OK, I admit it --- I am at this point totally confused about all the various sweeteners, including sugar, and which are "good" or "bad" for you. I used to be a diet pop fanatic (like last week ), but I am drinking carbonated water instead, so no sweetener issue there.

And I can understand that tricking your body into thinking it's getting calories and then not actually consuming any could be hard on your health. So, I am mostly thinking about what to put into a cup of coffee or tea that I am drinking while eating real food (and real calories.)

What do you use in such a situation?

Thanks for your input!

I'm lucky, in that my mother decided when I was 11 that the whole family was giving up sugar in hot drinks. 40+ years ago, no-one argued with their mom!!!!!
However, if I need sweetener on something - strawberries or oatmeal, for example - I just use the real thing, and have a tsp of sugar. I prefer to eat a little bit of the 'real thing' occasionally, than a lot of substitute. I don't know how that would work with hot drinks, though, I drink 8+ a day!

I'm a real-sugar kind of girl...or honey. There are only 15 calories in one tsp of sugar. I'm good with that. All things in moderation, I say.

I hate the word "artificial".

I'm not a big coffee or tea drinker, so this hasn't been a problem for me. I was a huge full sugar soda drinker though. I gave it up over a year ago and haven't looked back! It's water only for me.

I am a bit coffee and tea drinker.

I gave up sugar a few years ago (pre diabetic) and I like Splenda. It works in hot or cold drinks and Equal. Sweet N Low etc does not (in my opinion). However I am liking the Truvia/Stevia stuff a lot too.

Now that my blood sugar is in order, I can actually have sugar in my coffee, but now that I am used to the Splenda/Truvia/Stevia...I do not like it.

I cook with Splenda when I can and yeah. Now it does not work the same as sugar for everything, if I am making kettle corn, than sugar has to be the way to go.

I eat a ridiculous amount of aspertame, and have never noticed it creating cravings or blood sugar swings. Everyone's body is different, but for me artificial sweeteners are as important a tool in my eating plan as hot sauce and black pepper.

Milk for coffee (rarely drink), nothing for tea, except sometimes a slice of lemon or lime.

For oatmeal, I use maple syrup (1 TBSP).

For my smoothies, either a small amount of honey (1 TSP) or Sweetleaf liquid stevia, 3-5 drops.

It really depends on the person. I have never had a problem with any of the artificial sweeteners, other than really hating the taste of some of them. Some people do have issues (headaches, not losing weight, upset tummies, etc.). Some people have issues with one type and not others. I think that all you can really do is experiment. I hate plain water, so it is really lucky for me that I can handle the artificial sweeteners since I drink a heck of a lot of Crystal Light, it has aspartame (NutraSweet). I use Splenda for everything else. I HATE Sweet'n Low and Equal and midly dislike the Stevia stuff. Other people feel the opposite. I agree that there are some things that just must be sugar. I tried to make fudge with splenda and the texture was just really really odd, kinda like chocolate flavored jello.

aspertame gives me horrible leg cramps, so it's stevia for me. I only use it in my 1 cup of coffee in the morning, so I don't use too much of it. It replaced my 4 tablespoons of sugar (I wish I was kidding), so to save 200 calories, it's a MUST. I just found out that they have a pop made with stevia, so I am off to find some today!

I don't do fake sugar. I'm not a big sugar eater anyway, so when I do have something sweet I'd rather have real honey or sugar in human, modest amounts than a bunch of artificial stuff. I hate, hate, hate the way it tastes.

(The one exception is my very occasional diet soda. I don't know what they put in those things these days, but I'll sacrifice the sugar for the tradeoff in calories in that case.)

This. I don't use a lot of it anyhow, I drink my daily coffee without sugar and when I occasionally put sugar in tea it's either honey, or a small amount of sugar in a pot of homemade chai.

So, my advice would be to try to wean yourself off of needing sweetener in things, make it a rare enough event that you can just use a small of mount of sugar or honey.

Thank you, everyone, for your comments and advice. The two pieces of take-away information for me, then is

1. to limit whatever kind of sweetener I use (and I am making some steps that way --- no soda at all, for instance) and

2. because our bodies are all different, what works for one person may be very bad for someone else and I will have to figure out what works for me.

It's so nice to have a group of folks to ask who understand why it's important and who are so totally non-judgmental in their responses. Thank you!

I like Splenda and use it quite a bit. If I'm ill with a cough or cold, I'll use honey. I don't like aspartame (candrel, equal, sweet&low etc), but I'll use it over sugar in tea, coffee or oatmeal, but of course Splenda is always my top choice and I've never had any issues with it. If however I'm going to bake (rarely! since I suck at baking and try not to consume baked goods that often), I WILL use regular sugar.

Oh hun this has been a huge quandary for me! I love coffee. And I don't mean 1 cup in the morning- 6 mugs a day
After that confession I must say this is probably the main reason I lose weight so slow. I use real sugar in my coffee and creamer. I add it to my daily calories. The sugar has 15 calories for 1 teaspoon and the creamer has 10 calories in a teaspoon.
I do like artificial sweetner in diet drinks and the welches light grape juice- but I did read that if you use these to use it in moderation. That's where my problem comes in. The moderation part.
So I continue to drink my coffee and use real sugar and I add in those calories for my daily total. Think of all the food I am missing because of my coffee lust!
Anyway I have had my blood sugar checked and it is good- so for now I guess I will still drink the coffee

I use stevia as it is all natural. Some people say there is a strange taste, but I don't get that taste.

Real sugars send my blood sugar up (well, everyone's; that just human physiology) and I notice that I get hungrier faster, so I avoid real sugars. The only fake sweeteners I have are in diet sodas, and I do not have any issues with them, i just prefer the all natural stevia when I am making my own stuff.