I don't know. I use Splenda daily. A little on my cereal or oatmeal and in my tea. I don't down a ton of it. I don't think it's affecting my weight loss.

Artificial sweetners always make me hungrier.

I'm don't eat a lot of artificial sweeteners, but when I have had some I have been hungrier. This does not seem like news to me.

I think there is something to this. Since I started drinking diet soda and eating other sugar free foods, I feel like its been harder and harder for me to loose. I also thinks its suspicious that all of the soda makers very quietly changed over to Splenda from aspartame, even though the change adversely affected the taste....I am staying away from all of it from now on...H20 or reg. cane sugaer drinks for me.

I tend to stay away from the artificial sweeteners because they make me hungrier than if I had actual sugar.

Well the the actual problem is coming from the person actually consuming more.. not the actual sweetener making you gain weight.

The same thing applies when they said diet soda makes you "gain weight" because many people will subconsciously eat more food because they feel they are saving calories by drinking a zero calorie drink.

I think these sweeteners are fine, you just need to control your cravings..

I personally use Sweet-N-Low with my tea at bedtime.. I don't get cravings from it, it just tastes better and makes the tea a little more flavorful.

I use it a lot in my cooking cuz' of my boyfriend...I don't find it too bad though

I'm kind of surprised this is news.

I don't like eating chemicals, so I use Stevia instead. It's an all-natural plant-based sweetener found at health food stores and Trader Joe's.

Another reason why i tell my friends that drinking diet sodas doesnt help one bit. Plus...they just taste NASTY and most of them tend to drink more diet sodas than they would if they were just drinking a regular soda. YUCK! Soda is just gross anyway...lol.

I try to avoid them, basically because of the taste and because they make me even more hungry. My mother is completely addicted to them, but I think it works for her. As I see it though, the problem is not the sweetener itself, so I guess it depends on the person.

tkylem I have to agree with you.

Artificial sweeteners will give you cancer. Use Stevia, it's totally natural, has zero calories, and is safe for diabetics.

Are you aware how long saccharine has been around? Saccharine was created in 1878 and has been in use since then as a sweetener. It was created by a physician for the sole use of his diabetic wife.

In the over 100 years since saccharine was introduced into the human population that has never been a case of saccharine poisioning, or cancer from saccharine. And in the late 1970s, ealry 80s after some rogue scientists performed a now hilariously bad study usiing saccharine on rats where rats where feed 1000 times the normal dosage of saccharine that a human would consume in her or his life time scientist and the FDA found that the reason that rats developed cancer from saccharine was not only that they were feed a sole diet of 1000 times the amount a human could consume but that rats possess and enzyme in their bodies which metabolize saccharine differently from how humans metabolise saccharine and other articifial sweetners.

Which is why the method for testing artificial sweeteners has changed from using rats to genetically engineered mice who have human DNA or to human subjects.

No artificial sweetener has been found to cause cancer or cause an actual physical increase in hunger. In some people however those prone to producing large amounts of gerhin and other hunger trigger hormones - any substance will trigger a craving for food or drink of a similar type. The craving is head hunger creating physical hunger, not the artificial sweetener creating physical hunger.

i use splenda... mostly because real sugar actually makes things too sweet for me... i know. i'm strange. but i'm now going to look into this Stevia stuff...

You're right wackdoodle. Before I was super hesitant to use Splenda and other sweetners for the same reason. Once I learned how terribly unreliable the experiment had been conducted I realized that anyone who consumes 500 - 1000x in a day of anything will have major health problems.

The key, as always, moderation.

But I'm still going to look into Stevia.

Wonder if Sun Harvest carries it?

I use Splenda if I have a latte, but otherwise use sugar in baking. I don't really consume a whole lot of foods with sugar in them right now anyhow.

I try to stear clear of them..except for orbit gum. I have an addiction to gum and have tried the all natural kinds but they just lose flavor and stick to your teeth. For my tea, I use Z-Sweet..an all natural O calorie sweetener from Whole Foods.

I use Stevia, agave nectar, or raw sugar.

I use Stevia. It took me about a week to get used to it...but I LOVE it now!

There was a period of a few months where I LOVED artificial sweeteners. Then I read Skinny b*tch and it describes all of the bad stuff inside of the sweeteners. So, I stopped right away and now I can't have anything with aspartame, it tastes really gross to me and it makes me feel sick.

I use Stevia as well. I love it!! Splenda is just as bad as Sweet n Low or equal. It contains trace amounts of carcinogens in the form of chlorine!

I don't like the taste of artificial sweeteners, or the idea of them in general. I'd rather use real sugar (in moderation).

Ok, so I like to think I'm smarter than a rat. I use Nutrasweet in my coffee (and no, it doesn't cause cancer) and I don't make up for it by eating extra sugar throughout the day. I would probably consume more calories if I used real sugar in my coffee because it would just be extra calories. I can see it causing weight gain if you are one of those people that eats cake and cookies and drinks a diet Coke with it, but if you are eating a healthy diet that's pretty balanced, cutting out sugar is probably a pretty good thing.

I gave up ALL artificial sweetners (except the sugar alcohol found in gum) and found that even though I used splenda and diet coke and whatnot, I was still craving sugar. BUT, once I gave up sugar and artificial sugar, I don't crave sugar at all!

I eat (if you can call it that) a lot of Splenda. I put it in my coffee. I bake with it, and I put it in my oatmeal. My mom always used artifical sweetners so I grew up on the taste. I don't mind the taste but I never used real sugar or honey in tea/coffee so I don't know what I'm missing.

WOW! I was surprised to hear about this today. Years ago I started using Sweetinlow, then Equal and now I only use Splenda. Maybe this is one of the reasons I can't seem to lose weight. Since most of the foods we all consume that read Sugar-free are made with artifical sweetner. I going to reconsider using these sweetners from now on!

i use splenda ALL the time cuz i have impaired glucose tolerence and 2tbsp of sugar (in my coffee) first thing in the morning sends my blood sugar totally out of whack. I figure if i'm going to have a vice, it might as well be splenda in coffee vs. eating at mcdonalds every day.

Also, splenda is just a molecules of sucrose with a chloride group attached and we consume trace chlorides in other foods (fruits veggies etc.) so i figure its ok.

@Cielo, even Kroger has Stevia, so I'm sure your store will too. It comes in granules but also in a dropper-bottle. And as kgtg said, Agave is awesome too.

I use Splenda and Sweet N Low. I do not eat more calories than I would without. I sometimes put a little sugar making my coffee 4 to 1 Splenda to sugar. I can't use all sugar b/c I like things REALLY SWEET.

I love Splenda!
I use it daily!

(It doesn't cause me weight gain, I only weigh 109 pounds and I'm 5'5)

Hooray for Splenda!
So good in coffee, oatmeal, or on top of Smart Balance peanut butter!

I need to run to Costco and get another box!

I'm probabaly the artificial sweetener queen. I'm a Diet Coke addict (one or more 20oz bottles a day and maybe a can). The drinking water at my school tastes weird, so I often add Crystal Light/some other 0 calorie drink mix to my drink. I always sweeten my tea with Splenda, and I chew about 10 pieces of sugar free gum a day. I really don't think this increases my appetite.

Thanks Foxie, I went yesterday straight from work to Sun Harvest, and they did have it! I also found Agave, I want to give that one a try.

I use one splenda daily in my coffee and have one diet coke per day in the afternoon. I find that if I have too much artificial sweetener or drink too much diet soda I get really bad stomach cramps. I've tried baking with splenda before and it didn't come out the same.

Now let me ask all of you this. My husband uses a ton of splenda and doesn't eat much real sugar. He brushes his teeth really well and flosses. But he always get cavities. Do you think it's from all the splenda or just pure coincidence?

i grew up on sweet n low and i hope that's not the reason that my metabolism is slower. now i typically use splenda when it's avaiable....

I use Splenda every day in my coffee...but I use real sugar in iced tea. Guess it's just a preference

I use splenda alot! I'd rather have that then all the sugar!

LesleyP825 - as far as your husband getting a lot of cavities. There are many factors hat can cause contribute to people developing cavities. Some are really surprising some are common knowledge.

Things that can help promote tooth decay:
1.Certain foods and drinks-Some foods and drinks are more likely than others to cause decay. Fermentable carbohydrates are the biggest problem. These foods cling to your teeth for a long time. Fermentable carbohydrates include all sugars and most cooked starches. Examples include milk, honey, table sugar, soda, raisins, cake, hard candy, breath mints, dried fruit, cookies, dry cereal, bread and potato chips. Some food that may seem like obvious culprits may not be after all. For instance, although candy bars, jelly beans and caramels are sticky and sugary, they're easily washed away by saliva, making them less of a threat than are potato chips, which stubbornly stick to your teeth.
2.Frequent snacking or sipping.
3.Not brushing.
4.Bottled water.
5.Older age
6.Receding gums.
7.Dry mouth.
8.Weak or rough dental fillings.
9.Eating disorders.
10.Heartburn.
11.Close contact. (this is a weird one) Some harmful, decay-causing bacteria in the mouth can be passed from one person to another by kissing or sharing eating utensils. Parents or even child care providers may pass along harmful bacteria to infants and children, for example.
12.Certain cancer treatments.

Also- having Migraine disease can weaken tooth enamel leading to tooth decay.
Hope that helps some.

oops forgot to say that info is from the Mayo Clinic Website - about tooth decay and cavities.

artificial in my tea, coffee and porridge. real in my baking.

i do this mainly because my mom did when i was growing up, even though i was adding real sugar back then.

kinda strange almost nobody mentioned honey. now that i'm sick, i drink black tea with lemon, ginger and honey. and it made my fever go down from 39°C to 37,4. the normal is 36.6 for you americans and 39 is the maximum alowed to have without serious intervention. 41 is deadly.

I only consume artificial sweetners in Diet Coke. I love the taste of coke but can't bare to consume all those calories from sugar with no health benefits at all! Plus often it's the only drink available sometimes, like when you eat out at a fast-food place and you order a meal, your only drinking options are soda or diet soda... i'd rather ingest my calories with greasy fried chicken than sugar-water... mmmm greasy fried chicken...