Sweetener dilemma? Splenda or Stevia?

I do not ever buy artificial sweeteners, although I do buy products that contain them (diet soda and sugar free coffee mixes). I did recently buy Stevia at a pharmacy as it was promoted as "natural" and supposedly tastier. Well, I hate it. It has an extremely sweetish aftertaste. Yuck.

honey, or raw sugar...not imatation over prossesed stuf

I love Splenda! Mostly because my Abuela used to sneak them into her famous Sweet Potato Pie and I didn't notice the difference

I prefer stevia

Sugar FTW!

stevia all the way stay far far away from all the other stuff, super bad for you

Stevia if I have a choice. A lot of times at work the only choice in tea is either sweet tea with sugar or sweet tea with splanda, so I go with splenda then. I have a stevia plant but I have no idea how to prepare it.

4. studies show . . . - given enough time, you can find studies that show ANYTHING has ill effects. I read a study showing stevia caused DNA mutation in lab rats. Experiments have to be substantiated and recreated in order to be considered as valid evidence in ANY study. Just "hearing" about some negative study somewhere is not proof.

Oddly enough, it was the same flawed study methodology that originally got people off the first artificial sweetener - saccharin. Which can cause cancer. If you're a mouse. And you eat three times your body weight a week of it.

Here is my experience perhaps it will help someone. I started VLC trying to kick the sugar addiction an fructose addiction. I only succeeded in exchanging sugar for artificial sweeteners addiction. I first tried Truvia but I do not like the taste of stale cotton candy in my tea. Next Splenda, and I really went through a lot of it, emptying sugar bowls a day worth for 2 months thinking I would never again need sugar. My Protein Shake named Cherry Twister by Syntrax called nectar has Sucarose in it another name for Splenda along with Aspartame. I was in artificial sugar Heaven! Until hell exposed my illusion and my health took a drastic turn for the worse, and reading my profile you will see I have health issues already and did not need any new problems. I first started coughing nearly non stop, next I had severe shortness of breath like I could not inhale deeply. I finally like the dumb blonde I am put 2 and 2 together and realized every time I ate anything with splenda in it I started coughing so badly with shortness of breath! My lungs have been damaged in some way and this is only since March when I switched from Fructose.

I went to the search engine to see if Sucarose aka Splenda affects your lungs. I was shocked to see Dr. Mercola whom I highly respect and buy his products from was warning Splenda to many people is like DDT or agent orange to the lungs and can cause lung cancer! I just talk about this and I am coughing again and my lungs still are recovering. Normally people do not get the symptoms something is wrong but I am grateful for the warning signs. Aspartame does not give me warning signs and I can use it without any known health problems. Oh except one and that is mentally I know and read what others including Dr. Mercola has said about Aspartame, search for yourself in search engine, white oozing matter in the brain, epilepsy, brain tumors. YIKES when you start reading about the negative feedback on these 2 sweeteners i was shocked beyond belief. Why is this in our healthy protein powders and diet foods?

Now I have found a replacement and it is NuNaturals Stevia, the only Stevia brand I found that does not have a bitter aftertaste. I LOVE it. Stevia is natural from a leaf. So my advice do your research carefully just because your body does not give you a warning sign does not mean it is not being harmed by the chemicals in it.

I am in desperate need of a great tasting Whey Protein Shake with Stevia that can be shipped to Europe using Paypal. I only use Paypal for purchases online. I really wanted Jay Robb from USA but I can't find any online store that will ship internationally and allow paypal for payment method. If anyone reading this knows another product or knows where I can buy Jay Robb said to be the best tasting Protein Powder please email me. If anyone knows of another one that does not use sucarose or aspartame and tastes really good low in calorie and in carbs please email me. I am very low on protein in my diet because I have stopped drinking my Syntrax nectar. Eggs are not my favorite food and I have to get more protein. This is my experience with Sucarose/Splenda. I was so disappointed to see Optimum whey also uses Sucarose. Now the newest advertising gimmick is NO aspartame in fact Syntrax nectars newest improvement on their formula is advertising no sugar,no aspartame, its all Sucarose now! Xzylatol I can't spell the name sorry seems to be another safe alternative and I use that also but it has more calories and carbs. Coconut palm sugar tastes just like brown sugar so yummy, but the carb count again is not VLC. I speak from my experience and I know many people will say they never have problems, for those of us who do have health issues with Sucarose they are very serious ones. I am grateful for the best sweetener I have found No carb or calorie Nunaturals Stevia.

Awesome thanks! so many great comments.. I think I´ll stay with Stevia.. It tastes a little weird but just in case since Splenda is not natural better be safe.. haha

Just because it's natural doesn't mean something is good for you... just something to think about. Go with whichever one you like best.

Stevia if I have a choice. A lot of times at work the only choice in tea is either sweet tea with sugar or sweet tea with splanda, so I go with splenda then. I have a stevia plant but I have no idea how to prepare it.

Take off the leaves and dry them ... either in the sun, food dehydrator or just leave them in a warm place for a day or so. Lay them in a single layer when drying.

Once they are fully dried you can do two things with them..

1) Grind them up in a coffee bean grinder or something like that and there's your powdered Stevia.
2) Grind them up until they are a powder and place in water. Let that sit for 24 hours. Now you've got liquid Stevia.

Neither, I just don't consume anything that requires sweetening.

Dr. Mercola whom I highly respect

Whenever you see this, it's safe to disregard everything that person has to say.
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I do not know what you have against Dr. Mercola nor do I care to hear it. The search engine has many more who agree with him on the dangers of splenda. I speak from my own experience with it and I am not the only one with health issues because of it.

IMHO, it makes sense that NO type of artificial sweetener is "good" for you (high concentrations of any chemical are to be suspected as unhealthy), and that would also be expanded to concentrations or extractions made from natural products such as stevia (because extracts are a way of having too much of a chemical, even though natural).

So, if "healthy eating" is the goal, there is no place for either splenda nor stevia.

But if "calorie counting" is the goal, then there is a choice to be made.

[This does not apply to sugar restricted diets such as diabetes, that is a different discussion.]