Aaargh! No "sugar" added?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

My SO went shopping, and on the list I had put “juice–cranberry, cran-apple, pomegranate, cherry, all-natural, preferably not from concentrate”

…and he came back with this cranberry-apple concoction, which states in very big letters that it is ALL NATURAL, 100% JUICE. In smaller letters: reconstituted from concentrate. In even smaller letters: Sweetened with Splenda.

Aaarggh! This has happened before. He found what he thought was semi-sweet chocolate, which proclaimed proudly on the front that it had NO ADDED SUGAR. And then, once again in much smaller letters, that it was sweetened with Splenda.

I do not want things sweetened with Splenda. I have nothing against Splenda, I even have some, because sometimes we have guests who ask if we have any, so I got some. But I don’t use it. I don’t use it because I don’t typically put sugar into things like coffee and iced tea. BECAUSE I DON’T LIKE THEM SWEET.

Juice falls into that category, too. It doesn’t have to be sweet. It is more refreshing to me if it’s not sweet–if it just tastes like fruit.

ETA: There’s also a taste I don’t like that I associate with “from concentrate.” I don’t know exactly what this taste is or where it comes from, but it’s always there. Other people in my family cannot taste a difference. Anybody else get this taste?

I am really tired of these people sneaking Splenda into things and then acting like they’ve done something great. If it’s so great, put it on there in REALLY BIG TYPE, like all the other all-natural bullshit, don’t hide it in the corner.

(He also thinks I’m pyschic because he poured me a glass and I immediately asked, without seeing the bottle, “Is there sweetener in here?” Then he read the bottle. I guess he thinks my taste isn’t even in my mouth–but that’s another rant.)

2

The worst example of this I ever saw was in an informercial for a cheapie food processor.

The demonstrator was showing how it could be used to make pureed baby food at home, and she said this was much better because her version contained no added sugar.

“I used Sweet & Low!” Two packets, actually. Two packages plainly marked (in teeny-tiny print) “Contains sodium cyclamate. Take only on the advice of a physician.” :smack:

This was in the eighties. Sometimes stupid leaves a mark.

3

But there are those of us who do expect juice to be a little sweeter than fruit, yet we have to minimize our sugar consumption. To us, Splenda is a godsend. And I agree, they should say so in large type.

4

Watch the labels on apple sauce too. They’ll say ‘no sugar added’ in larger letters, and ‘Splenda’ in small; as if ground up, cooked apples in water aren’t sweet enough by themselves.

5

I’ll have to agree . There’s nothing nastier than a Kettle One and cranberry with juice that has Splenda in it. Blech ! What a nasty taste !

6

Grr…I just got gotten by that. Looks like the same ol’ “No sugar added” applesauce I’ve been getting for years - the one that was apples and citric acid to keep it pretty. My toddler took one bite and said, “Mama, yuck!” That’s when I took a closer look and found the teeny tiny Splenda oval.

I don’t always mind Splenda anymore. I seem to have gotten over the weird chlorine burping heartburn it used to give me. But there are just some things that I don’t want or need it in, and I’d like it if they were better labeled!

7

The companies saying no sugar added, and trying to pass it off, as if they didn’t add artificial sweetner, are pissing me off. I pick up the container and in ingredients I see splenda. It’s just like all the fake butter that uses Butter in the name. Why doesn’t the FDA update it’s regulations to crackdown on the deceitful practices.

8

This is something I’m all for, as Splenda and my digestive tract don’t get along very well. As in, if I eat some you could use me as a weapon of mass destruction. Mustard gas has nothing on what happens when I eat Splenda. Trust me, it’s in the world’s best interest if everything with Splenda in it is clearly labeled. (Thankfully Splenda to me has a distinct metallic taste, so I can usually figure it out on the first taste.)

What I also hate are things that proclaim ‘no added sugar!’, but when you check the ingredients they have grape juice concentrate lurking there. WTF do they think makes concentrated grape juice sweet? Salt? Gah. Just because it isn’t sugar made from refining sugar cane juice doesn’t mean it isn’t sugar!

<< Why is the door always on the wrong side of the cat? >>

9

I think equally reprehensible is the practice of labelling the cranberry juice

Cranberry Juice

COCKTAIL

A cocktail, IMHO, is an alcoholic refreshment, not a consumer product full of sugar and artificial ingredients besides a small amount of juice.

10

Look, you can get full strength 100% cranberry juice. Except you can’t just drink the stuff, you use it as a mix-in because it’s totally sour and totally strong. If you want what people think of as “cranberry juice” you HAVE to get the cocktail version or mix it up yourself, because straight cranberry juice is something completely different.

11

I don’t know… it seems clear to me that “no added sugar” is not synonymous with “unsweetened.” Juice with Splenda IS with “no added sugar.” I don’t see what’s incorrect or even misleading about the label.

If the label said “No added sweetener” or “unsweetened” I’d totally be on board.

12

The problem is that unadulterated foods have used the no sugar added as a label for a long time. The splenda product packaging looks just like the regular product packaging, except for a minor variance. You end up with splenda, when you hate the stuff. Try and figure out the ice cream now. I don’t buy some brands, because you can’t tell waht is normal ice cream, and what is made with less sugar, artificial sweetner, or just a different method of making it…

13

Which was why it was GOOD for drinking by itself, or maybe with a couple shots of Gin.
Cranberries aren’t supposed to be sweet. Why does everything have to be so sweet? Couldn’t there be a class of non-sweet things that people eat or drink, without having the very names of the foodstuffs themselves expropriated by sickly sweet lookalikes?

14

Yeah, what Squink said.

I like straight lemon and lime juice and not lemonade, too.

15

As an ad for bottled juices in Spain says “why put sweetener on something that’s sweet?”

Lemon juice should be sour :stuck_out_tongue: If it’s sweet it’s lemonade - different animal.

16

I think cranberry juice falls under a different category because to the vast majority of the population, straight cranberry juice is damned nasty. I believe that cranberry is under its own classification for that very reason. I heard recently that would not soon be the case so now they are mixing cranberry juice with apple juice so they can call it “juice” instead of “cocktail.”

As far as Splenda and the topic goes. I don’t ever eat artificial sweeteners so my aversion to them is strong. They all taste horrible to me. I get damned tired of all the different ways they try to make it impossible to figure out what is inside. I must have read a label on a drink 20 times before I was able to narrow down in the ingredients list what must have been the artifcial sweetener.

If there is any artifical sweetener of any time it should be in HUGE ASS LETTERS I CAN SEE FROM ACROSS THE STORE.

17

As a vegetarian, I’ve been reading labels on pretty much any food very closely for many years now. If they can find a way to slip some kind of undesirable-to-some flavoring into a food to “improve” the taste, they will. I learned that lesson through unfortunate experience, throwing up some “vegetable” eggrolls and later checking the ingredients fine print and seeing that chicken fat and chicken broth were buried deep in the list.

18

You should write to the company and say just that (well, maybe not QUITE so forthright). My dad used to write off to companies about their products (both good and bad) and was bombarded with freebies as a result - mind you, this was in the 70’s 80’s - kinder gentler times :). He seemed to get just as good loot from the negative comments as the positive ones.

I particularly remember the case where he was complaining about artificial sweetener in the “no added sugar” drink, because ISTR he confused the hell out of the company concerned. We were in Scotland at the time. “Too…sweet? What is this ‘too sweet’ of which you speak?” :eek:

19

I guess my problem is that I am too good at reading labels. I know the trade names of all the major artificial sweeteners (sucralose =Splenda, aspartame=Nutrasweet, Acesulfame Potassium= has no brand name that I know of, just the nickname AceK, which I’ve never seen on a label, oh and saccharine=Sweet).

I also know that if you are looking at a beverage and it has only 15 calories per 8 oz serving, it is artificially sweetened. Unsweetened cranberry juice has 120 cals per cup, unsweetened grapefruit around 100, even fresh lime juice has 65. This is a HUGE hint for people who want to avoid artificial sweeteners.

As for ice cream, the superpremium brands (Haagen Daz, Ben & Jerry’s… the ones that cost ~$4/pint) have ingredients that consist primarlily of cream, milk, sugar and eggs. If you’re trying to “get a deal” on ice cream and at the same time avoid High fructose corn syrup and other cheap ingredients… don’t bother. Real ingredients are expensive.

20

I know every name of every sweetener, too. My problem is simply that I was in a rush and didn’t examine the wrapper - which looked, as I said, like the same wrapper it’s been for 20 years, which the single addition of a white Splenda oval 1/2 inch wide on a pale yellow background. Of course it was also in the ingredient list. I just assumed I was buying the same applesauce I have been buying ever since high school. Nope. I just don’t understand why, if a product fills a special dietary niche, it isn’t obviously marketed to those who want it, and therefore blatantly obvious to those of us who don’t want it.

I was similarly annoyed when the pasta started coming in 12 oz boxes all of the sudden. I make pasta by the box, not by the ounce, so when we started consuming the whole box and still being mysteriously hungry, I chalked it up to my growing teenaged boy hitting that devouring time of life. It was just a chance glance that revealed that no, it’s the pasta that changed from 16 ounces to 12, and now I have to use a box and a little, which is ever so much a pain in my ass. Did they indicate the change on the box? Sure, the 1/4 inch high number on the bottom changed from a 6 to a 2. Somehow, in my rush to make sure my toddler wasn’t annoying anyone, my cart wasn’t blocking the aisle and my purse wasn’t in the basket, I missed the change of a 6 to a 2 on an otherwise identical package.