sucralose is 0 cals, while a packet of splenda is 4 cals.
  • ServusChristi
    ServusChristi Posts: 98 Member
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    psychod787 wrote: »
    ServusChristi wrote: »
    8ehg08ypesgs.png
    There's 1/4c of Splenda.

    They bulk up powdered splenda with Malthodextrose.. ie sugar. True pure sucralose is not digestible bu the body. That's why liquid sucralose is 0 cals, while a packet of splenda is 4 cals.

    Yes, the bulk of it is filler, of course.
  • countcurt
    countcurt Posts: 593 Member
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    Artificial sweeteners do not cause weight gain. Sugar doesn't cause weight gain either. An excess of caloric intake over the amount one's body requires for fuel? Now THAT causes weight gain.


    There are some studies that suggest correlation between artificial sweetener intake and weight gain. There are studies to suggest that people who replace products containing sugar with products containing artificial sweetener are likely to take in more calories. Which, as noted above, leads to weight gain.


    But those calories don't enter the body by osmosis or some other bend in the space-time continuum. They enter the body when that person eats too much.

    And, yes, the artificial sweetners contain fairly minuscule amounts of calories. As noted above. But changing from Diet Coke to water to wash down your three slices of cheesecake will likely have an even more minuscule impact on your weight management efforts.
  • GottaBurnEmAll
    GottaBurnEmAll Posts: 7,722 Member
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    bemyyfriend0918 wrote: »
    Almost everything has some calories in it, even things listed as zero calorie. Diet soda has 1-2 calories, coffee has 1-5 calories, mustard, tums, mints, and gum all contain 2-10 calories per regular serving.

    Perhaps the worst offenders of this that I’ve found are artificial sweeteners and cooking spray. The calories in those can really add up. 1 packet of Splenda has 6 calories! And when I use six in each coffee, that really adds up. Cooking spray has quite a bit too. It’s “zero” for a 1/3 second spray...ummm who actually does that? It’s more like 15 calories per second of spraying, and most people tend to spray for a few seconds. At that point, using plain butter I can measure is better.

    In short, when it comes to things like gum, mints, diet soda, and coffee I rarely log it. Those calories are 1-2 for normal size quantities, so I don’t bother. If I’m over by 6 calories a day it won’t make much of a difference.

    When it comes to things like cooking spray and Splenda, I log every bit of them, because it’s easy to go over with those. If you’re using half a cup of Splenda a day, that’s probably 100 calories or more, and can add up.

    I’ve heard that the liquid sweeteners don’t have any calories, maybe give those a try or just start tracking the Splenda. I used to use Splenda but I stopped using it, and now just use smaller amounts of regular sugar. A packet of Splenda contains 6 calories...a packet of sugar is 15. Not too much of a miracle when you look at it that way.

    Protip: Cooking spray is 9 calories per gram. An easy way to accurately account for your use of it is to weigh the can, spray your pan, then weigh the can again. Subtract the second weight from the first, and you know how many grams you've used. There are several entries in the food data base that reflect 9 calories for a 1 second spray which you can use to log your usage, or you could create one for your personal use.
  • CarvedTones
    CarvedTones Posts: 2,340 Member
    edited October 2018
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    GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »
    bemyyfriend0918 wrote: »
    Almost everything has some calories in it, even things listed as zero calorie. Diet soda has 1-2 calories, coffee has 1-5 calories, mustard, tums, mints, and gum all contain 2-10 calories per regular serving.

    Perhaps the worst offenders of this that I’ve found are artificial sweeteners and cooking spray. The calories in those can really add up. 1 packet of Splenda has 6 calories! And when I use six in each coffee, that really adds up. Cooking spray has quite a bit too. It’s “zero” for a 1/3 second spray...ummm who actually does that? It’s more like 15 calories per second of spraying, and most people tend to spray for a few seconds. At that point, using plain butter I can measure is better.

    In short, when it comes to things like gum, mints, diet soda, and coffee I rarely log it. Those calories are 1-2 for normal size quantities, so I don’t bother. If I’m over by 6 calories a day it won’t make much of a difference.

    When it comes to things like cooking spray and Splenda, I log every bit of them, because it’s easy to go over with those. If you’re using half a cup of Splenda a day, that’s probably 100 calories or more, and can add up.

    I’ve heard that the liquid sweeteners don’t have any calories, maybe give those a try or just start tracking the Splenda. I used to use Splenda but I stopped using it, and now just use smaller amounts of regular sugar. A packet of Splenda contains 6 calories...a packet of sugar is 15. Not too much of a miracle when you look at it that way.

    Protip: Cooking spray is 9 calories per gram. An easy way to accurately account for your use of it is to weigh the can, spray your pan, then weigh the can again. Subtract the second weight from the first, and you know how many grams you've used. There are several entries in the food data base that reflect 9 calories for a 1 second spray which you can use to log your usage, or you could create one for your personal use.

    If you are going to spray quickly, zero the scale with the can on it, spray and then set the can back on the scale and see the amount you used as a negative number. Not sure I really trust my scale, or most scales, for anything under 3 or 4 grams, not that it really matters all that much. I think rounding versus truncation throws you off until you get up into higher numbers where it is less significant.

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