Dumb question: Do you log artificial sweeteners?

MoonIite · August 2011

According to the nutritional info on the side of the box, a packet of SugarTwin contains zero calories. That sounds too good to be true. I'm sure has 5 calories, like Splenda.

For those who use artificial sweeteners, do you bother logging it into your food log? or forget about it?

ItsMeLori · August 2011

I have, splenda has 4 carbs. Who would have thought..

abigailhutch · August 2011

I use Splenda in my coffee.....so I have it set where I log the coffee/splenda and powdered creamer all together!

annemcbryan · August 2011

I just add those in mentally since it's small calories. Sugar twin changes when in hot water, which is odd but it changes. Spenda is much better. They say two sugartwins a day, while Splenda you can have like 20.

mtgeorgefan · August 2011

I don't log anything that doesn't have calories.... aka: coffee and tea. Artificial sweeteners would probably fall into that. The only reason I can see logging them is so the "Nutrition" part of your diary can refelct correctly... although, not sure if caffeine and stuff counts on the nutrition board?

agthorn · August 2011

I log my splenda packets, because i only use the ones that have added fiber so I want my fiber totals to be correct. Otherwise, I don't bother.

firegirley · August 2011

Inotied that when I log my coffee, it had fiber in it...so I try to log it to keep track of that part. Small amount, but still 1 gram adds up a couple times a day!

Carlton_Banks · August 2011

If you are tracking your Carbs, you should log sweeteners in my opinion

623Hernandez · August 2011

I don't log splenda, spices, butter spray, cooking spray, or crystal light. Maybe I should but logging is tedious enough. Maybe at the most adds up to 25 calories a day.

kimfield99 · August 2011

I don't consume them, but if I did I would track them. I figure it is better to know exactly what I have consumed. When I lost the bulk of my weight (when I was on WW I dropped 65 lbs.) I paid attention to the amount of artificial sweetners and found that I was overusing them to compensate for lousy tasting processed foods - you know sprinkling an extra packet on low carb/cal cinnamon raisin toast instead of just having real cinnamon raising bread. When that wouldn't satify my sweet tooth I would have another serving of the low cal/carb bread with mor efake sugar to make it taste better. The cals weren't from the fake sugar, but the fake sugar made the crappy bread taste better and I would eat more of it. I couldn't figure out why I wasn't loosing and when i looked at my eating habits I realized that I was over indulging in the processed low carb foods. When I started to have a small amount of the real deal sugar it made all the difference and kept me from that kind of over indulging. This was just me though - I don't know if others have had similar experiences. My point is that it probably can't hurt to know what you are putting in your body so that if you need to try and identify trends you have a complete picture of your consumption.

bcattoes · August 2011

I very rarely drink anything with an artificial sweetener, but when I do, I do not log it. I only log beverages with calories - wine, milk, soy milk, V8, etc.