Sweeteners

Well, the only real choices it seems is real sweetener (granulated sugar or liquid in forms of syrups or honey) and artificial (whatever the names for the pink, blue and yellow packets of sugar at restaurants are). You said you're not interested in artificial sweetener, so the only kind I can think of is the kind with calories.

-Steven

I have diabetes, so I try to avoid sugar, although, if I have a sore throat, I will put honey, whiskey and lemon in my tea. Other than that, I don't put anything in my tea except tea and hot water.

Splenda, the stuff in the yellow packet, is made from sugar, and is completely safe for me. I cook with it and put it in my coffee.

Use Stevia, it is natural (its a plant) and safe and does not effect your sugar levels in your body.

this stuff is excellent, i use it all the time, I dont even tell people it is not sugar and no one notices.

It is actually good for you.

It is sold as a supplement.

I never use sugar.

Karl

the herb Stevia sweetens.

I just looked down and saw that karl rec'd stevia as well. So I unintentionally repeat. avoid splenda-- To me it is just more of the all too prevalent artifical evil. The Splenda compound is sugar with a chlorine molecule attached to it. as told to me by a rep when I was a waiter. Of course I could be wrong/heard it wrong. So research it yourselves

Something not artificial is Stevia (now in packets also).

And something synthetized many like is sucralose (Splenda).

mikus (I'm using both of these)

"taopants" wrote in news:1169731913.366442.189610 @m58g2000cwm.googlegroups.com:

You're right. See . Every artificial sweetner is medically worse than sugar, which has its problems too. Splenda is relatively new, and so is assummed to be safe until proven otherwise.

Stevia does seem worth checking out.

Ozzy

Drink a better quality tea, that doesn't need sweetening. People sweeten tea in order to hide something in the tea. Could be a bitter flavour or a tannic flavour.

Get a tea that doesn't have that flavour so you don't _have_ to hide it.

--scott

I'm not a big fan of artificial sweeteners because, safety aspects aside, I think that they corrupt my palate. That is, after drinking a diet coke I seem to want to eat more sweet/salty/greasy/junky food. This is certainly not an original observation.

Here's a suggestion: how about a tea with sweet flavor notes but without the punch-in-the-pancreas heft of "sweetening"? Currant flavored tea, offered by many dealers, is one. Another favorite of mine and many friends is tea with Lychee extract. This is available in big red-gold square tins at many Chinese groceries for between $5.00 and $8.00 per pound.

Good luck,

Rick.

Why are you assuming that stevia is safe and that Splenda is unsafe? On what basis did you reach these conclusions?

artificial

Read about it, look it up, stevia is a real plant, Splenda is a chemical.

Don't take our word for it. Check it out.

Fran wrote:

artificial

Many natives use cat s**en

I really do like Stevia a lot. It tastes a lot better than the artificial sweeteners. Although I imagine if you fed a metric ton of it to a rat, the rat might die. I drink my tea straight though, nothing but leaf, water, and an occasional flower petal.

___________ Mike Petro

Saying that stevia is a "real plant" is a poor testimonial to its safety. Just because something is "natural" doesn't mean it is inherently safe. Arsenic is natural and is lethal, whereas water is a chemical and is essential for life.

I have no idea whether stevia (or Splenda for that matter) is safe or not and I'm not saying to use or not use it. But I'm guessing that it falls into the same category as many herbs and "natural" supplements and is probably not regulated by the FDA. I'm willing to bet that there has been far more research on the safety of Splenda than there is on the safety of stevia. I keep reading on the net about the alleged dangers of artificial sweeteners but nobody ever seems to have any evidence to back up these claims.

As for the original question that started this thread, most likely none of these products -- Splenda, stevia or sugar (if you are not diabetic) is harmful when used in moderation. If you truly wish to avoid the calories in sugar and not use artificial sweeteners or stevia, then the only thing I can recommend is to try and get used to drinking unsweetened tea. Tea that is prepared properly and not allowed to stew (overbrew) really doesn't require any sweetening to taste good.

Every artificial

Karl Sprenger wrote: >Read about it, look it up, stevia is a real plant, Splenda is a chemical. >

In reply to Fran who wrote: >> Why are you assuming that stevia is safe and that Splenda is unsafe? >> On what basis did you reach these conclusions?

This is a rant, a somewhat educated one and slightly on-topic to boot, but a rant nonetheless. Your money won't be refunded.

Splenda is indeed a chemical, stevia is indeed extracted from a "real plant", and of course the latter is also a mixture of chemicals (notably stevioside). Karl, my friend (friends? or are you just using the royal we?), what makes you think that this particular chemical is safer than one concocted in the laboratories of McNeil Nutritionals? Other real plants, eaten in large amounts whole or in extract form, have been known to cause Parkinsonian-type and other neural disabilities, liver damage, and an interesting variety of cancers (oh yeah, and lavender is an estrogen mimic). There is a good reason why the FDA doesn't allow stores to sell real root beer or adulterated Mexican vanilla, and I'm grateful to them for this. But they aren't omniscient. To see what's on the horizon, please read the attached abstract which is merely the first result of a medline search on "stevia" (there are 114 others, not all of which will contain bad news). I have no idea whether the concentrations here are relevant to humans (and it is in general extremely hard, sometimes impossibly so, to determine this relevance).

As another example, veering dangerously close to relevance, consider the following excerpt from an article in _Lancet_ (2002, vol. 359, p. 1484):

"Tea is regarded a delicious, aromatic stimulant worldwide. However, even tea may lead to health problems if flavoured and consumed in extraordinarily high quantities. Bergamot essence in Earl Grey tea, when consumed in excess, may induce muscle cramps, fasciculations, paraesthesias and blurred vision."

In this case study the victim's symptoms disappeared when he limited consumption to a liter per day.

I might suggest caution before consuming large amounts or high concentrations of anything, herbal or not.

Best,

Rick.

Food Chem Toxicol. 2006 Oct 27; [Epub ahead of print]

Analysis of genotoxic potentiality of stevioside by comet assay.

• Nunes AP, * Ferreira-Machado SC, * Nunes RM, * Dantas FJ, * De Mattos JC, * Caldeira-de-Araujo A.

Departamento de Biofisica e Biometria, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Biologia Roberto Alcantara Gomes, Av. 28 de Setembro, 87, 20551-030 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.

Stevioside is a natural non-caloric sweetener extracted from Stevia rebaudiana (Bertoni) leaves. It has been widely used in many countries, including Japan, Korea, China, Brazil and Paraguay, either as a substitute for sucrose in beverages and foods or as a household sweetener. The aim of this work was to study its genotoxic potentiality in eukaryotic cells. Wistar rats were treated with stevioside solution (4mg/mL) through oral administration (ad libitum) and the DNA-induced damage was evaluated using the single cell gel electrophoresis (comet assay). The results showed that treatment with stevioside generates lesions in peripheral blood, liver, brain and spleen cells in different levels, the largest effect being in liver. Therefore, these undesired effects must be better understood, once the data present here point to possible stevioside mutagenic properties.

Harvesting would be a problem, I would think. My cat won't even stand still to have eardrops put in.

--scott

All of these are true. BUT:

1. Neither one of them really tastes like sugar.
2. Sweeteners have no business in tea.

Absolutely. Note that high concentrations of sugar aren't so good for you either.

--scott

Glucose is brain food and sucrose will break down it to feed your cell. So will do so with most foods consumed. I found agave nectar to be a very good substitute. Limiting glucose consumption is a contemporary concern for many people. The introduction of this new sweetener is timely as it has a relatively low glycemic index due to its higher proportion of fructose and lower levels of glucose. This fact should prove attractive to those with special diet considerations or who monitor glucose intake. , Thart info came from a manufactuer of agave nectar (I like the light one) and most of the agave sites I have read although it is still what works for you, and not me Jenn

Where I come from, they only harvest deer.