Soft drinks that don't contain artificial sweetners

[TonyRPH]

I've been a long time Coca Cola drinker, but I'm looking for a (preferably non fizzy) soft drink that doesn't contain artificial sweeteners.

Looking around on supermarket shelves, drinks like my old favourites - Robinsons Orange etc, Lucozade - are all now sugar free.

Does anyone know of any decent flavoured drinks that contain natural sugar?

I appear to be allergic to aspartame + the various other artificial sweeteners as they aggravate my tinnitus, and also give me quite acute headaches.

[TonyRPH]

ben5575 said:

Either Bottlegreen or Belvoir Elderflower cordial

Thanks, some interesting flavours available from both brands!

[TonyRPH]

ChevronB19 said:

Could I ask you about your aspartame allergy? I drink about 2 litres of fake Diet Coke a day (yes, I know) and have had multiple issues relating to IBS. I know the easy answer is ‘stop drinking it’, but just interested as to what your symptoms are/were other than those stated - any stomach problems?

I don't recall any stomach issues, it was just the headaches and (increased) tinnitus.

I discovered it purely by chance, as a few years back I was taking Robinson's sugar free juice to work and using water from a chiller. I began getting headaches (something which I initially attributed to the orange flavouring), but then the tinnitus worsened as well.

I stopped drinking it, and within a few days the tinnitus eased and the headaches went away (the headaches were almost constant on and off throughout the day).

As an aside, I switched to drinking Lucozade (before it became sugar free) and I had no issues.

I've since discovered that other sugar free drinks like Pepsi Max etc. result in the same symptoms, so that ruled out the orange flavouring.

[TonyRPH]

4Q said:

I get mild asthma type symptoms and a cough when I have anything with aspartame in it. It’s getting more and more difficult to find a soft drink without either it or other artificial sweeteners like Sucralose or Acesulfame which leave a horrible residual taste.

Agree on the after taste - that echoes my own experience.

Evoluzione said:

Have you thought about pure fruit juices instead?

I do drink Tropicana Orange (100% pure orange juice) with my breakfast, however it's an expensive way into a soft drink!
And although I enjoy it with my breakfast, it's not something I can drink casually during the day.

[TonyRPH]

r3g said:

Did you find any winners, Tony? <snip>

Yes, a clear winner for me has been "Belvoir Fruit Farms Natural Orange Cordial".

No headaches or other side effects.

[TonyRPH]

r3g said:

TonyRPH said:

r3g said:

Did you find any winners, Tony? <snip>

Yes, a clear winner for me has been "Belvoir Fruit Farms Natural Orange Cordial".

No headaches or other side effects.

Ooh, will have to give that a try! Available in the usual supermarkets?

According to their website it's available at Sainsbury's and Waitrose.

The list of ingredients looks quite basic.

Sugar, lemon juice from concentrate 21%, orange juice from concentrate 21%, water, orange juice 8%

The Morrisons cordial you mention looks to have quite a few more ingredients.

[TonyRPH]

r3g said:

I've finally got my hands on the Belvoir Farm Orange cordial. Great choice! It has a taste to it that reminds me of the thick sliced dark orange jars of marmalade .

It's definitely become my soft drink of choice. No apparent nasty side effects either (that I'm aware of!).

[TonyRPH]

r3g said:

Are you guys still finding the Belvoir Orange?

We do our weekly shop at Sainsburys and I've had no issue getting Belvoir Orange at all.

Based in the North west.

[TonyRPH]

r3g said:

How strange . Even the shelf tags for it have disappeared in my nearest stores and there's other stuff where it used to be .

It might be worthwhile contacting Belvoir Farm to ask them about availability?

Also, have you asked in store as sometimes they move stuff for no apparent reason!

https://www.belvoirfarm.co.uk/where-to-buy-us/

[TonyRPH]

r3g said:

Heads up for anyone who hasn't noticed the change in ingredients - Pepsi has recently changed recipe and the natural sugars have been replaced by Sucralose and Acesulfame K . The only mainstream carbonated drink left which hasn't (yet) succumbed to migraine inducers artificial sweeteners is Coke.

That sicks - I just hope that Coke doesn't succumb to pressure...

r3g said:

In follow up to the Belvoir nonsense above, they did confirm that Sainsburys have "delisted" the Orange, which means that you can only get it from Ocado now. Somewhat amusingly I got a reply from Sainsburys after sending them an email in 5 minutes I had spare. Their response was a load of corporate waffle about how they constantly monitor their customer buying habits and adjust their range in order to meet customer expectations yada yada. I replied pointing out that when they did stock it, out of the 20 different Belvoir flavours on the shelf, it was always the orange that was missing bottles (if they had any at all), while the other flavours were always at the front of the shelf, indicating that the orange was a popular choice for shoppers. Unsurprisingly, they chose not to respond to that.

Same price per bottle from Ocado (£3.65) and as a new customer you get 25% off your first order if you exceed £60, plus 3 months of free deliveries. Well, can't say no to that can I! 20 bottles ordered which makes then £2.74 each and they bring them to my doorstep .

I tried the Rocks for a while but the flavour is very sharp and unpleasant for my taste.

Sainsbury's online shopping was out of stock briefly but we did manage to get it from our local store.

Seems to be back in stock online, so perhaps the stock list varies between Sainsbury's stores?

[TonyRPH]

I thought this article was quite relevant to this topic.

[TonyRPH]

My O/H wanted some tonic water recently - and yes, it too has succumbed to artificial sweeteners.

She's struggling to find 'normal' tonic water!!

It's getting out of hand now.

[TonyRPH]

r3g said:

Why has tonic water got sugar in it ?? Am I missing something here?

Oops - she just reminded me that it was diet tonic water that she bought by mistake. TSK!

https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/sainsb...

[TonyRPH]

The most annoying one for me recently (it's been ages since I had a bad cold) was Lemsip.

Lemsip ingredients said:

Ingredients
Ingredients (per sachet): Paracetamol 1000mg, Phenylephrine Hydrochloride 12.2mg, Also contains Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Aspartame, Lactose, Sodium and Sucrose

Just why???

[TonyRPH]

geeks said:

Beachams is or was free of it

Thanks, I just checked and it still is apparently. Cheaper too!

[TonyRPH]

Another product with Aspartame I discovered yesterday...

Sainsbury's Healthcare Paracetamol Effervescent Tablets x24 500mg

INGREDIENTS said:

Each tablet contains: Paracetamol 500 mg. Also contains Aspartame (E951) (a source of phenylalanine), and 438mg of sodium per tablet.

Why on earth do these companies feel the need to lace everything with Aspartame???

[TonyRPH]

vaud said:

Because paracetmol is super bitter and it counters that in a effervescent format?

So what happened to "add sugar to taste" like Lemsip etc?

Are we no longer allowed to judge just how sweet (or not as the case may be) we like something to taste?

I recently had a Lemsip (I initially missed that it too contained Aspartame) and it tasted way to sweet to my palate (and I like my sweet stuff) - it was sickly sweet.

[TonyRPH]

vaud said:

2 reasons as I understand it:

1) Volume as Aspartame is 200x sweeter than sugar you can use so little

And it's been proven that this causes issues with the body expecting things to be sweeter etc...

vaud said:

2) Palates vary... so they cater to the sweetest

Which is dumb, as then they are pushing folk to like things even more sweeter.

[TonyRPH]

I've not been able to get Belvoir 100% Natural Orange Cordial locally (or online) for a month now.

Poor show!

[TonyRPH]

Thanks guys, sorted. Got it off Amazon, as 6 bottles will last me months...