The down side is that any Splenda you can buy in the store is mostly made of sugar, and still causes tooth decay, just not quite as much as pure sugar. This is because the artificial sweeteners we use (aspartame, acesulfame, sucralose) are all hundreds of times sweeter than sugar, and so they mix it with a bulking agent to make it more convenient to use in amounts we’re familiar with. Unfortunately, they always use sugar (dextrose, the right-handed version of glucose) and maltodextrin, another simple carbohydrate, as the bulking agent. So the Splenda you buy at the grocery stores does have calories and does cause tooth decay because most of its mass is just sugar. I consider it a massive scam.
You can buy liquid Splenda that uses water as a “bulking agent” instead of sugar, but only online and only at certain times (at least, last time I checked).
Dextrose and maltodextrin are not casually referred to as “sugar,” in my experience. True, they may technically be “sugars,” but anyone referring plainly to “sugar” in a nutritional context is going to mean sucrose, or, maybe, fructose.
Now, the package of Splenda I have in my cabinet lists carbohydrates as being < 1 g, but the serving size is listed as .5 g, which I find disingenuous. Does anyone know the actual ‘nutritional facts’ of Splenda?
I see what you’re getting at, but still, they are sugars, or at least dextrose is – it’s just the dextro isomer of glucose, and everybody knows that glucose is a sugar. Maltodextrin may not be a sugar (I can’t tell for sure), but it’s a simple carbohydrate that evidently is nearly as good at fueling bacteria in your mouth as regular table sugar is.
Hence, from a dental perspective, the bags of Splenda you buy at the store are almost as bad for your teeth as regular sugar, and they do contain calories.
We had a thread on this a while back – basically, as long as the amount per serving size is small enough, they can claim it’s zero, at least in the US. So since the serving size is so small, because the sucralose adds enough sweetness that the stuff in the bag can be used in a small serving, Splenda can claim it’s “zero calorie” while basically being a bag of sweetened sugar.
I was shocked and angered when I realized this – I had always just assumed that because I was sweetening my Kool-Aid-type drinks with Splenda or Nutrasweet, I wasn’t getting any sugar and there weren’t any dental problems to worry about. After all, without any calories, there couldn’t be any sugar to fuel cavity production, right? Sadly, that turned out to be a huge mistake.
I don’t know why children should have sodas or juice at all. Our house has barley tea (no sugar in it) , water or milk available. Once a week I buy a litre of vegetable/fruit juice and when it’s gone, it’s gone.
The kids do get sodas or canned drinks from machines when we go out, so maybe one or two a week.
We are not draconian about sugar or healthy stuff, it is just that I am too tight to pay for such rubbishy drinks on a regular basis!
Having grown up on diet Coke and now only rarely drink it, I’m also trying to limit the sodas my daughter drinks. I’m a big fan of sparkling water and my daughter loves lemons, so I’m thrilled if she drinks that instead of sugary drinks, including juice. She won’t drink plain water, getting her to drink a glass of milk is like pulling teeth (oh, a pun!), but she does like juice. Damned if I can find juices that don’t cost a fortune and aren’t full of sugar, though. You’d think there’s enough natural sugar in fruit that they wouldn’t feel the need to add high fructose corn syrup to them. A pox on American palates!
There can’t be *that *many calories in Splenda. There’s a lemonade recipe on the side of the bag that calls for a cup of Splenda, and a cup of lemon juice, and has a total of 160 calories. The lemon juice is 80 of those, so that leaves 80 for a cup of Splenda (the other ingredients are non-caloric).
The apple pie recipe on the box gives me about 55 calories for a cup of Splenda, but the error bars are much larger because it calls for things like “5 apples.” So I’m happy to go with the 80 calories per cup number, or 5 calories per tablespoon.
Table sugar is slightly more than 750 calories per cup, and 45 per tablespoon, so saying that Splenda is basically “sweetened sugar” is disingenuous – it’s only slightly more than 10% of the calories of sugar by volume.
But a cup of Splenda weighs a lot less than a cup of sugar. You’re not comparing equal masses. It’s not a bag of sweetened TABLE sugar, but yes, it’s pretty much sweetened sugar.
Yes…but Splenda’s a table sugar replacement, and you replace by volume, not weight. When used for it’s intended use, it’s much, much, much, lower calorically than the sugar it replaces – yes, it may technically be sweetened “sugar,” but you’re claiming that it’s “a massive scam,” which it clearly isn’t – it does exactly what it says it does.
Sure, we could argue about equal-weight amounts, but that’s not a reasonable use; a cup of sugar would take about eight large bags of Splenda to replace – no one’s going to use it that way (at least not more than once).
From my perspective, it clearly IS a massive scam – but I’m coming at it from a different angle than you.
They claim on the nutritional label that Splenda (and NutraSweet) has zero calories, which it absolutely doesn’t. Yes, it’s fine for calorie reduction, since, as I said, it’s sweetened sugar, so you end up using a lot less of it. But my primary interest with artificial sweeteners is for dental health, not calorie reduction. From a dental health perspective, it’s better than regular table sugar, but the fact that the vast majority of what you’re putting in your food or drink is just sugar means that it’s still bad for your teeth – much more so than plain aspartame or sucralose would be.
But when you see “zero calories” listed on the nutrition label, the natural assumption (before you learn about the “If the serving size is low enough they can round down to zero” scam) is that it has no sugar in it. While that may be true for something like diet soda that is made with Splenda or NutraSweet, it’s not true for the Splenda or NutraSweet that you buy in the store to make your own stuff with.
Is it just me, or does 2 cans/day of soda each and every day seem like an enormous amount? Especially if it’s normal soda - that’s a TON of sugar! I guess it’s better if it’s diet, but still, two cans seems excessive to me. I could see it on occasion, or maybe even once a week, but every single day? There’s gotta be better things you can put in your body, and I’m hardly a bleeding heart overly nutritious kinda person.
Maybe I’m weird, but if I found myself drinking two cans of soda (diet or normal) a day, I’d be worried, much less if it were a kid drinking that much soda.
Better yet, I’ve seen elementary school science projects where actual teeth were soaked in orange juice, Coke, Sprite, and coffee for several weeks. (the students had a dental connection and were able to get extracted teeth for the experiment)
You’d be surprised at how little color change was evident. IIRC, coffee was the worst, and Coke was only slightly worse than Sprite. None of them were terribly dark, although the coffee teeth were rather ugly. This experiment naturally eliminates the bacteria/sugar/acid cycle (with the expection of acids normally present in the beverages themselves).
I don’t recommend children keep coffee in their mouths for weeks.
I think if you’re seriously concerned about staining or decay, the easiest thing would be to require them to brush after consuming sodas. No exceptions.
In my childhood home there was no extra money for pop. (seriously - the budget was really tight) Therefore, I didn’t drink pop. If you’re having troubling limiting sodas, even easier than fighting the kids about it is to not keep any around.
If you are going to worry about what is damaging their teeth, you might as play both sides and concern yourself with what they do to actively protect them against everything they eat, because sugars are necessary life-sustaining ingredients. Fat, proteins and sugars are part of every diet. Make sure the water in your area is fluoridated and supplement that with a good fluoride rinse when they brush.
MY dentist told me that I was overlooking the damage that is caused by all the foods that I consume and underestimating the power of fluoride, which can actually be the key component in all this.
No, you’re not the only one. We allow up to 3 6 ounce servings of juice or pop per week, and it’s rare for it to get up to 3. General offerings are water or…water. Occasionally she’ll ask for milk, and I’ll give it to her, but I don’t offer it.
I myself drink quite a bit of Splenda sweetened drinks (Crystal Light, etc.), which have 5 calories per 8 ounce serving. I find the sweet satisfies my sweet cravings without a lot of calories. But honestly, I’m a bit paranoid about artificial sweeteners and growing brains and bodies*, so it’s pretty unusual for me to allow the preschooler one of those. It’s been known to happen, but it’s pretty rare.
*No scientific reason, just a general paranoia and cynicism.
I know! But even still, not being all that schooled in chemistry or biology, I operate under the impression that naturally occurring fructose (and glucose) is way less bad for you than processed high fructose corn syrup even in lower quantities.
Of course, I also operate under the moderation-is-key theory, but given a choice between serving my daughter a flavored and sugared soda, an orange, or orange juice, I’d choose the orange (before the orange juice) over the soda nearly every time.
We eat a lot of processed food for a variety of reasons, but any opportunity I have to give (and teach) her better nutritional choices, I take. Our current disagreement is over white bread vs. whole grain bread. Don’t get me started with that!
Be careful with the milk, though. My sister did this science project with nails. I don’t remember which liquid was hardest on the nail, but I do remember how utterly revolting the milk got after a few days or weeks.
In all honesty, yes, to me this is too much and expensive. I s’pose I could put my foot down and refuse to buy soda and leave it to the SO to buy it if he feels his kids need it.
On the other hand, this might come across as being petty. I drink soda, and so does the SO so i am thinking that perhaps the both of us may look at it with the thought of “we drink it so how can we tell them they are not allowed to?” And, irl, the SO’s son called me on that one and my immediate response was to defend my choices. He wanted to know why he was only allowed one, where as I drink 2/day - he has to drink Sprite & I get to drink Dr Pepper (he loves dr pepper). My response was to let him know that I buy my own drinks & pay for my own doctor/dentist bills and when he can do the same he can decide what he wants to eat and drink.
Fortunately, <his> kids do not have a weight issues. When my kids were younger, I was concerned with their weight because of my family background. This, along with the fact that I could not afford to supply everyone with sodas, was the reason the kids had access to milk, tea, & water. Sometimes juice - but the juice was limited and same aspect of when it’s gone it’s gone. I hated kool-aide so the kids didnt have access unless they were at their dad’s. They also did not have many dental issues even though I was not able to make sure they brushed their teeth on a regular basis. I am pretty certain that they were not disciplined in this field of hygiene so I am fortunate that they (and myself) got off the hook with major dental work and bills.
Blending families and rules is a challenge, even moreso when you’re looking at 3 households - mine, his, and his kids’ mom (luckily my ex is out of the equation).
I am more strict where as the SO isn’t in comparison (and bless his heart for being willing to compromise & adopt some of my set rules). We also make sure the kids are brushing their teeth - but we can only do this when they are here. If the SO decided for whatever reason to cut out soda altogether or limit it to 1-2 a week, based on all the information of what it does to teeth - I’m for it.
There is little difference between “naturally occurring fructose” and the fructose you get in HFCS. OJ is just sugar water with Vit C, unless you include the pulp in which case you get some nice fiber, etc.
But you are right about the moderation.
Whole grain bread has a lot more fiber than most white bread. However, if the kids hate whole wheat, then the “Iron Kids” type of white bread with added fiber and such is a good compromise.
Seems to me that this is the right answer to the problem - have the whole family cut down on soda.
However, I can sympathize with what you say about a blended family. Heck, in my house, it’s only me and the SO and sometimes it seems impossible to come to an agreement on anything.
